Two recent posts (as well as older ones in the past) have brought to light the question about why a HS coach would turn away a volunteer coach. Especially one who has college / pro experience as a player or even why parents aren't allowed to help out. As an Athletic Director I hope I can shed some light onto this subject to let people realize it's not always such an easy process to get someone to help. I'm not going to say this specifically about the recent posts (or any post) on here because I don't know the particulars of any situation. This is how my school / county handles this as well as other places I've been in the past.
There are procedures in place that have to be completed before someone is allowed to help. The purpose of these procedures are to primarily protect the student athletes and the secondary purpose is to hire people who will work together to the benefit of the school. Just because someone can put on a resume something impressive doesn't mean they have what it takes. In my short time as an AD (this is my second year) I've came across some people who on paper look good but when you talk to them red flags go up all over the place.
At our school if a head coach approaches me about Joe Soandso wanting to help coach I now have to.....
1. Get the appropriate form filled out and turned in
2. Set up a meeting with that coach and our principal so we can meet / get to know them
3. Get the form up to the central office for processing
4. Make sure they get an appointment to be finger printed on their background check
5. Wait for the next Board of Education meeting so they can go through the formality of being approved.
Only after doing all that stuff are people allowed to even to be near student athletes. It can be a pain in the rearend sometimes because the whole process can take a month to complete. This is why sometimes it's just easier to not accept volunteer coaches due to the headaches of getting them approved. The kicker is you have to do all this (except for the back ground check) every single year.
Some schools have unwritten policies that they do not hire volunteer coaches period. That may be a directive coming from the county level or even at the school level (principal or AD). The main reason for this is it's so much harder to control the actions of someone who only shows up at the end of school for a couple of hours. If I have a coach who is in the classroom who did something that I have to talk to them about I can walk down the hallway and do that. A volunteer is harder to get up with and if it's something serious then it becomes even tougher due to getting them on campus. I'm interacting with a teacher coach everyday 9 months out of the year whereas a volunteer coach I only see a very limited amount of time. You want to develop a trust / relationship with your people and it's hard when you don't see them very much. I have a head coach who is a volunteer that I make sure to call once every two weeks to check in on him to help foster that relationship but an assistant is even harder to develop that relationship with.
The final decision to hire any coach rests with the principal and possibly the AD - not the head coach - in most places due to these procedures. Maybe a head coach is under orders to not bring volunteer suggestions or the head coach has had several suggestions shot down in the past so they don't bother. It's a time consuming process which is even frustrating for me when I have volunteers I like and want approved. We got a guy who wants to coach a sport that played in college, then entered the military to which he retired as a colonel and has a child in our school who can't get through our procedures to help out with a sport. He is more than qualified to help out but I can't get him out there until later this month which is when the majority of the season is over. I'm hoping he will still be interested next year so we can get through this before the pre-season begins (which I believe he will be).
As for parents helping coach our school has a policy that parents will not coach their child in their sport. The reason for that is we are protecting the child because there will be negative things said about the situation regardless of how good / deserving the child is of playing time. It's not fair for that child to go through that when they have no control over it. Plus by the time they get to high school it's time for them to be coached by someone else - good or bad. What you do at home is your prerogative but on the team it's time to let them be exposed to someone else.
I will readily admit there are coaches out there who are insecure and morons and whatever who will turn away a great coach. But it's sometimes unfair just to assume that a coach doesn't want help when there could be factors in place you don't know about.
Hope this helps some.
