Beyond the X: Demands come in many forms for high school football coaches

GRANITE BAY, Calif. — Ernie Cooper retired from his head football coaching job at Granite Bay (Calif.) last week. It was for the 10th time, he said, since the end of the glorious state-championship 2012 season.

It was after the first day of spring practice, a 14.5-hour ringer filled with three weight training classes, four college recruiting visits, a frustrating 7-on-7 scrimmage and a post-practice meeting with an aspiring high school program looking for pointers.

Needless to say, Cooper didn't reveal his darkest, most fleeting thoughts to the eager, young coaches. Quite the contrary.

Cooper, after all, is a prep football coaching lifer.



"I always un-retire the next day," said the 51-year-old with a twinkle in his eye. "Or two days later.

"I didn't tell anyone (last week), but I know exactly what everyone is going through."

When he refers to "Everyone" he is referencing a country full of under-paid, over-worked gents (and a few women) who make a living in the vital but unglamorous field of coaching high school football.

With growing economic and recruiting demands and fewer resources, the pressures on high school football coaches appear to be taking their toll. Younger coaches are leaving their posts earlier, looking for better-paying jobs, better coaching opportunities or just getting out of the profession all together.

It's even happening in two of the nation's most high-profile football states.

According to FloridahsFootball.com, more than 130 Florida schools will have new football coaches by the first game next season. In the Lone Star state, according to Texasfootball.com, 150 head prep football coaches from 2012 left their positions.

These numbers are consistent, even a tad below, the national annual average of 20 percent head coaching turnover.

It's not an easy life. It's one that requires coaches to balance multiple responsibilities (many not having anything to do with the sport) along with the usual demands that husbands, fathers and sons face. If not done correctly, it can lead to marital problems or burnout. All coaches face those demands to some degree, but in football, the stakes are much higher.

The coaching carousel leads to less continuity, familiarity, leadership and foundation for the kids — all things Granite Bay kids count on and what always keeps Cooper coming back.

He's the only head coach in the school's 17-year history and with eight on-campus coaches, Cooper isn't going anywhere. Actually, he's always going somewhere. He's a ball of effervescent energy, moving from one task, player, goal, play and exercise to another — all day, every day until he drops.

By the end of each season – or particularly long day — he's ready to hang ‘em up, ship out and move on, or at least get a good night's rest to recharge.

If ever there was a good retirement spot to jump off, it was after Granite Bay landed firmly on the national map with a 21-20 win over one of the country's most storied programs, Long Beach Poly, for the CIF state Division I title last season.

He was named the Cal-Hi Sports Coach of the Year while improving his Granite Bay record to 155-43-1. He also won his second-straight Sac-Joaquin Section Division I title – Granite Bay's fifth overall – to go along with 10 league titles.

But winning is only a byproduct of what Cooper is all about, said 25-year Sacramento Bee sports writer Joe Davidson.

"Ernie talks about burning the candle at both ends, of bags under his eyes late in seasons, but he lives for this," Davidson said. "He loves to mentor players, build teams, take on great competition and win. Winning cures all.



"He's as good as it gets in Northern California."

Considering that 39 seniors – including most of the key players - graduated from that group, Cooper could have joined the retirement party.

But thoughts of leaving are truly fleeting. He understands the recent rash of coaching vacancies — he lives and breathes their pain — but he soaks in and reaps all the deep rewards.

"This job has a lot of demands because of people's expectations," he said. "It's not just the winning part, it's everything. Some days you ask yourself 'Why do I want to do this?'

"But most days I go out there and see all the guys. You see the energy in the room and they're pumping up each other. … I've tried to take a year off but I just can't do it. There's new kids and a tradition to uphold."

On this day, Cooper is particularly pumped because it's testing day. Around the weight room and on the practice field his imprint is everywhere.



From the 100 names over 17 years for making the Top 10 list of 10 training categories, to the photos of previous Grizzlies to make it to the NFL — Miles Burris (Raiders), Devon Wylie (Chiefs), Adam Jennings (Falcons), Dallas Sartz (Redskins) and Sammie Stroughter (Buccaneers) — to the life and team credos, Grizzly pride is plastered all over the walls of the Mark Palmer Training Center.

More than words and name, Cooper's energy charged the facility as he tested more than 200 kids on the clean and jerk. He charted each student, examined their form, barked instructions and mostly encouraged.

"Nice clean," he yelled to one kid. "Atta baby."

"You guys did a hell of a job!"

"Now the fun begins!"

"Don't cut corners!"



"Don't be in a hurry. Do it right!"

Granite Bay senior Kevin Blank, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound offensive lineman headed to Cal Lutheran helping as a student aid, said what you see and hear is exactly what you get with Cooper.

"He energizes everything," Blank said. "He helped form who I am and really helped my high school career."

That is the real reason Cooper and all successful high school football coaches survive and come back for more.

For eight hours we followed Cooper's day. He didn't want to be singled out – another typical high school coaching trait — but he also had a lot to say.

We needed to ask just eight questions to complete a 1 hour, 15-minute interview. What he revealed then and during that mild spring day is how Cooper has thrived and survived. It likely mirrors many of the systems and beliefs of coaches throughout the country who have endured. 

See some coaches' stories of how they make it all work (on page 5), and in no particular order, here are 13 shades of Cooper, a vital American high school football coach.

Video by Chris Spoerl and Scott Hargrove/Edited by Chris Spoerl

{PAGEBREAK}1. Finding balance

Cooper is the son of an educator. His dad, like Cooper, was a math teacher before advancing into administration.



When Cooper at an early age told his dad he wanted to be a coach and teacher, his pops looked him almost quizzically.

"You sure that's what you want to do?" he asked.

Cooper didn't blink or hesitate. He started assisting at Harbor (Sant Cruz, Calif.) while playing college baseball at Santa Clara University. When he was cut from the team his junior year, he became Harbor's full-time defensive coordinator.

By the time he was 24, he was the head coach there and later at his alma mater Aptos (Calif.). He brought a lot of energy, but not much balance.

"Back then I didn't know what I didn't know," he said. "I'd work 12-14 hours a day thinking this was the greatest thing ever. I had no time for a girlfriend, it was all teaching and football.

"Now I have a 6-year-old daughter (Miko) and been married (to Carol) going on 22 years and now you have to be able to balance everything. I know now that football is not more important than (family). It used to be football was more important and it got me in a lot of trouble. Now I love my wife and daughter a lot more than I love football. … But football is pretty close."

2. Type and grade A
Line coach Chet Dickson has been by Cooper's side the entire 17 years at Granite Bay, an affluent bedroom community near Sacramento where some of region's most famous either reside or have lived.

Among those are actor Eddie Murphy, Reds' manager Dusty Baker and a host of former and current Sacramento Kings, including Chris Webber, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Rick Adelman.

It's a community that expects excellence, in academics, athletics and the arts. Dickson said Cooper is the perfect man for the job.

"He's a type-A personality," Dickson said. "He's very focused and directed and very goal-oriented. Those are all things you want to teach young kids and athletes. Set a goal, pursue the goal, achieve the goal. That's where Ernie is coming from. It carries over to the team and coaches."

3. Pass the balance
Cooper loves to compete. But he vowed when he arrived at Granite Bay that he wouldn't worry about winning.

"All I ever wanted to do was build a program and surround myself with people who wanted to be around something special," he said. "I wanted a positive family atmosphere. I wanted our community to wrap themselves around the football program and say, ‘Boy that's a neat thing they've got going there and I want to be a part of it.'"

To that end, Cooper makes sure it's not all football 24/7, 12 months a year. He regulates that the day football ends, he doesn't see his players — other than weight training during school hours — until spring ball in May.



He highly encourages his players to play other sports and almost all do: wrestling, basketball, baseball, rugby, lacrosse, track and field.

It limits the Grizzlies sometimes in spring ball — the team's top two fly backs Tony Ellison and Lucas Baiocchi were running track during last week's 7-on-7 — but the peace of mind and working muscle in other areas is the balance Cooper seeks.

4. "Do your best, don't sweat the rest"
That was Cooper's very first and most important credo and it's tied directly to John Wooden's quote: "Success is peace of mind that comes from the self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best you are capable of becoming."

He has many more sayings he and the Grizzlies live by.

"The most important ability is dependability." — Cooper's response to that is "just show up." 

More credos on the wall:

* "Grizzly pride, Intelligence. Character. Tradition."

* "The spirit of camaraderie is born when people link their destinies and act as one to press for the same goals."

* "When things aren't going well: Weather the storm. Stay positive. Stay focused. It's never over until 0:00."

* "When things are going well: Handle the euphoria. Stay focused. Continue to execute. It's not over until 0:00."
{PAGEBREAK}5. Line it up
For the last 17 seasons, Dickson and Mike Lynch, two on-campus coaches, have led the offensive and defensive lines. Lynch retired after last season and will be sorely missed. Cooper said their leadership and expertise have been absolutely key.

Even when the Grizzlies don't have great speed and athleticism from skill players, they still manage to win close to 10 games a season.

"It's why we've been so successful and why we've been good every single year," said Cooper, who is also the offensive coordinator. "When you're a little stronger and faster like last year, we can compete with anyone. We've been very fortunate."

6. Get help
Cooper knew at an early age that on-campus help is vital. In his early years at Harbor, like many coaches now, he was the only coach on campus. He pleaded with a principal to get a full-time coach on board, even finding a gentleman with impeccable credentials.

"I was 26 and I knew then I couldn't do it on my own," he said. "I was smart enough to move on."



7. Love and passion
The team's next big recruit – literally — is 6-foot-3, 235-pound sophomore middle linebacker Cameron Smith, who already has offers from UCLA and San Diego State.

With 4.71 speed in the 40-yard dash and a ridiculous 191 tackles last season, he figures to be the school's top recruit ever.

"Coach Cooper gets better and better every year," Smith said. "He always puts a great team out there. He's a great coach."

Smith said he might someday want to be a coach. What will he bring from Cooper if he goes down that path?

"His intensity. His love for the game," Smith said. 

Said Dylan Keeney, another Division I linebacking prospect who had two interceptions — one returned for a touchdown — in the state-title game: "Coach Cooper is a great inspiration for all of us. He's a great leader. He has a motor that never runs out."

8. Leave town
Being a Type A personality – and with a love for the program and kids — Cooper can't stay away from the school.

So, at Christmas, spring and summer breaks, he makes sure to vacation with his wife and daughter. It accounts for six weeks.

"If I'm in town, I'll wind up here," he said. "We do whatever we can to rearrange our schedules, and get out of town."

9. Train smart
In 2004, Cooper made a deal with then-school principal Ron Severson that if the Palmer Training Center was built, he'd leave his math teaching job to become a full-time trainer on campus. 

Fit and chiseled, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Cooper loves to train kids, especially athletes. It's largely why Granite Bay is so strong in the fourth quarter and late in the season.

It helps too that Cooper believes in a platoon system. Players rarely, if ever, play offense and defense. It helps too that the Grizzlies attract 60-plus players to fill the roster.

"If you're an athlete, weight training should be part of your daily routine," he said.

{PAGEBREAK}
10. Keep the shed door shut

It was two days following Granite Bay's state title last season and Cooper was exhausted.

There was no parade that day, no day off, no game plan for the next week. Instead he collected gear.

Normally, Cooper, meticulous in everything he does, would sort and organize the equipment. If not that day, then the days following.

Not this time.



"I was at the end of my rope," he said. "Just like a lot of guys around the country I suppose. So, I just left it in there. I didn't look at it for months.

"You need to recognize when you're at your limit. Don't go over it to the point where you hate your job. Even if it means you're a little behind."

11. Making a difference
Cooper was like a kid in a candy store tracking the final fitness marks for his class. He's always loved numbers. It's his math gene.

Moreso, it's a viable, legible, sure-proof scale of progress. It might be what Cooper loves most about his job.

"We've trained for 17 weeks and at last we see all the gains," he said. "It's a reminder to myself that I made a difference. I see that they achieved something they couldn't achieve by themselves."

12. System, repetition, belief, gold
Better than tracking bench press and squats is watching game tape, specifically the game tape from the Long Beach Poly victory.

Sheer gold.

Cooper said he's been asked constantly about the team's famed game-winning six-play, 77-yard drive capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by John Cooley with 1:12 left.

The Grizzlies hadn't managed a touchdown drive all night but with everything on the line, they put it all together like they had practiced it every day for the previous seven months. The fitness. The repetition. The attention to detail all paid off when it mattered most.

But Cooper maintained the Grizzlies did nothing different on the drive, other than execute. It was the base fly offense. It was the painstaking drills Cooper hammered "in small quantities over and over and over and over again," he said. "I tell young coaches, you have to practice it again and again and again."

So when Cooper watched it on film and matched it to film from the previous spring camp, it was much like tracking the gains in the weight room. Only sweeter and more meaningful.

With a cherry on top.

"What I saw in spring camp was (yikes)," he said. "Then to see us do it right at the highest level, in the biggest moment. … That will keep you going. I still get excited about that. The evolution of a team and young people."

13. No backup plan
Over the last decade, Cooper has talked retirement or a year break after painful defeats or long seasons. He's been coaching full-time for 30 straight years, after all.



The most earnest consideration was after the 2012 season, Cooper said, not because the Grizzlies won it all.

"I felt like I had done my job whether we won or not," he said. "It was just a really long season."

So, Cooper said, the conversation with Carol went like this.

"She asked me what I was going to do and I said I don't know. I told her I had no backup plan. She said ‘You better keep coaching dude.'"

When his daughter gets a little older, he might consider stepping down and coaching her.

But, until then. ... "This is what I'm supposed to be doing. It's what I love to do."

{PAGEBREAK}

Steve Specht drives his 12-year-old Kia Spectra to work every day. As long as the air conditioning works, he has no complaints. He never figured to get rich coaching high school kids.

Not in the monetary sense. 



After 10 seasons coaching at St. Xavier (Cincinnati) and leading team USA Football’s Under-19 team, Specht expects the long coaching days and recruiting demands, though the latter is wearing a little thin.

“It (recruiting) just never ends,” he said.

Neither does running a program with 340 kids. Specht, who is also an assistant principal at the school, says he gets to coach the quarterbacks every once in a while, but his primary duty is CEO of the Bombers, who have won nearly 80 percent of their games under Specht along with two state titles.

Winning, of course, is fun and the goal. But it’s not what feeds Specht. And is certainly isn't his meager coaching salary.

That doesn’t detract from his ultimate payoff as head coach, though.

“I get to make a difference in a kid's life,” he said. “The other day a former player came in after graduating from college and was networking for a job. When they come in and say hi and share their life, there’s nothing better.” 

Robert Garrett, of Crenshaw (Los Angeles), has been making a difference in the Los Angeles City Section since 1988. He's also one of the area's most successful and respected coaches. He led the Cougars (14-1) into the 2009 CIF State Open Division title game.



The Cougars have won 90 games under Garrett since 2004 and last year finished 12-2. But according to those around the LA City Section and certainly Crenshaw, Garrett does much more than teach football. 

"I don't really keep track of my record," Garrett said. "I think I've had some success because I don't take myself too seriously. I got into the field to help build young lives."

He's done that, senior Dominique Hatfield told ABClocal.com during the 2012 season.

"He’s a father to some of us when we need him. We can talk to him whenever we need him. He’s more than just a coach,”  Hatfield said.

That's music to the ears of Garrett, who said he got into coaching because high school coaches of his were surrogate fathers to him.

"I'm just passing it on," he said.

Unfortunately in South Florida, qualified coaches are passing on jobs at an alarming rate. According to a story in the Palm Beach Post, 28 of 47 football programs in Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast will have a head coach with fewer than three years experience. Of those, 12 were in their first season last season.

In Palm Beach County, head coaches are paid a $4,110 stipend and assistants $3,015. Those in Clarke County make just less than $8,000 and assistants $4,000.

Justin Hilliker, an assistant at Seminole Ridge (Loxahatchee, Fla.), earned a gross $1.01 per hour he figured.

“It’s a love and a passion,” Hilliker told the Palm Beach Post. “But money and support, we don’t get a lot of that. That’s why the best coaches leave.”

Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) head coach Jack Daniels told the newspaper: “I would say most coaches lose money coaching football. There’s a ridiculous amount of time involved and you don’t get paid anything. I’m starting to get to the point where I’m wondering if it’s worth it.”

The money is considerably better in the Dallas region, where it has been reported that head coaches average $88,420 per year, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which is twice as much as the average teacher salary.

At the top of the heap is Trinity (Euless, Texas) coach Steve Lineweaver, who according to the report makes $114,413.

“I’m not comfortable talking about it and I think many other coaches would say the same,” he said. “But at the same time, people have a right to know exactly what we make.”

Though paid far better than the rest of the country, Texas coaches deal with probably more pressure to win. They definitely put in their time, said Coppell (Texas) coach Joe McBride.

“With the academic demands on coaches, we’re putting in 80-hour work weeks,” he said.

Other challenges for Texas coaches, McBride said, are unrealistic parents, the media and outside entities trying to change the game. The payoffs – besides wins and money – McBride said “it’s the greatest game in the world,” and, he said, “God's call on my life to impact youth.”

He sure needed to step up to that calling last season when the Coppell program was struck with a tragedy. Star receiver and wildly popular Jacob Logan perished after diving into the Possum Kingdom Lake in October. Besides coach, leader and second dad to many of his players, McBride had to play the role of grief counselor even though he was grieving deeply himself.

Logan was one of his favorite players.

“I felt guilty doing the things I had to do as leader of our program when what I really wanted to do was hit pause and cry,” he said.

Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) coach Aaron Brady said most coaches are prepared to wear many hats. What they don’t expect is the slow movement upward.

“It’s not like banking or the government,” he said. “You’re not going to be moving up any time soon. It’s one of those professions where you can work 15 years, work your butt off and you don’t get moved up.”

The nation’s winningest coach, ageless John McKissick, hasn’t moved up for 61 years. And he’s all good with that.

The 86-year-old has been head coach for Summerville (S.C.) that long and last season he won his 600th game. He’s as stagnant as they come, but some things he won’t bend on.

"I'm a little more mellow now,” he told MaxPreps senior writer Dave Krider last season. “I've changed with the times, but I never have changed discipline. I still don't have long hair and earrings.”

McKissick doesn’t teach any more but he is still the school’s athletic director. He’s delegated most of his power to assistants, including his grandson Joe Call, the team’s offensive coordinator.



That has helped keep McKissick fresh and successful. The Green Wave went 7-5 last year and McKissick now has 601 wins. He’s planning on coaching at least another season.

"I'm coaching coaches more than players," he said. 

Brady started in the college ranks and has been at Gonzaga, an all boys school, for the last three seasons while winning 23 games. He was also head coach at USA Football for the Under-19 team that won the International Bowl in February. 

“When you’re a high school coach, you wear a lot of hats,” Brady said. “You’re the equipment guy, you have to schedule all the practices, deal with the parents. Every little issue comes down to you. It’s not like college where people are handling different things.”

He loves influencing kids, but it can come at a price. He said his marriage largely ended due to so much time on the field.

“My ex-wife said that I spent more time raising other people’s kids rather than my own,” he said.



Brady, who has 5-year-old daughter, said he takes pride in two key aspects of coaching.

“One, I feel like every kid on the team should have a great high school football experience,” he said. “I want every kid to feel a part of the team where they get in one play or all of them. And two, my job is to get them to the best college possible.”

From the Class of 2013, Gonzaga has seven players moving on, including Devin Butler to Notre Dame. Defensive back Miles Taylor, from the Class of 2014, has already committed to Georgia Tech.

Brady said 99 colleges have been through Gonzaga this spring and when he talks to the recruiters, none of them want to be head coaches. He wonders if it’s the same at the high school level.

“I’ve had assistants tell me they don’t want to be a head coach because you spend all your time managing people and inventory,” Brady said. “I do a little bit of everything and I like it.”

He even likes the pressure that comes with it.



“I’ve always been the kind of person who has to stay busy,” he said. “If I sit still, I fall asleep. I think it’s how you handle the stress and I like it as long as you give me the ammunition to be competitive.”

Specht is very competitive, but over the years his edge has somewhat waned. He hasn’t exactly mellowed, but he has more perspective.

He offers it often to younger coaches.

“I tell them all the same thing,” he said. “You better get into high school coaching only if you love kids. Don’t get in it to build a resume or win football games. Get in it because you love kids and want to make a difference in their lives.”

McBride, whose team went 11-1 last year and figures to be a national Top 25 contender in 2013, said he has four pieces of advice.

“Be professional,” he said. “Be a great teacher. Chase great programs, not titles. And make sure you’re a great dad and husband, while mentoring thousands of kids.”