Smarr: Palm Beach County coaching turnover cause for paradise lost

"Welcome to paradise!"

Those are the first three words I remember hearing when I arrived in Palm Beach County last June to take the job of high school sports reporter at The Palm Beach Post.

I was new to South Florida, but I wasn't alone. 15 new football coaches were joining me on the sidelines, filled with anticipation for the area's return to the FHSAA state playoff tournament.

I was taken aback by the number, but I come from a one-stoplight town in South Carolina where my local high school — one of three in my city's school district — had the same head coach from the time I was born to when I walked the halls of Great Falls High as a junior.

Nonetheless, I took it with a grain of salt. I factored in the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and that Palm Beach County is one of the largest in the state, its school district hosting 31 high schools, 24 with football programs.

That doesn't count those fielded by 12 independent schools.

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I was warned, by players, coaches, parents, and colleagues alike, that the coaching turnover was a tradition of sorts. But now I've seen it for myself.

Six of the first-year coaches that I started with have been fired or resigned, contributing to a grand total of 14 vacancies just this offseason.

Three of those openings were at independents — American Heritage-Delray, Inlet Grove and King's Academy. All have been replaced.

Public schools Palm Beach Central, Royal Palm Beach, Santaluces, Seminole Ridge, Spanish River, West Boca Raton, Palm Beach Lakes,Park Vista and Jupiter have filled their openings. However, as spring football nears, there are still hires to be made at Glades Central and now Forest Hill with Jim Basford's departure.

That being said, I don't think "Welcome to paradise!" is an appropriate greeting for the new hopefuls to take the field.

Perhaps a tribute to John Milton: "Welcome to paradise — lost."

Voices of coaches filled with excitement and passion in the summer have turned to ones of heartbreak and pure exhaustion.

The once-bright eyes of the student-athletes dim as they lose sight of their hopes to play at the next level because the ones who are supposed to be facilitating those goals are doing the opposite.

I'm not referring to our coaches. I'm referring to those who pay them — if you can even call it that.

This amount is already staggering in comparison with such states as Georgia, which pays some coaches salaries upward of six figures.

Ask former Santaluces coach Brian Lewis, who moved from Texas last April to take a $12,000 pay cut only to be let go seven months later knowing that "a middle school coach in Texas can make more than an 8A high school coach (in Florida) on a stipend."

Palm Beach County's starting supplement of about $4,500 fell below the state’s average for the 2020-21 school year.

Additionally, the districts whose head football coaches' supplements earned less than that average had a median tenure of 3.75 seasons.

Area coaches lasted an average of 2.2 years — among the lowest in the state. After this season's turnover, that number is certain to have hit a new low.

Considering those statistics, and the knowledge that coaching high school football is a year-round job, I did some math.

Before anyone argues that I'm making this sound worse than it is, know that I rounded up. Every cent counts.

The $4,500 stipend divided by 365 comes out to $12.33 a day, divided by eight — the length of the standard American workday — our average first-year coach is making *insert drumroll* $1.54 an hour.

Those of us who stand alongside our coaches, in the bleachers or on the sideline, know that the job they're tasked with is anything but "standard" — especially in the recruiting hotbed of South Florida.

Those in air-conditioned offices, packing their briefcases by 5 p.m. may not see how coaches aren't using their stipends as pay for themselves.

Atlantic's Jamael Stewart uses the money to provide additional academic tutoring to ensure that his students are NCAA-eligible, while Pahokee's Emmanuel Hendrix pays out of pocket to keep his athletes healthy in hopes they can measure up with the boys who play on Saturdays.

However, while Hendrix is making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and protein shakes at 4 a.m., the chances are that the individuals cutting his checks are asleep.

Those shut eyes could be the reason that The Post's Co-Coaches of the Year for 2020, American Heritage's Nick Martinez and Glades Central coach Rashad Jackson, are out despite making second-round state playoff appearances last season.

Jackson stayed on as a teacher at Glades Central and worked tirelessly to get college recruiters out to the Muck, even after being informed of his termination.

In two seasons — one abbreviated due to the pandemic — Jackson saw 24 students put pen to paper on signing days.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a coach's purpose.

Unfortunately, the majority of county coaches aren't as lucky to have a salaried job on campus — the one thing that might make ends meet, preventing the hunt for a second or third job.

Palm Beach Central's Scottie Littles was arguably the district's best-positioned coach administratively and competitively, but his new roles in Sarasota as head coach and athletic director at Booker High provided his family an opportunity to put down roots.

The opportunity to build a program with the Sarasota County standard turf field and $50,000 for athletic transportation was an added bonus.

Some may read this and say that being a high school football coach is a choice.

I see it as a calling.

What would drive you to take this excruciatingly demanding job if not the insatiable desire to see the young adults you coach turn their tassels not once but twice creating generational wealth with college degrees made possible by their talents?

How can area students be given their best chance if coaches aren't given that chance themselves?

They're honest questions, but the voices that want to ask them are loudest on Friday nights.

With no formal local coaches association to table working conditions and a fear of being "blackballed," speaking out is virtually impossible.

Add on the anxiety of knowing your job is at risk if you fail to achieve the rare and apparent standard of winning a state championship after a year or two.

To make this possible, many coaches ask for resources to help improve their programs only to be asked to manage their expectations.

Perhaps those in positions of power should manage their own expectations of pumping out five-star prospects and filling trophy cases.

I sit here and beg of Palm Beach County a similar request to that once posed by President John F. Kennedy.

Ask not what your coaches can do for you; ask what you can do for your coaches.

The Palm Beach County School District's website states, "A joy of learning is fostered in each student and a positive vision for their future is nurtured."

Now that the 14th coaching change has taken place and kids across the county are experiencing Division I dreams deferred, it's time that the district reexamines whose future — or wallet — it's nurturing.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Smarr: Palm Beach County coaching turnover cause for paradise lost