24
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
COACHING: High
turnover in positions
over past two years
Continued from page 1
high school, and I was going
to be a teacher and a coach 4
and it never changed.=
Volleyball Coach Rory
Rush recalled that when she
was a player, <there weren9t
a lot of female coaches at the
time.= She wanted to step into
that role and build relation-
ships with players.
For all the coaches inter-
viewed by The Nugget, rela-
tionships with student athletes
are the core of coaching.
<For me,= said Cross-
Country Coach Josh Nordell,
<it9s the relationship with
the kids. I think sports is the
greatest teaching tool avail-
able to us.=
Track Coach Jeff Larson
concurs.
<I think coaching is an
extension of the classroom,=
he told The Nugget. <You have
to be able to connect with the
kids (to) bring out their best.=
Many of the coaches that
lead programs at Sisters High
School have been in the field
for more than two decades.
Though they are clearly dedi-
cated, Sisters coaches 4 like
coaches across the nation 4
are feeling more pressures
than ever before; pressures
that diminish both their abil-
ity to coach effectively and
erode their enjoyment of the
work. And those pressures s are
der
making it harder and harder
to recruit and retain new
coaches.
SHS programs have
seen considerable turn-
over in recent years, in
baseball, volleyball, soc-
o-
cer, lacrosse and other pro-
ach
grams. Sometimes a coach
onal
relocates or other professional
ake
and personal obligations make
coaching impossible. And
sometimes they just don9t
want to do it anymore.
SHS Athletic Director Gary
Thorson told The Nugget: <In
my two years as an AD, we
ing
have had 16 head coaching
wo
changes. Of these, only two
on-
n-
were non-renewals of con-
he
tracts by the district& The
d
turnover is alarming and
hurts the growth and conti-
nuity of programs, and we
are looking at ways to help
with this issue. Recruiting
coaches in to the area is
difficult as we are limited
h,
to what we can pay a coach,
ions
ns
and several of the positions
are now 8red flagged9 in the
coaching community due e to
the high turnover in that par-
ticular sport. It is not unusual
for there to be only one candi-
date for a posted position, and
we rarely have more than two
to three potential candidates
for a position.=
Coaching is a tremen-
dous time commitment.
One of the factors that
makes recruiting coaches dif-
ficult and keeping them a
problem is that the gig puts
tremendous demands on
coaches9 time.
Thorson notes: <The aver-
age practice length is two
hours, but you also add in
games, planning for practices
and games, film breakdown,
fundraising, travel, meet-
ings, and answering emails
and phone calls on a regular
basis,= he said. <Travel is an
issue, as Sisters will always
be an outlier school due to
our size and location. In our
I think coaching
is an extension of the
classroom. You have to be
able to connect with the kids
(to) bring out their best.
— Coach Jeff Larson
wrong information can get out
just as easily as good informa-
tion, and travel just as far and
as fast.
<We have way more chan-
nels of communication 4 and
wa more problems with com-
way
mu
munication,=
Fendall said.
Several coaches noted that
tex from parents of athletes
texts
an other communication
and
demands can often come in
the evenings, intruding on
family time.
Then there9s fundrais-
ing and equipment manage-
m
ment
and compliance with
m
myriad rules and regulations
to attend to. Time spent actu-
ally working with student ath-
lete
letes becomes limited.
<I think there9s a big dif-
ference between coaching and
head coaching,= Fendall said.
Head coaching <is not as fun.=
Finding assistants to help
with myriad coaching tasks
isn9t easy; it9s especially hard
for somebody who works a
job outside the school district
to commit the time necessary
to get the work done and to
travel with the team.
While they recognize that
Sisters is at the bottom end of
the pay scale for coaches in
Central Oregon, none of the
coaches think that pay is a pri-
mary factor in putting strain
on coaches.
Sisters pays a new coach
in one of the mainline sports a
stipend of $4,187, going up to
$4,884 for a coach with four
or more years of experience.
<You could pay us a lot
more and it would never
pencil out,= Nordell told The
Nugget.
However, Larson believes
that a teacher weighing
whether or not to step up to
coach might weigh the com-
mitment against the pay and
decide not to.
<I do think there are teach-
ers in the buildings who might
be more motivated if the sti-
pends were higher,= he said.
Working long hours for
sh
short pay can get a little old,
bu
but coaches understand that
thi
this is what they sign up for.
It9s when they face undue
p pressures and unreasonable
expectations from parents
4 and what some of them
see as an increasing <pro-
fessionalization= of youth
sports 4 that they have to
start to wonder whether it9s
all worth it. Those topics are
the subject of Part 2 of The
Nugget9s look at coaching in
Sisters.
current league situation, the
average one-way trip is about
2:45 (hours), with the longest
trip for league being Newport.
We try to help by scheduling
as many non-league games as
possible, but with the growing
size of the Bend schools we
tive
often run into a competitive
ule
mismatch when we schedule
them.=
ent
And the time commitment
isn9t just an issue during the
In my two years as
sports season.
<It starts months before
an AD, we have had 16
your program (starts),=
Larson noted. <It9s not head coaching change
s.
hs
confined to three months
—
At
hle
tic Director
and I don9t think a lot of
people understand that.=
Gary Thorson
gram
am
Fendall says that program
ad
kes
administration
4 which takes
up most of a head coach9s
ti
time
4 is far more compli-
ca
cated
than it used to be, espe-
e
Organic, natural products
For me it’s th
c
cially
since technology leads
.
s
id
k
e
people to expect constant
with th
Personal approach
relationship
t
and instant communica-
s
ate
re
g
e
th
is
ts
tion on every aspect of the
for every lawn
I think spor
.
s
u
to
le
b
a
program. Ironically, the
il
a
v
a
l
o
to
teaching
coaches say, technological
Coach
y
Snow Blowing
tr
n
u
o
-C
s
ease
of communication has
s
— Cro
Shoveling • De-Icing
in some ways made things
Josh Nordell
22 years in business • LCB#9583
w
worse
instead of better. People
Wood Stacking
ex
expect
more direct, individu-
Clean Ups • Hauling
alized communication 4 and
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