High School vs College

I was curious to see who might have the experience to respond to your question. I coached Babe Ruth baseball out of college. 13-15 is a difficult age group. I think you need to figure out what your three, five and ten year goals are. Then you need to follow your head (the logic) and your heart (the passion). If I wasn't sure I would stick with college ball for now. In the future it should be easier to move down to high school than up to college. You didn't mention the level of play. Our high school would thrash the local community college.

Some of the most fun I've ever had was coaching college baseball. I loved it all, the recruiting, the work, the games, the relationships. I loved the amount of time you could spend helping players develop.

It's all about the individual. High school in most cases you have no control over what your roster looks like. In college you are responsible for the roster.

You might be at a JC that doesn't take things serious. That would not be very enjoyable. Or maybe you are one of the many who just love coaching high school kids. There are lots of great high school coaches who have no desire to coach at another level.

The one big thing you might have to consider is that to coach hs baseball in many places, you need to be on the school district staff. If you are able to get a teaching degree, you have a leg up on finding a hs job. The other route is to get certified as an educational aide of some kind. Most, if not all school jobs (including baseball coaching) will require fingerprinting and a background check prior to hiring. So, as long as your picture is not hanging in the local post office, you might have a chance! Keep in mind, if your hs record is not way above .500, it would be very hard to get back into college coaching.

I'm not privy to the details. But I believe coaching in college requires a college degree. When I've read about many college baseball coaches they seem to have graduate degrees.

Where my kids were raised coaches only needed to be board approved. Most were teachers somewhere. They didn't have to be in the district. In other places the qualifications may be a rigid as being a teacher in the high school.

Obviously, I don't have the experience coaching baseball, but I come from the perspective of a parent whose son has played for a coach who was straight out of college and now an older, more established coach who had coached successfully as a head coach at the HS and JUCO level. While our son's first coach wanted to do well and I do believe thought he was putting his best effort in, he would probably tell you he just wasn't ready. He was young, frustrated with the level of the HS players in general, and possibly it was difficult to coach kids (some with a little attitude themselves) that weren't much younger than he was. He quit after a few years to take a position as a volunteer assistant coach at a Division II. He was a good ballplayer and played at a very good program. He knew the game. He is coaching at his alma mater. From all accounts he is doing a good job, and if he ever decides to come back to the high school level he will probably benefit from his extra maturity and expeerience at the DII. The coach my son presently has is more middle aged, has been through it, and is ready for this age. It was a well though out decision to stabilize his family life with less travel and college commitments. Had the first coach not quit we would have been fine. His coach was a good man. But unanimously things are going better now, and we are not an extremely good team. In my mind a young coach might benefit from some assistant coaching at the high school or JUCO level before they plunge into a head coaching job. JMO FWIW.

I'm not experienced in coaching either, but from my own observations and discussions with son's and daughter's HS coaches, I frankly wonder why they do it.

There are unsupportive & opinionated parents, opinionated boosters who think they run the show, moody kids, travel team influence, political administrators, unsupportive districts, huge fund raising obligation and a $3-4K stipend for your trouble.

I would think with a college level team, you have more control on roster, less parent influence and kids who are playing because they are baseball players and not playing for mommy and daddy or because it isn't football season.

Just my opinion.

Thank you for all the replies so far, I have read them all and they have all been beneficial to me. Im at a very good junior college program, and there are many more freedoms that you can exercise as a college coach that I imagine one may not be able to exercise as a high school coach. The biggest reward for me in coaching, only being 23 and a young pup in the profession, so far has been the relationships I have been able to build and the impact you can have as a coach. I am not tied up in win at all costs and much rather prefer the players I have the pleasure of coaching to do things the right way and not make jackasses of themselves by way of their behavior on and off the field. I guess the biggest shock to me so far has been the egos at the college level and the disrespect for other coaches and high school coaches. In the talks I have had with others in the profession in all levels I have gotten a pretty even mix across the board in favor for college and high school. I do not know if the egos are as prevalent at the high school level, but I am still very unsure if I want to make the change. As one poster noted, if I am unsure, to stay where I am, and I agree. I want to be 100% sure that I want to move before I make a decision I may regret. I guess at the heart of my coaching beliefs is that I want to have a positive impact on kids and teach them the ins and outs of life using baseball as my instrument. I am not caught up in the level I coach or where I coach, and I am conflicted on where I would be able to teach the game more effectively. I believe that in baseball you can only control your attitude, your effort, and your commitment to the team and nothing else on a daily basis. If you do all those things to the best of your ability, I then think things like winning takes care of itself. I just dont know if I would get more pleasure staying at college, where it is more cutthroat and shady at times, or at the high school level, where you are coaching kids at a pivotal time in their lives. I do really appreciate everyone's response and if there is anything I can do for anyone please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you.

Coach, my guess is that there's no hard and fast rule on where you will find egos or shadiness. It could be at any level. It will depend a lot of the specific program.

I think anytime you move from the fun side of a sport to making a living at it, there's an adjustment to be made. It may take a while for you to sort through it. Have you thought about coaching high school level during the summer? One of my son's summer coaches last year was a freshly minted JUCO coach, just out of college. He was an excellent coach, respected by the 18 year olds.

Welcome to the board, and good luck.

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Originally posted by twotex:
Coach, my guess is that there's no hard and fast rule on where you will find egos or shadiness. It could be at any level. It will depend a lot of the specific program.

I think anytime you move from the fun side of a sport to making a living at it, there's an adjustment to be made. It may take a while for you to sort through it. Have you thought about coaching high school level during the summer? One of my son's summer coaches last year was a freshly minted JUCO coach, just out of college. He was an excellent coach, respected by the 18 year olds.

Welcome to the board, and good luck.

Ive never thought of the adjustment from it being a sport to it becoming my living. That puts a new perspective on it that I have never thought of. My opinion of the situation changes constantly. I was originally going to coach a legion summer team, but happened to land a job on the west coast as a head coach of a collegiate summer team and chose that job because of the opportunity to be a young head coach of a college team.

You have not stated whether you have a degree to teach. IMO, that is important to me in order for me to give advice. I was a long time HS Varsity Head Coach and can't think of anything being better. Please let me know if you can teach and if so, what subjects.

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Originally posted by CoachB25:
You have not stated whether you have a degree to teach. IMO, that is important to me in order for me to give advice. I was a long time HS Varsity Head Coach and can't think of anything being better. Please let me know if you can teach and if so, what subjects.

I graduated with a degree in sociology, I would have to probably take a semester or two at most in education to help me out with getting some sort of teaching job and test to get my teaching license. If you dont mind sharing, what aspects of the HS did you enjoy?

I believe you will find egos anywhere you coach. High school, college or pro...even LL. Like someone stated above, in college you will have more control of who your players will be via recruiting. When recruiting you will learn to spot the egos and personalities you don't like or don't want to coach. That should lessen one of your issues...maybe. You recruit only the type of player you like. I think most coaches do this.

So bide you time as an assistant, learn as much as you can and do the best you can with the players you are presented with. When and if the opportunity arises for a promotion or a head coaching job you can assemble a team that represents your personality.

Good luck.

My son had a teammate whose Dad used to be the head coach at Liberty University. He was very well thought of by peers at other D1 schools but had problems finding another position after the program at LU headed in a different direction.

He had never really considered high school coaching until after working a bit with my son's travel team and privately coaching some of the boys on hitting and pitching. He enjoyed it so much that he started coaching high school and has had some extremely successful results. Last time I spoke with him, he is no longer looking for a college level position and is enjoying coaching at the high school level. Don't know if this helps since it is secondhand, but thought I would at least point out someone who went a different direction.

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Originally posted by freddy77:

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Originally posted by BaseballCoach42:
. The biggest reward for me in coaching.... so far has been the relationships... at the heart of my coaching beliefs is that I want to have a positive impact on kids and teach them the ins and outs of life using baseball as my instrument. I am not caught up in the level I coach... I am conflicted on where I would be able to teach the game more effectively. I just dont know if I would get more pleasure staying at college, where it is more cutthroat and shady at times, or at the high school level, where you are coaching kids at a pivotal time in their lives. .

In my opinion the best level to realize your goals is to coach HS varsity and JV athletes during the off-season-- summer and fall. So-called "developmental" baseball. It's the sweetspot of baseball coaching--skilled, motivated players, but no external pressure to win.

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Originally posted by BaseballCoach42:
...I guess at the heart of my coaching beliefs is that I want to have a positive impact on kids and teach them the ins and outs of life using baseball as my instrument. ...I believe that in baseball you can only control your attitude, your effort, and your commitment to the team and nothing else on a daily basis. If you do all those things to the best of your ability, I then think things like winning takes care of itself. I just dont know if I would get more pleasure staying at college, where it is more cutthroat and shady at times, or at the high school level, where you are coaching kids at a pivotal time in their lives.

I coach HS and have not coached at the college level, although I have hung around that environment a fair amount.
If the above is truly what is at the heart of your coaching beliefs, I believe you will have far more opportunity at the HS level where these young kids are truly still in their formative years both with baseball and with life.

If you are looking for a career (where you can make a living), I believe the only guys that actually make more than a small stipend are college HC's and high level college assistants. HS coaches and most college assistants are either volunteer or on small stipends. And the easiest route to a college HC spot is from a college asst. spot.

Something else to consider in advance - if you desire to have a family of your own at some point, the typical work hours of either can make it difficult to be there for your own kids' activities.

Best wishes.