It seems as though a person has to make college coaching a career choice out of the blocks these days. Could a successful hs coach jump the gap as a head or assistant college coach? Does winning nearly 20 state team titles carry any weight? How willing are AD's to work with getting them up to speed on NCAA rules, compliance etc... Anyone here done this?
The real question is why would any HS coach want to transition to college coaching. The money is in being a HS teacher/coach.
That would be a major point of contention. I don't think a college values an assistant with my experience as much as I'm already contracted for but after finding out what the director of programs is earning, it made me wonder.
I know of practically none that have made the jump. They are two completely different career ladders.
One is focused on teaching and development of athletes that come in through your feeder. There are a lot of really good coaches at this level.
The other is focused on recruiting and working with the elite. There are some coaches that work on depth, but not many at the college level. More so in distance than other events, but you get the point. Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.
I think the guy from Mead was hired as Kentucky's head coach a while back. Not sure how that turned out. I don't really follow it.
Ask Mike Esposito. Great high school coach for many years, doing a great job in his first college gig.
I think it may be even harder to adapt if you are a college coach trying to coach high school.