These are a few of the questions we answer in our 2024-25 State of the Industry survey of high school athletic administrators — the 14th year in which we’ve conducted this nationwide survey. This year’s report offers a unique glimpse into the challenges athletics directors face daily and offers a look at some of the new issues popping up in schools, including a rise in finding proper staffing for events as well as qualified coaches. 

This survey provides some perspective on the challenges and opportunities that exist in high school athletics. It also provides direction for Coach and Athletic Director, as we base our content throughout the year on the report’s findings. 

This year’s survey examines spending, fundraising, program management, and other critical components of high school athletics. 

Here are the results from the 14th annual Coach & Athletic Director State of the Industry survey.

What’s On Your Mind: A Five-Year Snapshot

Here’s our annual ranking of the most concerning issues for high school athletic directors compared with how they ranked in previous years. Percentages represent athletic directors who said they were at least moderately concerned about that particular issue. 

Top 5 Sports Added in the Last 3 Years

1. Girls Bowling (28.2%)
2. Badminton (26.3%)
3. Rugby (23.1%
4. Boys Bowling (17.9%)
5. Archery (17.3%)

In Their Own Words…On Identifying and Retaining Quality Coaches

“We partner with local sports organizations to get referrals of experienced coaches. During the identification process, we emphasize the importance of character and integrity in addition to coaching expertise. For retention, we offer flexible work arrangements and a chance to be involved in school-wide sports development initiatives.”

“Create a positive and cooperative working environment, so that coaches can feel the support and warmth of the team.”

“We have an alumni referral program. Our former athletes often know other qualified coaches in the field. When identifying coaches, we also assess their ability to adapt to different learning styles of students. To keep them on board, we provide regular performance-based bonuses and recognition for their achievements.”

“Good working environment, establish a clear promotion mechanism, provide training and learning opportunities, [and] complete sports facilities.”

» ALSO SEE: Advice on starting a strength & conditioning program

“We want our program to be a landing spot, not a stepping stone. We work hard to handle the logistics so that coaches can spend time focusing on the students.”

“Internally: establishing trusting relationships. Externally: networking, using online networks to market coach openings, marketing.”

“Not easy. Now hiring coaches who may not have the necessary experience but want to be involved in high school athletics. They want to learn. However, finding these individuals is few and far between.”

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At T.L. Hanna High School, we have a 7,300 square foot weight room. We utilize Williams Strength equipment and have eight half racks and eight double racks. I train most of our high school athletes daily. I dedicate much of my time working closely with football players and staff, helping prepare the team for competition year-round.

I was blessed to be the first strength and conditioning coach at T.L. Hanna. My advice on starting a strength and conditioning program from the ground up is the same advice I would have given myself almost 10 years ago. The first thing I would do is meet with all the different sport coaches. Without the sport coaches’ buy-in, you have no athletes to train. You might have participation in the beginning, but if your vision and theirs do not line up, you will see a decline in their athletes’ participation. Get the coaches’ feedback on what they want to see in training. Listen to them, see their perspective, and if it does not align, let them know your concerns from a safety or philosophical standpoint. Let them pick one of their favorite exercises to include in the training program. Inclusion like this will go further than you think. This will create a feeling of ownership in the program.

Execute Your Plan

Come up with a plan that works for the coaches and the athletes. Once the relationship is developed with the coaches, reach out to them every week or so by providing updates on their athletes. The athlete wants to make their sport coach happy because the coach controls playing time. If the head coaches buy into your training program, this will keep the line of communication open between you, the coaches, and the athletes. The strength program is only as good as the commitment from the sport coaches. In my experience, you may not have 100% buy-in from all coaches, but never give up on them. Do your best to keep “striking the stone” with them and trying to develop a relationship. Remember, we are in the relationship-building business with both players and coaches!

When starting a new strength and conditioning program, you may not know the athletes or coaches. I would start with the K.I.S.S method (Keep it Simple Silly). I would do my best to evaluate the athletes in the beginning with basic exercises. How well can they squat body weight? How well can they do push-ups and pull-ups? You can build your program off how well they can perform these, and this will give you a good rule of thumb of who is ready to progress to the barbell. In the beginning, the exercises might not look as crisp as they should. There is a bell curve in all things, especially the weight room. I used to think I could fix all things in one training session. When it comes to exercise technique, that is not the case. It takes time to develop some of the movement patterns in the weight room. Be consistent in how you teach it, give direction, and stick to it. Do not use different coaching techniques in each training session. One of the most important things we can do as coaches for our athletes is to be consistent. This will benefit you greatly down the road!

The Hanna Way

One thing we do at Hanna is keep all of our athletes in one area of training during the session. Example: We keep our athletes at a fixed location with the equipment they will use for that training session. This reduces the amount of time an athlete has to be distracted and drift off task in our weight room. This has helped us tremendously. Another thing I would recommend is keeping your weight room clean and organized. When I first got to Hanna, I implemented a “Jacket Order” standard, closely linked to the T.L. Hanna Yellow Jackets mascot. “Jacket Order” is all weights are returned to the original location, organized, and wiped clean after each session. Leave it better than you found it! There is an old saying, “many hands make light work,” however, it teaches the athletes to clean up after themselves and to take pride in our weight room. In closing, find out what works best for you.

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No training tool, book, or advice beats having experience. Everyone’s situation is different. You have to figure out the space you have to work in, the equipment you have, and how long you will have your athletes for a training session to solidify a training plan. Set the plan and work the plan!

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The sports of women’s soccer, men’s soccer, softball, and baseball will see changes to their conference schedules and the process of qualifying for the CAA championship.

Women’s Soccer

The conference will be separated into two divisions – North (Drexel, Hofstra, Monmouth, Northeastern, Stony Brook, and Towson) and South (Campbell, Charleston, Elon, Hampton, UNCW, and William & Mary). During the regular season, teams will play nine conference matches, which include one match against each team in their division and four matches against teams from the other division. All matches will count in the standings.

The top three teams in each division will qualify for the CAA Championship, which will be played over two weekends. On the first weekend, the #2 seed in each division will host the #3 seed. Two days later, the winners of those matches will visit the #1 seed in each division. The highest remaining seed will host the championship match on the second weekend. If both teams have the same divisional seed, the team with the most points in the regular season will host.

Men’s Soccer

The conference will be separated into two divisions – North (Drexel, Hofstra, Monmouth, Northeastern, and Stony Brook) and South (Campbell, Charleston, Elon, UNCW, and William & Mary). During the regular season, teams will play eight conference matches, which include two matches against each team in their division (home and away). All matches will count in the standings.

The top three teams in each division will qualify for the CAA Championship, which will be played over two weekends. On the first weekend, the #2 seed in each division will host the #3 seed. Two days later, the winners of those matches will visit the #1 seed in each division. The highest remaining seed will host the championship match on the second weekend. If both teams have the same divisional seed, the team with the most points in the regular season will host.

Softball

The conference will be separated into two divisions – North (Drexel, Hofstra, Monmouth, Stony Brook, and Towson) and South (Campbell, Charleston, Elon, Hampton, North Carolina A&T, and UNCW). During the regular season, teams will play eight conference series (24 games). In the North, teams will play two divisional opponents once and the other two divisional opponents twice (home and away). There will also be two series (one home, one away) against teams from the South Division. In the South, two teams will play three divisional opponents once and the other two divisional opponents twice (home and away), as well as one series against a team from the North Division. Three teams will play four divisional opponents once and the other divisional opponent twice (home and away), as well as two series (one home, one away) against teams from the North Division.

The top two teams from each division, based on conference winning percentage in all games, will qualify for the six-team CAA Championship. The other two tournament participants will be the teams that have the highest conference winning percentage in all conference games played, but did not finish first or second in their division.

Baseball

The conference will be separated into two divisions – North (Hofstra, Monmouth, Northeastern, Stony Brook, and Towson) and South (Campbell, Charleston, Elon, North Carolina A&T, UNCW, and William & Mary). During the regular season, teams will play 10 conference series (30 games). In the North, teams will play all four divisional opponents twice (home and away) as well as two series (one home, one away) against teams from the South Division. In the South, four teams will play two divisional opponents once and the other three divisional opponents twice (home and away), as well as two series (one home, one away) against teams from the North Division. Two teams will play one divisional opponent once and the other four divisional opponents twice (home and away), as well as one series against a team from the North Division.

» ALSO SEE: OHSAA announce revamped football playoff structure

The top two teams from each division, based on conference winning percentage in all games, will qualify for the six-team CAA Championship. The other two tournament participants will be the teams with the highest NCAA RPI rating at the end of the regular season, but did not finish first or second in their division.

*This is an issued press release from the Coastal Athletic Association.

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In addition, the first three rounds of the postseason will be hosted by the higher-seeded team instead of the first two rounds.

From 1999 through 2019, eight schools per region qualified for the playoffs, which was a five-week tournament. In early 2020, the OHSAA approved a proposal from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association to expand to 12 qualifiers per region, which added a week to the postseason. Shortly after that, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected high school sports, and the OHSAA allowed every school to participate in the 2020 playoffs since schools played a varying number of games. The positive feedback from schools that season prompted the OHSAA to expand from 12 to 16 qualifiers per region from 2021-24.

“For the last few years, we have been pleased that more schools experienced the football playoffs, and there were some lower seeds that won playoff games,” said Doug Ute, OHSAA Executive Director. “But over the last year, we have received feedback from our schools, with a slight majority favoring 12 qualifiers per region, and we had many conversations with stakeholders around the state that led us to make this proposal to our board. We appreciate the feedback we received and will continue to gather comments moving forward. Like we do with all of our sports, we want to make sure the student-athletes are our No. 1 priority.”

With the top four seeds in each region receiving a first-round bye, the first-round parings include the No. 12 seed playing at the No. 5 seed, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 and No. 8. In the second round, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of No. 8 vs. No. 9, the No. 2 seed will host the winner of No. 7 vs. No. 10, the No. 3 seed will host the winner of No. 6 vs. No. 11, and the No. 4 seed will host the winner of No. 5 vs. No. 12.

» ALSO SEE: Seattle principal placed on administrative leave over football recruiting violations

There are no changes to the 2025 divisional breakdowns and regional assignments announced by the OHSAA on May 1. The 2025 divisions and regions are posted at: https://www.ohsaa.org/Sports-Tournaments/Football/Football-2025

2025 OHSAA Football Divisional Breakdowns

• I 592 and more students — 72 teams
• II 378 to 591 — 104
• III 268 to 377 — 107
• IV 202 to 267 — 105
• V 157 to 201 — 106
• VI 112 to 156 — 106
• VII 111 and less — 106
  • Total Teams — 706

*This is an issued press release from the Ohio High School Athletic Association. 

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A Seattle-based principal has been placed on administrative leave stemming from football recruiting violations, according to reports.

Tami Brewer, principal of Roosevelt High School in Seattle, WA, was placed on administrative leave last week by Seattle Public Schools following findings by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) that the school’s football program violated recruiting rules.

The WIAA found Roosevelt to have illegally recruited players to the team, which saw a winless team in 2022 reach the 2023 state semifinals.

A recent story from KING5.com detailed the penalties facing Brewer. Below is an excerpt from the KING5.com story.

The sanctions document obtained by KING 5 on Wednesday does not specify how students were recruited to Roosevelt, but makes clear that recruiting for high school sports is prohibited under WIAA rules.

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