Column: The High School Coaching Quagmire Continues

It has been an interesting first few weeks of the high school football scene - and I am not talking about anything related to individual or team performances.

No, what I am referring to is the high school coaching carousel that continues to both hinder and cause headlines around the country.

We have seen three key decisions come about, and in one way or another, they are all linked together.

Athletic directors, boosters and school boards, in some cases, have shown that it means more to have a resume that includes a strong win-loss record than morals and integrity. And those same people continue to wonder why such instances as brawls and player ineligibility follow the coaches that have a strong track record of that happening.

Giving Repeat Offenders Multiple Chances Is Not The Way

Back in mid-August, an Alabama high school hired Rush Propst to be the interim head football coach of Coosa Christian School for the 2025 season. From a resume aspect, Probst is a legend, securing five state championships in a state loaded with talented players and teams on a yearly basis.

Probst directed the ship that is Hoover High School to those five state titles between 1999-2007. He has two other championships on his mantle and nearly 300 wins.

But Probst has been forced out of prior programs, required to forfeit games and made more headlines for other reasons.

Can Probst put together a winning team on the field? Without a doubt. Will those results, though, stand the test of time? We shall see.

Firing a Coach One Game Into the Season Just Looks Bad

Todd Winter likely headed into the 2025 Georgia high school football season believing he had time to put a winning team on the field at Banks County High School.

He was wrong.

From an outsiders perspective, all Winter did was not win his Week 1 game. Thus, he was relieved of his coaching duties and replaced by the offensive coordinator.

Banks County hired Winter in 2024, as they struggled to a 2-8 season that year. But he has a strong track record from his previous coaching stop, and no lengthy back issues like Probst on his resume.

By firing Winter and looking for the quick answer, the school provided more ammunition for others to continue seeking out those who maybe get things done the wrong way.

When the Punishment Actually Meets the Crime

California’s Bishop Montgomery High School had trouble brewing even before becoming involved in a benches-clearing brawl with a team from Hawaii to start the year.

So it probably did not come as much of a surprise when they parted ways with head coach Ed Hodgkiss after having to forfeit a game due to having too few of players because of suspensions.

Earlier this year, the team ruled several players ineligible after they transferred with “penalty for providing incorrect, inaccurate, incomplete or false information,” according to a report by On3.com.

Were these fluke issues? It is hard to know, as Hodgkiss was in his 16th season with the program and had won over 80 games during that time, including five league titles.

Is it very likely that Hodgkiss, with his strong track record of success, will be given another opportunity to coach despite the recent transgression? Yes, as we have seen from other schools, it is very, very likely that will happen.

Coaching High School Sports Might be the Most Challenging Job Out There

As someone who has been around high school athletics for over two decades, I have so much respect for high school coaches and teachers because of all the challenges both of those professions face.

Nothing is easy about either one of them from the difficulties of building a program to dealing with tough parents to just trying to make it through the day, there is so much that needs to be handled, it is almost unbelievable to fathom.

But that is also why it is so important that the right people get put into these positions and not the wrong ones because they are shaping the minds of the next generation.