Career Advice on How to Become A Coach or Scout |
General Career Information |
| Professional athletes generally have short careers and most fade quietly into obscurity. Sometimes they have invested their money wisely and sometimes they fail to do so. On occasion, professional athletes manage to stay in the public eye for a long time, especially for those who are in sports that do not instantly and completely destroy their bodies, such as golf and bowling. (Forget bowling, we all know that one doesn’t count.) Regardless, someone has to find future high-caliber role models for America’s youth, and that is where coaches and scouts come in. Coaches and scouts keep their eyes out for the next gun waving, women in every town, steroid infused, drug addict to serve as that all-important role model. But such high caliber people do not simply grow on trees and, as a result, it is the job of the scout and coach to keep their eyes open for the “next big thing.” Scouts, in particular, will literally travel around the country or even around the world looking into the rumor of an eight and a half foot tall teenager living in a village of three hundred in Outer Mongolia. |
Career Facts: |
| Just like sports, scouting for new talent is extremely competitive. This means much of the work is done is secretly to keep competitors from swooping in and offering an extra $1,500 if a prospect just signed that exclusive fifty-one year contract. Coaches, in contrast, work with athletes imparting their knowledge concerning a given sport with their athletes. Society still accepts the notion that coaches can treat athletes, especially young ones, as inhuman slime, as part of the “process.” Due to this fact, coaching is an excellent way for cruel, mean spirited people to work out their personal and family issues. Yet, a knowledgeable coach can take a poor or even mediocre player and, if the raw material is present, reshape that athlete. |
Career Opportunities and Job Outlook- Very Good: |
| Good news for your job search! The job growth for coaches and scouts is expected to be about twenty-three percent between now and 2018. This rate of growth is far above the national average. |
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A Day in The Life: |
| Coaches and scouts have vastly different average days. A scout is often on the road following down the “next great thing,” while coaches can often be found in high schools and colleges screaming until they are red in the face. All this screaming is over remarkably trivial matters disguised as important. Mass media and Hollywood often reinforces the message of this “secretly brilliant” screaming coach whenever they see an opportunity. Coaches will work coaching specific team sports, such as basketball, baseball or the knee destroying fan favorite football. Coaches employed in the K-12 system usually teach “gym classes,” where the practice of such life scaring activities like “dodge ball” is still practiced. This is a “character building” activity that allows grade school students to hit each other in the face with rubber balls as hard as they possibly can. |
Average Salary: |
| The average coach and scout earn about $28,000 per year, with the top ten percent earning about $63,000 per year. It should be noted that professional coaches, however, could earn impressive sums into the millions of dollars per year. |
$28k - $63k |
Career Training and Qualifications: |
| Usually coaches and scouts have a strong knowledge of sports. This is especially true if they are coaching a specific sport, such as football. Coaches who are teaching in the school system are usually state certified teachers as well. |
