For years now, Florida has lost some of their top high school football coaches to states like Georgia and Texas, where the number of coaches making six-figures continues to grow at a rapid rate.
It's not just an issue of Florida head coaches leaving for head coaching jobs in neighboring states either. There are plenty of examples of head coaches making deep playoff runs who turn around and leave for an assistant coaching job in a state like Georgia, and the move still comes with a significant pay bump.
The main reason coaches cite leaving The Sunshine State at an alarming rate will come as no surprise - it's pay.
On a national scale, Florida's coaching stipends are in line with most other states, but what is unique to their situation is schools in nearby states like Georgia, Alabama and Texas poaching their top coaches with attractive stipend and salary options.
The Florida Coaches Coalition, working in tandem with Representative Adam Anderson, are putting together a bill that would remedy that by providing a significant pay bump to high school coaches in the state, per The Palm Beach Post.
The bill would see high school coaches paid $15 per hour for a minimum number of hours.
Football head coaches would be required to work a minimum of 1,500 hours a year and would receive a stipend of $22,500.
Assistant coaches, and head coaches in other sports, would be required to work a minimum of 750 hours and would be paid a stipend of $11,250.
In most Florida counties, that pay bump would work out to a quadrupling of their current stipend.
There's significant chatter in the high school coaching community that can't help but wonder that with the support this bill has been picking up, if there's a ripple effect that could have an impact nationally on coaching stipends.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.