How To Become A High School Coach: What It Is and Career Path

What is a high school coach and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

For many people, their fondest memories of high school don't come from sitting in a classroom but from playing sports with their friends or cheering their classmates on during important matches. High school coaches are a vital part of maintaining the sports programs that are important to many high schools.

High school coaches help their athletes improve in many ways. They design training programs for the team to help student-athletes develop technical skills and physical conditioning necessary to succeed. They may also need to develop a strategy for important meets, connect star players with college recruiters, and even perform first aid.

Coaching a high school sports team is many things, but easy isn't one of them. High school coaches work early mornings, late nights, and weekends to squeeze in practices and games around students' busy schedules. They often work second jobs, often as teachers in the school, in addition to coaching. The love of the game motivates them through the late nights and nail-biting matches.

ScoreHigh School CoachUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,789

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

8.0

Growth Rate 20%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.22%

Asian 5.46%

Black or African American 8.94%

Hispanic or Latino 13.32%

Unknown 5.65%

White 66.41%

Gender

female 33.34%

male 66.66%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress Level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.4

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.3

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a high school coach

Explore high school coach education requirements

Most common high school coach degrees

Bachelor's

70.7 %

Associate

11.0 %

Master's

8.8 %

Start to develop specific high school coach skills

Skills	Percentages
CPR	45.04%
Student Athletes	12.87%
Kids	5.95%
Public Schools	4.51%
Volleyball	4.16%

Complete relevant high school coach training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New high school coaches learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a high school coach based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real high school coach resumes.

Research high school coach duties and responsibilities

Lead the boys and girls teams to strong sectional outcomes, which lead their qualification for the state championship meet.
Certify to perform CPR and transport team.
Create and implement the curriculum/lesson plans for the school's first freshman geography program.
Train in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and all necessary training and education programs require by the state.

Prepare your high school coach resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your high school coach resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a high school coach resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable High School Coach Resume templates

Build a professional High School Coach resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your High School Coach resume.

Apply for high school coach jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a high school coach job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do high school coaches rate their job?

1/5

Based On 1 Ratings

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

High School Coach reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Cons

I hate having bad attitude on the field and off the field.

1.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2019

Pros

I like to motivate kids into becoming acting and follow their dreams on sports they love to do. I'm always encourage kids they can do anything they want if they try hard enough and would most likely succeed in athletic activity if I'm there coaching for them. Want them to have fun and experience how fun it is being the best team in school.