Tennis Coaches' Salaries

[Coach Carter]

Originally Posted by floridatennisdude

Yes, all head coaches at Florida get dealer car from Buick. The Buick dealer gets a considerable amount of season tickets to football and basketball in return as well as advertising.

Coaches also get cash bonuses for SEC titles and National titles. They also get a good payout for camps, but some coaches waive most of that so assistants can get more. Nike also gives plenty of clothing and shoe allowances.

So it would be reasonable to assume that Bryan and Roland get about $12k in car, $10k from camp, $5k in clothing and Roland probably banked another $40k in championship bonuses. On top of a 150+ base, they are living comfortably. Those amounts are not even close to CEO perks and benefits. Yet these folks live a very public and scrutinized life.

Coming from an old college head coach...I think there is a lot of presuming and assuming going on here. I think because the football and basketball coach gets it you assume the tennis coach gets lubed up too, but I laugh. My last base salary was $45k down here in Texas at a D3. That did not include any money I earned from camps, lessons, etc. Here's the situation that a lot of tennis coaches (and smaller sports college administrators) get caught up in...as secondary duties that fall on you. Much depends on your AD/administrative leader. If they are awesome, then it's a great situation and you can thrive and do well. I did a few years. I'll explain lower down, but first let me explain how it usually happens that the coach can not thrive. You may be teaching Kinesiology classes (whether a joke or not, time consuming)...you may be "paper whipped" by administrators above you that want everything in triplicate...you may be attending meeting after meeting that are non-sense but are "important"...you are still doing all the same coaching things to make you team better or try and make you team better while you have people at your school sucking the life out of your program and facility. They start to fight over your revenue, camps, and lessons until you say crap I'd rather not do it because after I funnel my money thru 30 hands who didn't do anything and they can't explain what their cut % was and when it's paying, then blah blah...sooner or later you just say screw it. It gets tough to maintain a family. Coaching is a job...it's a blessing because it's sports and we all love this sport and we dream of getting paid to play a game and do something all our lives "playing". I was blessed. I did what literally millions wish they could...coach college athletics. It's tough though. I spent my own money (my wife and kid's money) to help other kids have more or get better stuff (when people like some on here said "should have made a $1"...what an insult). You sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice...because you love the game...and like for me I love the competition of building the team. I loved the team dynamic...it was fun!!! Was it worth trading my family? No, I did it though. Was that worth a $1? Would you trade the long hours you work at __________ for $1? Would you want to be disrespected? These men or women put themselves out in front and are abused because they happened to be good enough to be out front. When they get nervous, all they have to say to themselves is "I am doing something no one else can do". I have gone on a bit of a rant here...first time in a long time, but have some respect people. Some of you have no idea how tough it is or how much sacrifice is made so that those student-athletes can simply put on a uniform and play, so they can get in a van and drive 250 miles and play, so they can eat that cruddy sub sandwich and play. Learn some respect...
As I said, if you have a great AD, then you are rested and the secondary duties are just that...secondary. You handle your team and they clearly say..."go make some extra money for yourself and your program". You can and do...even down here at a smaller program that hadn't been successful prior to my time...I was making an extra $15-20K a year. That helped me a lot. It helped our program become nationally ranked. As things changed, it got much tougher...I talked about our administration being "blockers or lineman" (we're in football country, go figure)...they can either get out in front and block for you to get obstacles out of your way (at your high school or college or any business), or they can fall down in front of you and become another obstacle to get around or go over...I had to deal with that kind at the end...many people do unfortunately. When the secondary duties start piling up and taking precedence and believe me, they can (keeping scorebook for basketball would be ranked over my tennis practice), an issue with pool would rank over tennis, being a "game day administrator" at pick a sport during my season every week atleast once to twice pulling you out of practice. Every sport but yours has an assistant...the list goes on and on. Sooner or later you get tired and when you start weighing out...do I do the EXTRA CAMP or the LESSON or the answer becomes no.

[sundaypunch]

Originally Posted by Satsuma Illini

Some would like, some would not. Mats Wilander gets a blast running around the country in a Winnebago giving lessons to clubbers. Of course he will never be hurting for money I suppose. Unless you're business savvy like Bjorn Borg.

Anyway, my point it do what you enjoy if you have the luxury of doing that. Most of us don't.

Actually, the "helper" drives the Winnebago all over the country and Wilander flies in to do the clinic and pick up the large bag of money. Good work if you can get it.

[Satsuma Illini]

Originally Posted by sundaypunch

Actually, the "helper" drives the Winnebago all over the country and Wilander flies in to do the clinic and pick up the large bag of money. Good work if you can get it.

LOL. Good way to explain it. That's probably exactly how it goes.

[kme5150]

College coaches are doing it because they love the sport.

I know coaches on the east coast who are calling recruits at 1:00 AM because that is when it is good for the recruit on the west coast, then turn around and make a 8:00 AM call to another recruit from their office. Every college coach that I know is trying to juggle 5 or 6 recruits and getting inquiries from another 50 that they are not interested in. The better coaches do their homework on every player because just because he may not be interested in a certain player, that player may have a younger sibling that they may be interested in the fututre. The thought that coaches get a down time is pretty funny.

Everybody thinks that coaches do nothing all Summer.

Most tennis camps rim for 4 weeks in the Summer, that go from Sunday-Wednesday. Those are 15 hours a day from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. They take Thursdays off and then head off to see players play tournaments on Friday and Saturday and then head back Saturday night to get ready for the next group of campers.

Then comes the month of July, when they are finally allowed to call Seniors and talk to them once a week. Stupid NCAA rule but I don't want to get into that. There are National Opens, Regionals, Clay Courts and Zonals thrown in there. I think that is enough said.

Then comes August. The supernationals and finalizing the team's Spring schedule for the upcoming year. Making sure all your current players are healthy and setting up official visits for September.

In the mean time the coaches have to stay fit, maintain their tennis skills, keep a marriage going, spend time with their kids and figure out a time to take vacation with their families. Why don't the families go with them to the tournaments? One reason is because thanks to our legal system, once a coach leaves on recruiting visit it constitues as a work situation. That means that the company they work for is responsible for anybody in the car. Let's just say the coach pays for the trip on his own and it is an actual vacation and he is just going to stop in and see a couple of matches. How many spouses are going to be that understanding when a routine 1.5 hour match turns into a 3 hour marathon match? All while the kids are waiting to go to the beach or the water park.

[floridatennisdude]

Originally Posted by Coach Carter

Coming from an old college head coach...I think there is a lot of presuming and assuming going on here. I think because the football and basketball coach gets it you assume the tennis coach gets lubed up too, but I laugh. My last base salary was $45k down here in Texas at a D3. That did not include any money I earned from camps, lessons, etc. Here's the situation that a lot of tennis coaches (and smaller sports college administrators) get caught up in...as secondary duties that fall on you. Much depends on your AD/administrative leader. If they are awesome, then it's a great situation and you can thrive and do well. I did a few years. I'll explain lower down, but first let me explain how it usually happens that the coach can not thrive. You may be teaching Kinesiology classes (whether a joke or not, time consuming)...you may be "paper whipped" by administrators above you that want everything in triplicate...you may be attending meeting after meeting that are non-sense but are "important"...you are still doing all the same coaching things to make you team better or try and make you team better while you have people at your school sucking the life out of your program and facility. They start to fight over your revenue, camps, and lessons until you say crap I'd rather not do it because after I funnel my money thru 30 hands who didn't do anything and they can't explain what their cut % was and when it's paying, then blah blah...sooner or later you just say screw it. It gets tough to maintain a family. Coaching is a job...it's a blessing because it's sports and we all love this sport and we dream of getting paid to play a game and do something all our lives "playing". I was blessed. I did what literally millions wish they could...coach college athletics. It's tough though. I spent my own money (my wife and kid's money) to help other kids have more or get better stuff (when people like some on here said "should have made a $1"...what an insult). You sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice...because you love the game...and like for me I love the competition of building the team. I loved the team dynamic...it was fun!!! Was it worth trading my family? No, I did it though. Was that worth a $1? Would you trade the long hours you work at __________ for $1? Would you want to be disrespected? These men or women put themselves out in front and are abused because they happened to be good enough to be out front. When they get nervous, all they have to say to themselves is "I am doing something no one else can do". I have gone on a bit of a rant here...first time in a long time, but have some respect people. Some of you have no idea how tough it is or how much sacrifice is made so that those student-athletes can simply put on a uniform and play, so they can get in a van and drive 250 miles and play, so they can eat that cruddy sub sandwich and play. Learn some respect...
As I said, if you have a great AD, then you are rested and the secondary duties are just that...secondary. You handle your team and they clearly say..."go make some extra money for yourself and your program". You can and do...even down here at a smaller program that hadn't been successful prior to my time...I was making an extra $15-20K a year. That helped me a lot. It helped our program become nationally ranked. As things changed, it got much tougher...I talked about our administration being "blockers or lineman" (we're in football country, go figure)...they can either get out in front and block for you to get obstacles out of your way (at your high school or college or any business), or they can fall down in front of you and become another obstacle to get around or go over...I had to deal with that kind at the end...many people do unfortunately. When the secondary duties start piling up and taking precedence and believe me, they can (keeping scorebook for basketball would be ranked over my tennis practice), an issue with pool would rank over tennis, being a "game day administrator" at pick a sport during my season every week atleast once to twice pulling you out of practice. Every sport but yours has an assistant...the list goes on and on. Sooner or later you get tired and when you start weighing out...do I do the EXTRA CAMP or the LESSON or the answer becomes no.

D3 is not the same as a big time D1 like the op inquired about. Different levels of expectation and thus different level of compensation.

[Coach Carter]

Originally Posted by floridatennisdude

D3 is not the same as a big time D1 like the op inquired about. Different levels of expectation and thus different level of compensation.

Ha...competitive college tennis is competitive college tennis. We are talking about full-time paid coaching positions either way...you are speaking from an outsider's perspective. Live it for a little while then try to catch a stone that is being thrown.

[floridatennisdude]

Originally Posted by Coach Carter

Ha...competitive college tennis is competitive college tennis. We are talking about full-time paid coaching positions either way...you are speaking from an outsider's perspective. Live it for a little while then try to catch a stone that is being thrown.

Funny that you assume I'm an outsider...

Make of that reply as you will.

[NickC]

Originally Posted by norcaltennisnut

If the men's coaches at Oregon and Arizona make over $1 that's what I call being over paid.

Our men's coach is awful, our men's team is awful. The women's program isn't very good either. Atleast we have some decent players on the men's team, just not with good mental tools to get through a match. The talent is DEFINITELY there. I've seen them hit a few times.

Originally Posted by Nostradamus

$1 ? How do you make a living with that ?

You'd be surprised how far a dollar goes in Tucson. If you're not down spending money at the bars, at least. Those are pricey.

Originally Posted by Coach Carter

Ha...competitive college tennis is competitive college tennis. We are talking about full-time paid coaching positions either way...you are speaking from an outsider's perspective. Live it for a little while then try to catch a stone that is being thrown.

Full time paid head coaching positions are completely different at a D1 level vs. D3.

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by sundaypunch

Actually, the "helper" drives the Winnebago all over the country and Wilander flies in to do the clinic and pick up the large bag of money. Good work if you can get it.

That is what I read. The assistant finds the next convenient place to stay, and makes the arrangements, while Wilander flies out for his other commitments and family. Then he flies back and rejoins the RV for a few days.

[zapvor]

wow very interesting read in here.......this is a good section of tt

[dennis10is]

I made 300K as a coach in a D3 liberal arts school. I made all of my players hit 1bh. I signed a 35 years contract with minimum of 15 percent yearly pay increase.

They asked me to leave after two years, but they will honor their commitment and pay me for the remaining 33 years.

[cmb]

^^^^