The Campbell County Board of Education’s Athletic Committee approved spending more on coaching supplements and providing training options for student-athletes in the upcoming fiscal year 2023-2024 budget at its meeting on April 25.
“It’s obvious,” county athletic director Robbie Heatherly said. “If you pay somebody well, they’re going to put more into it. They’re going to have more time.”
Nothing is final until the budget is approved by the full school board and later, the county commission.
“Winning breeds winning,” Heatherly said. “So if you want to be successful, you’re not going to get it on the cheap, and we’ve tried to do that for too long in Campbell County.”
In the general purpose school 141 fund budget notes for the upcoming fiscal year, it is listed: “Coaching supplements are estimated at $440,540, an increase of about $159,000 based on the April 2023 action of the Athletic Committee to increase coaching supplements as well as to provide for other training options such as strength training. The other training options of $44,500 would be used in conjunction with the individual school sites providing 50% of the cost for supplemental training activities with the board providing a 50% match up to the overall maximum of $44,500 with the individual school sites then becoming responsible for 100% of supplemental training costs. Appropriations still include funds established by the board during 2019-2020 to meet operational needs and to address any Title IX issues.”
At the meeting on April 25, school board member Josh James presented a budget plan to increase coaching supplements.
“If we move forward with this and this is something that we want to do, someone has to hold our athletic directors accountable,” James said. “Robbie’s retiring, and we don’t know who’s going to fill that spot, but whoever our county AD is has to hold our school ADs accountable in saying, ‘Hey, we’re getting paid good money now. We’re not winning. What’s the deal?’ And then obviously, your school athletic directors have to hold the coaches accountable because I definitely don’t want to waste money. I don’t think this is a waste of money, but if we’re not going to take it seriously, then obviously, we don’t need to do it.”
Campbell County High School athletic director Matt Price said accountability doesn’t just mean wins and losses. It also means facility upkeep, offseason development and athletes’ academic grades.
“The purpose tonight is to discuss coaching supplements, something that I feel like we’ve been needing to do for a long time,” school board member Ronnie Lasley said.
The plan didn’t include specific coaching salaries but rather coaching supplement pools — a fund for each sports program that covers all head coaches and assistant coaches for that team.
“More money obviously comes more expectations,” James said. “It is what it is.”
The plan included raising money spent on football coaching supplements from $46,750 to $66,500, taking the Campbell County High School football coaching supplement pool from $24,000 to $30,000; the Jellico High School football coaching supplemental pool from $11,000 to $15,000; Jacksboro Middle and LaFollette Middle from $4,250 to $7,500 each; and Jellico Middle from $3,250 to $6,500.
The plan included increasing boys and girls basketball coaching supplement pay from $74,000 countywide to $106,000, taking CCHS and JHS from $20,000 to $30,000; Jacksboro, LaFollette, Jellico Middle and White Oak from $6,500 to $8,500 each; and Wynn and Elk Valley from $4,000 to $6,000 each.
“Boys basketball and cross country supplemental pools are not going to be the same anywhere,” Matt Price said.
James said he was uncertain why Wynn and Elk Valley’s coaching supplement pools were smaller, and Heatherly said it had to do with number of coaches but in a normal year, all the middle school hoops programs would be the same.
Elementary boys and girls basketball coaching supplements would go up from $16,000 to $24,000, raising each school’s allotment from $2,000 to $3,000.
“The major sports, we weren’t far off,” James said. “We weren’t. We were pretty close. Now obviously, increasing it gets us to where I think we need to be with the major sports, but the minor sports is where we are getting killed.”
The plan stipulated taking CCHS and JHS baseball coaching supplement pool pay from $3,500 to $8,000 each — and the same for CCHS and JHS softball.
The plan would raise CCHS boys and girls soccer coaching supplements from $7,000 total to $12,000.
Overall, the plan stipulates raising track and field coaching supplement money from $8,500 to $16,000 — raising CCHS from $5,000 to $8,000 and JMS and LMS from $1,750 to $4,000 each.
The plan would double coaching supplement money for volleyball countywide: raising CCHS and JHS from $2,000 to $4,000 and JMS, LMS, Jellico Middle, Elk Valley and White Oak from $1,000 to $2,000 each.
The plan would also double golf coaching supplements, raising CCHS from $2,000 to $4,000 and JMS and LMS from $1,000 to $2,000.
The plan would double cheer coaching supplements as well, raising CCHS and JHS from $2,000 to $4,000 and LMS and JMS from $1,000 to $2,000.
“Here’s another thing that we want to consider even though it’s not a TSSAA-sanctioned sport is fishing,” James said. “I know when we put the fishing program up here, I know they said, ‘Hey, if you’ll just put a fishing program, we don’t want anything.’ Well, the guy’s doing pretty darn good.”
James also said the school board may need to look at paying a coaching supplement to dance team coaches.
CCHS cross country would go from $2,000 to $4,000, and fishing would get $2,000 for coaching supplements in the plan.
“We get a lot of scholarships out of fishing,” school board member Brent Lester said.
James said his proposal to raise coaching supplements is a significant increase — and one that can be re-evaluated years down the road to see if it’s working or not.
“I’ve got two boys at the house,” James said. “That’s all they want to do. They got a ball in their hand nonstop, and if I have the capability of trying to get the best athletics in the county that I can get, then I want to do that. I want my kids to have the best opportunity to be successful in athletics, if we’re going to offer athletics. So if we offer athletics, I think we go all in.”
The coaching supplement raise could be re-evaluated years down the road to see if it’s working or not, James said.
“I’m also a firm believer, too, that if you’ve got a school system that is good in athletics, you’re going to be pretty darn good in academics,” James said. “I think the two go hand in hand. I just think a winning energy, it correlates to the classroom in my opinion. I mean, look at Greeneville. Look at your Oak Ridges. Look at your Maryvilles. These schools are successful.”
James also proposed the school board paying 50% of the costs for sports programs in the county to participate in a training program with CCHS football strength and conditioning coach Tim Zupancic, if they choose to do so.
“If it’s not going to cost us a lot more extra money — and I don’t think it will — give it a shot,” James said. “If it doesn’t work, don’t do it anymore. That’s the thing is that for us to get different results, we have to do something we’ve never done before. So why not try? If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. We tried it.”
