[Fly Like a Duck]

I know there is a lot of griping about the coaching stipends at Bell County and rightfully so, but I'm here to tell all of you right now that whether you are making 2K or 4K as an assistant, it is all a joke.

The pay, or lack of that they all make is criminal.

Here in Kentucky if not mistaken, you can't get paid as a coach unless you have 64 college credit hours (AKA enough hours for an Associates Degree).

Before anybody pulls the card of "Nobody is forcing them to do it", save it. Those are also the people who probably troll these message boards, love high school sports, yet have never stepped foot into the coaching realm.

Many of these stipends from Bell County to Jefferson County are a complete joke.

Think Bell County's are bad? In Jefferson County, when factoring in the head coaching stipend, they might be worse (they have a staggered scale, but a 1st-5th year coach in Jefferson County doesn't even make 5K. The highest paid assistant coach can only make $2727 & that doesn't matter if he has 1 year in or 50. $2727 is all you get).

Many of these stipends across the state (hell, maybe all) haven't been adjusted in the last 30 years or so (maybe longer). Think about if that rule applied in all works of life out there? If they have been adjusted, it's nickel and dime stuff.

All of that information is open records. Some of you want to shock? Log onto your local school district site and look for them (usually documents in the Human Resources or Finance tabs on their site). It's an absolute crock. Laughable really.

It's one thing to be paid like that throughout the school year (which is what their pay is based on), but it's another thing to be paid only that AND do all of the stuff they do in June and July when school isn't in session.

If I were some, I'd bring back the old school days of Spring Practice all of May, then come the last day of school? "See you boys on August 1st". (hate to break it to you as is, but I'm going to tell you what 2nd week of June workouts mean come any point of the season and that's 'Not a damn thing'.)

Lower level colleges like NAIA don't even have their teams on campus during those months and those guys (full time coaches that is) even make a full living from just coaching. NCAA rules prevent any coaching staff that's not Strength and Conditioning coaches to have any type of organized practice/workout with their players.

J-O-K-E

Yet we wonder why people are getting out of this like rats jumping off a sinking ship? Forget the common excuses. Those are all code for:

"Too much time (especially in the summer months), too much headache, too much responsibility and the money made isn't worth it."

Keyboard warriors out there, the floor is yours.