Impending Choke wrote:
In all seriousness, for those of us who don't know, what are the major skills lacking in high school coaches (or that don't get developed at that level) required for successful coaching in the NCAA?
There are many different skills needed for college coaching but whats important is that athletic directors don't hire head coaches who they have to teach how to be a head coach. If a high school coach wants to be a college coach then they need to go about it like everyone else; take an assistant job (pay cut from teaching) and learn the job.
The most important issue I see is the job is so drastically different in its demands than high school coaching. Those high school coaches who do enter college ranks often leave because its not at all what they thought it was going to be. Coaching is the smallest part of the job. Money, funding and your conference affiliation plays a big role on your success level and thats stressful for a high school coach. You don't recruit from the high school hallways anymore. Recruiting and administration if your program is harder than people think. In college these former HS coaches have less work/life balance, must travel all the time, miss their family, less money, less opportunity to get raises, no unions to protect their salaries and rights, and on and on. Aside from that there is something nice about coaching not being your only job. Being a teacher and a coach provides a nice balance which keeps the obsession of coaching under control.