Stipends for local coaches dodge budget knife

While cities and school systems around the state wrestle with budget decisions for next school year, one chunk of change isn't expected to be impacted in South Hampton Roads: coaching stipends.

School officials in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk say they don't expect coaching pay to change for next year. While districts are looking to trim expenses anywhere they can, athletics figure to avoid major cuts.

"It's not that athletics isn't cut because sports are valued above academics," Portsmouth Superintendent David C. Stuckwisch said. "They're very important to what we do. They're not extra-curricular; they're co-curricular."

Gov. Bob McDonnell created a furor in February when he recommended the state's budget eliminate supplemental salaries, or stipends, paid by high schools to individuals leading a variety of activities. Sports coaches make up the bulk of the stipend dollars.

Stipends are paid per season, and vary by city. While local districts still are mulling budget cuts and budgets haven't been finalized, none say they plan to eliminate coaches pay.

"School system leadership recognizes that a tremendous amount of work and dedication goes into coaching," Farrell Hanzaker, Chief Financial Officer for Virginia Beach Schools, said in an e-mail. "It has indeed been a difficult budget year, but we have managed to maintain our level of support for our coaches, which stands as our acknowledgement of the important support they provide students."

In South Hampton Roads, pay for public high school varsity coaches ranges from $1,648 (golf coaches in Portsmouth) to $6,729 (football coaches in Chesapeake). Longer-tenured coaches in Virginia Beach earn a few hundred dollars more than their sport's base rate - $300 extra for coaches with 5-9 consecutive years; $600 extra for 10 -plus consecutive years.

While stipends remain intact, that doesn't mean sports will go unaffected as schools look to trim budgets. In Suffolk, spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw said the district likely will condense activity busses for after-school practices. Other officials said they'll look at reducing costs for field maintenance and uniforms.

Athletics, though, make up a small portion of each district's budget. In Portsmouth, for example, the school board last month approved a proposed budget that deals with a $12.6 million shortfall in the 2010-11 operating budget, bringing it to about $136.3 million.

Varsity coaches at each of Portsmouth's three high schools are paid less than $50,000 per school year. Assistant coaches and junior varsity and middle school coaches also are paid stipends by the school districts.

"What little you'd save by cutting sports is not worth it," Stuckwisch said. "If we have to get that severe where we're cutting coaches and athletics, we're going to have a whole lot of bigger problems."

The vast majority of coaches draw a salary as teachers, and coaching pay supplements that. Coaches say the monetary boost helps offset their long hours.

"We don't get a ton of money, but it's a service we deserve to get some money for," said Oscar Smith football coach Richard Morgan, whose team won the 2008 state title and was a semifinalist last fall. "It's a long season, and you're away from your family a lot, so you've got to be compensated for it. Obviously, we're not going to see an increase, but it's nice to see they're saying they value coaches and we deserve this."

Said Troy Terry, girls basketball coach at Chesapeake's Western Branch High: "Coaches make less than minimum wage when you consider all the hours of practice, preseason and postseason conditioning, summer leagues and fall leagues and attending all the games."

Terry earns $4,813 per season - part of the more than $80,000 paid to Chesapeake's varsity head coaches. H ead football coaches earn more than those in any other sport. The base rate for Chesapeake football coaches is the most in South Hampton Roads - $6,729 per season - followed by Virginia Beach at $6,500, Norfolk at $5,845, Suffolk at $5,300 and Portsmouth at $5,255.

Darnell Moore has coached high school football for more than 20 years, the past eight at Bayside in Virginia Beach.

"We love what we do," Moore said.

But, added Moore, "I'd venture to say that very few of us would do it for nothing."