By Greg Shepard

is unique. No other state is quite like Texas when it comes to high school football. Football is important and that emphasis is certainly present in every phase of the game. The pictures for this article are from 4-A South Park High School in Beaumont. There is one other high school in the district which is a 5-A school and they won the Texas Football State Championship in 1982. (5-A is the biggest classification.) The head coach at South Park is Jerry Hentschel pictured on the left. The average age for a Texas head coach is probably 45-50 and that I believe is quite than any other state. It apparently takes awhile to work up through the ranks.

Also, there are many administrative duties ofa head coach, similar to Head Football Coach: Jerry Hentschel a head coach at a university. At the daily 7:30 a.m. football staff meetings in the off season, the head coach will delegate assignments and responsibilities. Many times I will talk to an assistant coach when a : school is setting up a clinic or ordering equipment.

Many head coaches will have their secretaries call me 3 and whenI get on the line, then theyll come on the line. operates? average salary for the head coach at the 5-A and 4-A level is between $35,000 and $40,000, and forget about this, “What subject do you teach stuff.” Head coaches don’t teach. They have to work on football right? Well, before you get too jealous, just remember it’s real easy to get fired in that situation. Paychecks also have a habit of stopping upon termination. In other states, you at least keep teaching and collect a paycheck until the end of the year. And before you hop on the next plane to try things out as an assistant, you'd better be prepared to keep hopping.

When the The Field House by the Stadium head coach moves on, gets fired or retires, you're also gone because the new head coach will want to bring his own assistants right? Texas is no place for the timid hearted. Texas is a great state for getting what is needed for a quality program. Money is generally no problem, at least not an unsurmountable problem. Every school, even many 2-A schools, has a fieldhouse. Normally, every fieldhouse has a private ofÏce for the head coach. Some even have a reception area with a secretary. A separate ofÏce area is provided for assistant coaches, complete with desks and chairs.

Everything should be centralized in the fieldhouse in Texas. Therefore, weight rooms, film rooms, training rooms and even sometimes study halls for athletes and tutors are contained in the fieldhouse. Obviously, training room without a full-time trainer. Texas has made it mandatory that each 4-A and 5-A school hasa full-time certified trainer. In larger school districts a school might have to share a trainer with another Assistant Coaches OfÏce 32 school. A trainer has the authority to restrict an athlete from playing in a game or practice. A football coach cannot over-rule a decision in this area. Also, the trainer will work with all sports, both boys and girls.

Texas probably is the most restrictive state in America on what you can and cannot do in the offseason. For example, at BFS clinics the Boosters Club could not provide lunch for the athletes. Furthermore, all sports and all general students must be invited to the seven-hour BFS clinic. Many Texas coaches are almost paranoid respecting the power of the Texas Activities Association. Coaches follow the rules, period. Generally speaking, if a coach is turned in, he is assumed guilty until innocence is proven. Only one hour is allowed on football per day. In other states a coach can work with some players with weights during one period, then with others during different periods. Not in Texas.

You must work everybody out in one hour.

That's why when I set weight rooms up in Texas, we do it big. If you have 100 players, the equipment must do the job for all 100 in that hour. Five squat racks, five benches and fifteen 400-lb. olympic sets are a minimum adequately. Most Texas schools have a big centerarea in their fieldhouse covered with astroturf which can be used at times for actual football practice. This area is now being used in the off-season for their weight rooms to accommodate the magnitude of a great program. money. certainly not unusual for 5-A teams to average 10,000 or more in attendance per game. | believe Texas is the only state that allows playoff schoolsto split gate receipts.

In all other states, gate receipts are controlled by the state activities association. In some states participate in the play offs. Well, not in Texas, For example, in the 1982 football play offs, 5 games were required to reach the finals. Twenty-thousand people were about an average attendance figure for a prefinal game. The participating schools split the money. The money then goes into the athletic department fund. For the final game, 30,000 people attended the State Football Championship with an adult ticket going for $8.00. At that game, 15% of the gate receipts went to the Houston Astrodome and the two schools split only 85% of the receipts.

It is conceivable that one school could bring in over $300,000 in receipts in a single year! Texas has great coaches, programs and super nice people and athletes. It could be argued that too much emphasis is placed on football. I don’t think so, You see, that one hour rule limits the pressure on the athlete and puts it on the adults. I’m not infallible; if any Texas coaches notice any errors in this article, let me know. I'll correct them.

Large Weight Room Area in Field House 33

From BFS Magazine — September/October 1983. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).