High School Coaches Earn More

Scott Bowlin, Har-Ber High School boys basketball coach, questions one of the campers at his summer camp June 12 at Wildcat Arena in Springdale.
Scott Bowlin, Har-Ber High School boys basketball coach, questions one of the campers at his summer camp June 12 at Wildcat Arena in Springdale.

SPRINGDALE — Some students remember their teachers the rest of their lives. At least one local coach was remembered while a former student fought for his life.

Scott Bowlin, the new Har-Ber High School boys basketball coach, got an email from a former player in January. An improvised explosive device hit the man’s vehicle in Iraq, the serviceman wrote from his hospital bed.

By The Numbers (w/logo)

7A/6A-West Coaches Salaries

Name ^School^Position^Salary

Football

Barry Lunney,^Bentonville High School^Head football coach, assistant athletic director^$101,068

Daryl Patton^Fayetteville High School^Head football coach^$80,354.81

Shane Patrick^Springdale High School^Head football coach^$90,50

Chris Wood^ Har-Ber High School^Head football coach^$87,670

Shawn Flannigan^Rogers High School^Head football coach^$70,777

Perry Escalante^Heritage High School^Head football coach^$76,987

Bryan Ross^Siloam Springs High School^Head football coach^ $72,086

Boys Basketball

Scott Bowlin^Har-Ber High School^Head boys basketball coach^$73,888

Brad Stamps^Springdale High School^Head boys basketball coach^ 61,217.79

Jason McMahan^Bentonville High School^Head boys basketball coach, assistant athletic director^$85,002

Wayne Herron^Rogers High School^Head boys basketball coach^$71,812

Tom Olsen^Heritage High School^Head boys basketball coach^$72,848

Tim Stewart^Siloam Springs High School^Head boys basketball coach^$68,228

Kyle Adams^Fayetteville High School^Head boys basketball coach$68,957

Girls Basketball

Tom Halbmaier^Bentonville High School^Head girls basketball coach, assistant athletic director^$89,257

Vic Rimmer^Fayetteville High School^Head girls basketball coach^$77,885.99

Sandy Wright^Har-Ber High School^Head girls basketball coach^$80,510

Heather Hunsucker^Springdale High School^Head girls basketball coach^$58,429

Preston Early^Rogers High School^Head girls basketball coach^$74,919

Kevin Ramey^Heritage High School^Head girls basketball coach^$73,884

Source: Staff Report

“He was a player I barely remembered. He was just on the team and never played,” said Bowlin, who led Greene County Tech High School in Paragould to state championships in 2007 and 2009. “He said in the email that while he was lying on the ground the first thing that came to his mind was our talks about keep fighting and never giving up. He’s fine now and that’s an extreme example about the part of coaching that drives you.

“This job is more about molding young men and preparing them for the real world than it is about winning and losing.”

Winning still counts, and the most successful coaches are highly compensated, a survey of the larger districts in Benton and Washington counties showed.

Barry Lunney has won state football championships at Bentonville High School and Southside High School in Fort Smith. Lunney, who also is an assistant athletic director at Bentonville, is the highest paid coach in Northwest Arkansas. His compensation package is $101,068 a year. Jason McMahon, Bentonville boys basketball coach, won a state championship at Siloam Springs High School and is the highest paid boys basketball coach in the region.

That figure more than doubles the average salary of $46,663 for teachers in the state, according to the Arkansas Department of Education for the school year 2012-13. An analysis of salary schedules posted to district websites for 2012-13 shows the highest paid average salary for a teacher at the top of the scale for college degrees and experience earning $50,345.

“I have no problem with what high school coaches make,” said Randy Hutchinson, a member of the Springdale School Board and former all-conference basketball player for the Bulldogs. “When I played, we got the keys to the gym from a coach and worked mostly by ourselves during the off-season. Now, it’s a full-time job where a coach is doing something with the kids except for about two weeks out of the year. Coaches have a lot of added duties that the regular classroom teacher doesn’t have.”

Hutchinson’s acceptance of coach pay is the statewide norm, said Ben Mays of Clinton, a former member of the state Board of Education who pushed for years to get athletic expenses separated from the rest of school spending. “People dropped their mouths and would look away,” Mays said, laughing. “They didn’t want to hear it. I don’t know why.”

“People think I’m against sports. I love sports. I played sports,” said Mays, who said he was on Marshall High School’s first football team. “You just can’t spend that type of money without taking it from other things. We probably spend twice as much on a high school student as an elementary student, and sports is a big part of the reason for that.”

All the benefits of sports go to the 10 percent of the student population who participate, Mays said

Bowlin made $13,800 when he began coaching basketball in 1983. That was at Knoble High School, where there were 134 students and only five players on the boys basketball team. He was also married with a 6-month-old daughter at home.

“I was the maintenance guy at the gym, the bus driver and anything else they needed for me to do,” Bowlin said. “I brought home $803 a month, but I had more money then than I ever do now.”

Bowlin will make $73,888 as head boys basketball and associate athletic director this year for the Wildcats. That’s a raise of $7,000 from what he would’ve made at Class 5A Greene County Tech.

In addition to being head basketball coach at Har-Ber, Bowlin will oversee two junior high school programs in Springdale, Central and Southwest, and teach an online class in history. He’ll also help out during the off-season with other sports, such as gathering money at the ticket counter. Then, it’s on to the summer months where the only official break is a two-week dead period mandated by the Arkansas Activities Association.

“Do I wish we had more time off in the summer? Sure I do,” Bowlin said. “But I know what we’ve got to do to be successful. Sitting at home watching TV is not going to make us successful.”

Like any teacher, a coach’s salary is based on years of experience, education, and what a school district is wiling to pay. Those are the reasons Bowlin will make more than $10,000 more than former Har-Ber coach Adam Simmons, who was making $62,071 when he resigned after three losing seasons with the Wildcats. Bowlin is expected to turn Har-Ber into a winner. Winning games and filling the stands isn’t the only criteria in which coaches are judged.

“Winning, for us at Fayetteville, is really not about putting fans in the stands,” said Fayetteville athletic director Barry Gebhart, who was head basketball coach of the Bulldogs for 18 years. “What winning does is attract more of our students to our athletic programs. The more kids we have in athletics, the more impact we have on kids. I believe that athletics offers something you can’t really find anywhere else, or at least it’s hard to find. The more kids we have in our programs, the more kids who are receiving those benefits.”

Bowlin said he’s had trouble hiring young coaches on occasion because they weren’t willing to put in the extra hours that are expected at the high school level. But Heather Hunsucker knew exactly what she was getting into when she accepted the job as the Springdale High School girls head coach last season.

Hunsucker, 32, is the youngest coach in the league, and she’s on a standard 190-day contract of a regular classroom teacher.

“Did I get into this business for the money? Absolutely not,” said Hunsucker, who spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Fayetteville High School. “Anything I do as a coach after (190 days), I don’t get paid for. But I knew about the long hours you have to put in and the time during the holidays that you have to give up.

“Still, I enjoy every day being a coach and working with kids. When you love something, it’s not work.”

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