The Florida Coaches Coalition is calling on the state's high school athletics association to give its coaches a raise, and the group has an ally in Florida Atlantic head coach Tom Herman.
"In my 10 months here, I've been absolutely flabbergasted at the treatment of those coaches," Herman told The Palm Beach Post. "We have to do something to keep our good coaches in this state from running to Georgia, to Alabama, to Texas to get paid what most believe is a fair wage."
According to the Post, 45 head coaches have left head coaching jobs within the past three years in Palm Beach County alone, with the majority seeking higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
Head coaching stipends are minuscule in the state -- frankly, they're hardly worth the trouble.
The supplement for a first-year head coach in Florida averaged $4,650 in 2021, according to USA Today Florida. At Boca Raton High School, where Herman's son plays wide receiver, the head coach received a $1,000 raise upon his promotion from an assistant.
"What incentivizes guys to take that jump to take on 500 percent more responsibility and headache?" Herman said. "For what? For 1,000 bucks?"
Texas has at least 200 head coaches earning at least $100,000 per year; Georgia had at least 44 by 2017, the number is assuredly over 50 by now.
"If we're going to hire and fire and judge coaches on wins and losses, let's at least send them into the gunfight with a gun and not a knife," Herman said.
"It is shocking how many good coaches we have in this state that are looking to get out because they can't make a living doing it here."