Maine high school sports are struggling to retain coaches

By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff

The climate in coaching high school sports has changed dramatically over the years, according to Cliff Urquhart. 

“Gone are the days when a coach coaches the same team for 30, 40 or 50 years,” said Urquhart, the athletic director and girls basketball coach at Southern Aroostook High School in Dyer Brook.

“It is too demanding, too hard and too frustrating,” he said. “Coaching in 2022 is a lot harder than it was in 1982.”

The result is a rising rate of turnover for high school coaches in the state. This fall, there are 67 new varsity boys and girls soccer coaches among the 130 schools that field teams in the state, according to the Maine Soccer Coaches Association. 

Some schools, such as Mount Desert Island High School and Fort Fairfield High School, will have new coaches leading both varsity teams. At MDI, Tyler Frank has moved from coaching the boys team to the girls team, and at Fort Fairfield John Ala has returned as the boys coach after guiding the girls team the previous four seasons. Ala previously coached the Fort Fairfield boys from 2004-17.

Foxcroft Academy, George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, Mattanawcook Academy in Lincoln and Caribou are among the other schools with new leadership on both the girls and boys soccer teams. 

“It seems like there is a quick turnover in coaches in every sport nowadays,” Brewer High School Athletic Director David Utterback said. “I go into a partnership with a coach knowing their shelf life is likely five years or less.”

Some of the reasons Utterback cites for why coaches move on more quickly include new jobs, advancement to school administration, spending more time with their own kids and negative interactions with parents. 

Coaching also pays just $12.75 an hour, less than minimum wage, Utterback added. 

“I’m surprised at the number of new coaches, but I’m also not surprised. There are better ways to make money. And you can make $15 to $20 an hour at other jobs,” Urquhart said. 

Urquhart also said that another reason there is such a high turnover is that there are fewer teachers available to coach, and that it’s harder for non-teachers to make time to do it. 

Bunky Dow, athletic director at Mount Desert Island, said non-teaching coaches “lose money big-time” because they have to take time out from their jobs to coach, unlike teachers who can coach after school.

Combined with the labor shortage, it can be even more difficult for non-teachers to coach because their employers are more reluctant to give them time off to do so, Foxcroft Academy Athletic Director Jackie Tourtelotte said.

All of the athletic directors agreed with Utterback that it is much more challenging being a coach these days than it was several years ago.

“There is so much parental involvement now. That’s a big part of it. The coaches don’t get paid enough to have to listen [to parental complaints],” Dow said.

Social media also is a bigger influence in today’s sports, said Tourtelotte, who has ditched Facebook because of the comments posted by parents and others directed at coaches, players, and officials. 

Tourtelotte pointed out that people are able to take videos of games or practices on their cellphones so coaches are always under a microscope.

The new girls soccer coaches in the North include Phil Turmelle of Brewer, Gina Yeo of East Grand and Amanda Thompson of Schenck/Stearns, among others. New coaches on the boys side include Timothy Tarr of Ashland, Mark Ensworth of Ellsworth, Andrius Zeikus of Hermon, Kerry Stepple of Houlton and Shawn Johnson of Jonesport-Beals.