TCHS Asks Northport For $50k To Boost Coaching Salaries

NORTHPORT, AL. — Tuscaloosa County High School Principal Darrell Williams addressed members of the Northport City Council on Monday to lobby for increased funding to supplement salaries for coaches for its four major sports programs in an effort to promote success and boost morale within the school and community.

While no action was taken on the matter, which was brought up by Williams during the public comments portion of the meeting, Mayor Bobby Herndon explained the request would be for $50,000 annually from the city.

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In further elaborating on how the proposed money would be used, Williams said it would come in addition to funds already in place, along with expected salary raises systemwide by the Tuscaloosa County School System, to then be spread out to boost the salaries of coaches to bring them in line with other 7A schools in the same AHSAA region as TCHS.

"Stats show when you have a successful sports program at a school it drives everything else," Williams said. "For us to be able to compete and to be able to recruit the coaches we need, we’re not going to be able to meet the salaries of everyone else, but we’ve got to move that bar up some. If we paid a coach right now based off what everyone else in Region 7 makes, it’s about a $60,000 difference, which is a huge difference."

Williams also brought up conversations with teachers, who echoed the importance of having competitive salaries for the major athletic offerings in the schools and its residual effects.

TCHS has struggled in recent years, particularly on the gridiron, failing to win more than three games in a season over the last six years.

The Wildcats last posted a winning mark in 2014, going 7-6.

"Every coach I’ve talked to, every one them, they do not want to fundraise for their salary," Williams said. "If I asked someone to buy something, they want to see a return on investment and for it to go back to the students, back into the facilities. They don’t want to say hey 'I'm raising money for you to pay my salary.'"

Despite vocal support from the mayor and District 2 Councilman Woodrow Washington, the proposal was met with skepticism by Council President Jeff Hogg, who questioned why TCSS was not willing to contribute more to coaching salaries for the school.

"We were not elected to subsidize the county school system, that’s not what we’re here for," Hogg said. "If we were, I would hope we would be advocating for all the teachers and their salaries, especially during this current school term. They’ve had so much thrown at them and they touch all the students' lives. A football coach is only going to touch the lives of a certain amount of kids."

Williams disagreed, saying football games and other sporting events are attended by students and those in the community, which helps raise school spirit and involvement. Hogg was quick to rebut, though.

"You realize having a coach that’s a good coach does not mean that you’re going to have the talent," he said, to which Williams agreed.

Hogg then directed his ire toward the Tuscaloosa County Board of Education.

"When are we going to go to the county school board and ask them for something?" Hogg asked. "Because what we have done is we have asked them for a true middle school. Did that happen? No it did not. We’ve also asked that the children of Matthews [Elementary] and Riverside [Middle School] they need better facilities there. Did they get that? No. That didn’t happen."

Herndon reiterated Hogg's points, even poking fun at himself saying that "Gullible Bobby" had been lied to by the County BOE on three separate occasions over the previous points, which he said underscored the need for the city to have its own school system — an idea that would take the support of Northport residents to do so.

At the beginning of the discussion, though, Herndon mentioned that during his recent campaign for mayor, he had been approached about the issue and could see the merits in the city helping supplement the cost of coaching salaries. He also pointed out that of the roughly 1,900 students at TCHS, approximately 70% live in the city limits.

"This is not a donation per se, but would be to pay for extra services of the coaches to help promote the community and our school, so it’s not like we’re giving something for nothing," Herndon said. "It would be divided out and work would be done to earn it, and be monitored, but this would be something on a yearly basis."

Hogg also alluded to the possibility of the city having its own school system allowing for more involvement in terms of salaries by the Northport City Council — an authority that the Council currently does not have.

"That's why the people need to come out and do something for a city school system," he said. "We all stand behind County High athletics, but until the parents say I want to raise my property taxes … to get a city school system, we’re always going to be in this situation and if we keep doing these little band-aids over and over again from the city and the city constantly doing something, we will never get to that point."

The motion was ultimately tabled and no action taken on Monday.

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