Coaching football for high school students is a rewarding career path that allows you to enjoy the best of football as a sport while instilling value in the next generation.
In this article, we’ll take a discerning look at how to become a high school football coach, including factors like the qualifications you’ll need, skills you should try to grow, and even tips on how you can best attain success.
What is a High School Football Coach?
While many people have vague aspirations of becoming a football coach, not everyone is familiar with the true responsibilities and definitions of the position.
When you take on this career path, it means that you are aiming to become a football specialist who focuses on the growth of teams. From leadership to training and everyday support, a football coach is responsible for all these aspects.
The term covers a wide range of different levels, starting with amateur and school leagues, all the way through collegiate leagues, and through into professional leagues. Of course, there are different levels of knowledge and experience required for the different levels.
The main goal of a football coach is to instruct, teach, and motivate players to give them the greatest chance at winning. The role and responsibilities can vary significantly based on the kind of league you’re coaching, and what kind of coach you want to become.
What do High School Football Coaches do?
A high-school football coach may be responsible for a range of different aspects related to the wellbeing and performance of their football team. Depending on the situation, these may include some or all of the following:
- Attending to player injuries with first aid
- Educating players on relevant rules and regulations
- Maintaining team morale and motivation during games
- Designing and implementing game strategies
- Managing and updating team records
- Arranging and scheduling practices and team meetings
- Offering one-on-one coaching
Their main purpose is, and always remains, teaching team members football-related knowledge and helping them to gain the experience they need to become as adept as possible. This may include anything from physical training to practice sessions and even constructive criticism.
Essential Skills Required to Become a High School Football Coach
An essential part of learning how to become a high school football coach lies in picking up appropriate skills that you will require while doing this job.
When pursuing a career as a football coach, you should definitely aim to gain the following essential skills:
- Communication Skills: As a coach, you will regularly need to convey various vital pieces of information. From training knowledge to the dates of team meetings, and even rules and strategies, the ability to communicate clearly is key.
- Patience: When you are working with a bunch of high-school students, you will require patience. Whether you need to address inappropriate behavior or convey a concept that they’re struggling with, patience will be an invaluable attribute.
- Leadership Abilities: No matter how you look at it, a coach needs to be able to lead by example. You need enough leadership acumen so you can guide your team and develop their decision-making skills.
- CPR and First-Aid: Football coaches are often the only one on the field if something goes wrong during practice. They need to be able to perform basic first aid and CPR.
- Physical Ability and Fitness: Coaches need to be able to demonstrate the maneuvers and techniques they teach, so physical ability is a necessity.
Which Qualifications do you Need to Become a High School Football Coach?
While there technically aren’t any educational requirements for this type of position, some schools may insist upon an education in a related field. Typically this extends to a bachelors or honors degree in a related field.
Some excellent options of degrees to aim for in this instance in this instance include the following:
- Kinesiology
- Football Coaching Performance and Development
- Sports studies
- Coaching
- Exercise science
- Sports medicine
- Sports administration
- Sports marketing
- Sports management
Many coaches wanting to go farther in this industry opt to get secondary bachelors or even masters degrees later on. It’s worth noting that some higher education and most professional coaching positions will require candidates to have a teaching certification at the very least.
Career Path to Becoming a High School Football Coach
Whether you’ve been wondering how to become a high school football coach, or even how to become a college football coach, and you’re concerned about your career path it’s actually fairly straightforward.
Step One: Getting a Bachelor’s Degree
First, you’ll need to earn a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. While it isn’t necessarily a prerequisite in all instances, having a degree in a related field can help to prove to hiring managers and potential employers that you take the position seriously.
Step Two: Skills Development
As with all careers, most potential employers will be hesitant to hire you if you only have theoretical knowledge. As mentioned earlier, there are a range of skills that are almost prerequisites for a coaching career.
While we’ve discussed communication skills, physical ability, CPR and first aid certifications, patience, and leadership skills, there are several other skills and attributes that may serve you well. These include the following:
- Team-building skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Organization
- Confidence and self-assurance
- Attention to detail
- A passion for the sport
Gaining Practical Experience
If you have any hopes of achieving your goal of becoming a high school football coach, you need to gain personal experience in the field. When you’re starting your career as a coach, or even in the years leading up to that, try to get as much experience as possible.
If you’re still in high school yourself, talk to your coach and see if you can’t volunteer as an assistant coach. Other than that, try to volunteer at local schools and youth leagues.
Even if you simply coach flag or touch football, it will still give you invaluable leadership experience that looks great on your resume. It also allows you to see which skills you need to hone, and which ones you already shine at.
Get CPR and First Aid Certification
As mentioned earlier, it’s not unlikely that a football coach will have to patch up players at some point in their career. To this end, most hiring managers prefer hiring coaches with some experience in this field.
Top Tips for Success
How do you become a college football coach or high school football coach? You’ve seen the basic requirements, now let’s look at some tips from professionals. These can help give you an edge beyond the standard steps.
Try to Build Relationships with Schools and Colleges
One thing that can be exceptionally helpful is when you start building relationships with different high schools and colleges in your area. When you have a pre-existing relationship and you are already known to the hiring managers at a facility, it can help when hiring starts.
Dedicate Yourself to your Craft
It’s important to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy to practicing and honing your coaching skills if you want to become a high school coach. Try to volunteer in as many different places as possible related to coaching and football.
Tailor Your Resume
While it’s always a good idea to diversify and learn many different things, you should always tailor your resume for the role you’re trying to get. For instance, hiring managers will be more interested in your coaching and leadership experience than your graphic design certification.
Try to highlight all the most impressive, and relevant, skills and experience that you have. Especially focus on any relevant skills or attributes that will make you stand out from other applicants.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to become a football coach in high school, you can easily see that there are fairly few requirements for this career choice. If you can prove that you have a passion for the sport, and gain enough experience, then you can easily become a high school football coach.
Of course, gaining an education that’s relevant to the field will also help to prove that you are serious and committed to your chosen career path. Even basic football coaching courses, and other educational steps can help to give you an edge in your quest to become a high school football coach.
