Permalink Reply by Darriel Kitchens on uhm, I am currently. Also have on previous occasions. My impression is that this may be at the most crucial level ,developmentally and yet there are not many knowledgeable coaches at this level. Quite the paradox.
I'm a full time high school strength coach in St. Louis. You can look at my bio page to get more specifics. I'm always looking for ideas from other coaches.
I am a strength and condtioning coach and train football, volleyball, track, softball, soccer, baseball. I have a MS in Human Movement and have CSCS RSCC USAW PES CES FMS as qualifications. There are lots of educated and qualified high school coaches out there. I would love to talk about our program anytime. Feel free to contact me.
Permalink Reply by Noel Piepgrass on I'm a HS Strength Coach
Permalink Reply by Joe Lopez on ok great. wow I am surprised at how quickly I got responses. where is everyone located? I am in Northern NJ. I am a C.S.C.S however, my school currently does not have any formal program. I am a physical education teacher full time and work part time training clients. I would love if the school would hire me to handle all of their strength training but right now there are just not enough people on board with the idea. Until about 3 years ago only our track team had any type of strength training in school. All of our other teams just told the kids to start lifting on their own. That includes football which amazes me to this day because we have a very good football program. In the last three years we have expanded our weight room and a few teams have taken advantage of it. Football, Hockey, Track, Boys basketball all use it in season and offseason. Most of the time one of the assistants will monitor the program and sometimes even put together one for the athletes. I am trying to convince them of the need for some full time but it has been a struggle. When I first got certified I had to explain to my colleagues what a CSCS was. The guy who handles program design currently for the football team is an assistant coach and he apparently trains athletes on the side at a gym but he had never heard of the NSCA or a CSCS which was surprising to me. I have had a few coaches come to me for input but I work a lot of hours on the side after school and I make decent money for being a part time coach. I told my AD that if they were to create a strength and conditioning program for the entire school I would love to run it, but I would need to be compensated to overcome my loss of funds from my side business. So, right now my biggest struggle is convincing my AD and the school administration that this is something worth doing. Does anyone have any similar stories of how they the administration on their side. I am at a Private school so we are not talking about public finding and boards of ed and all that.
Permalink Reply by Noel Piepgrass on Yup, very slow to get buy in. Our football team is the only team that trains year round and systematically. I teach a few Strength and Conditioning classes that some of our athletes are in, but again, its a tough fight to get this where it needs to be. I am also at a Private School.
Permalink Reply by Darriel Kitchens on yea only in a few high dollar areas are there qualified strength and conditioning coaches. In SC you gotta coach something else too.
Permalink Reply by Joe Lopez on How many of you actually get paid to be a strength and conditioning coach or do you get paid to do something else and have just taken on that responsibility out of passion.
How many of you actually get paid to be a strength and conditioning coach or do you get paid to do something else and have just taken on that responsibility out of passion.
Permalink Reply by Rob Kirkland on I started out volunteering at a local high school and the HC actually approached me about S&C for his football team. The AD ended up brining in his own guy who was a powerlifter with no certs and ultimately ended up being let go before he started because he lacked integrity. Long story short I am now the paid full time S&C and currently oversee the offseason programming for football but will soon take on additional sports including softball, and volleyball. I don't have a CSCS but have been training for over 10 years and having the time of my life doing this!
Permalink Reply by Rob Kirkland on I recently became the S&C for a high school in the Chicago suburbs and definitely would like to network with anyone else working with high school kids!
I apologize for this being long, Joe, but I hope this will give you encouragement.
I was in your situation 6 years ago. I had the degrees and the CSCS as well as an administrator (which is crucial) who had a vision of what a S/C program could be. But a school culture that didn't know and didn't care what a S/C program is. We had several kids training in the private sector, each learning different philosophies and ways of doing things, but nothing that united the athletic department.
So, I started by writing a proposal that I submitted to our Head of School. It was accepted and we started with only an after school program that paid me a $7000/year stipend. My daily teaching duties included Health, "regular" Physical Education and coaching MS soccer. From the S/C standpoint, it was me, an eager to learn football staff, and a few athletes who were curious about what we were doing.
From there, we literally started teaching 1 kid at a time. In the next 6 years, we added a summer program, then 1 S/C class that was part of the PE department, and then a 2nd level S/C class. SLOWLY other coaches and athletes started buying in to what was happening. The hardest part was getting coaches and athletes to understand that I was there to help them not work against them. I had nothing to gain and everything to lose by giving them wrong information or teaching them incorrectly. Believe me, there times I was ready to give up.
But then we hired a new AD who also believed in S/C and quickly believed in what WE were doing. I say "we" because, while I lead the program, it takes the help of the sport specific coaches to make it work. Right now, all I do is run S/C classes and the after school and summer program. My entire salary is based on these duties now. My office is now even in the weight room. It is the dream gig.
The buy in has become so solid that beginning next year we will only offer S/C and general fitness classes in our PE department where athletes can earn PE credit while playing their sport AND completing a S/C class. Every coach will be expected to make S/C part of their practices in both weight training and in the speed, agility, plyo stuff. In fact, coaches will be hired and retained based on their willingness to make S/C a part of their daily routines.
I am fully aware that this a unique situation and am very blessed to be in it. But if it happened in my private school, it can happen in any private school. I believe it takes a clearly stated vision and 1 or 2 influential people within the school community. From there, it's teaching 1 kid and 1 coach at a time. If you and those influential people stick with it, you can build something really nice.
Check out our website at www.wcastl.org, "Athletics" then "Strength & Conditioning"
Joe Lopez said:
ok great. wow I am surprised at how quickly I got responses. where is everyone located? I am in Northern NJ. I am a C.S.C.S however, my school currently does not have any formal program. I am a physical education teacher full time and work part time training clients. I would love if the school would hire me to handle all of their strength training but right now there are just not enough people on board with the idea. Until about 3 years ago only our track team had any type of strength training in school. All of our other teams just told the kids to start lifting on their own. That includes football which amazes me to this day because we have a very good football program. In the last three years we have expanded our weight room and a few teams have taken advantage of it. Football, Hockey, Track, Boys basketball all use it in season and offseason. Most of the time one of the assistants will monitor the program and sometimes even put together one for the athletes. I am trying to convince them of the need for some full time but it has been a struggle. When I first got certified I had to explain to my colleagues what a CSCS was. The guy who handles program design currently for the football team is an assistant coach and he apparently trains athletes on the side at a gym but he had never heard of the NSCA or a CSCS which was surprising to me. I have had a few coaches come to me for input but I work a lot of hours on the side after school and I make decent money for being a part time coach. I told my AD that if they were to create a strength and conditioning program for the entire school I would love to run it, but I would need to be compensated to overcome my loss of funds from my side business. So, right now my biggest struggle is convincing my AD and the school administration that this is something worth doing. Does anyone have any similar stories of how they the administration on their side. I am at a Private school so we are not talking about public finding and boards of ed and all that.
Posted by Robert Pomazak PES, SES on May 17, 2012 at 10:43pm
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