Coach Rob McNeely is getting Lake Norman High School ready for another playoff run. The Wildcats are 10-0 so far this season. McNeely admits he doesn’t sleep much and football takes up most of his time.
“Hundreds of hours a week, the worry at night and the not sleeping. I guess you’re putting in work even when you’re not here.”
For his coaching duties, McNeely just receives a $3,700 supplement to his teaching salary.
But a Channel 9 investigation found some coaches make more than twice as much as the average teacher. Eyewitness News reporter Dave Faherty reviewed the salaries of dozens of coaches in 15 different school districts in both North and South Carolina and learned they range from $40,000 to more than $100,000 for some coaches in South Carolina.
Hickory High coach Allen Whittenberg said it is a well-known fact in the coaching community that coaches in South Carolina make more.
“It’s not a secret. Coaches in North Carolina, we know what the guys in South Carlina are making and it’s not a secret,” Wittenberg said.
Some of the highest paid coaches are near Columbia in School District 5 of Lexington and Richland County, where two head coaches, who are also athletic directors, are currently making just over $108,000 a year each.
The school district sent us a statement saying, “Salary information is a matter of public record, however we do not make statements or respond to interview requests concerning compensation.”
Faherty went to the district’s most recent school board meeting where even the elected school board chairman declined to answer our questions about the higher salaries.
“Can you tell us why the salaries are six-figure salaries?” Faherty asked.
But the chairman didn’t answer the question and walked away.
Beth Woodard has been teaching drama for 22 years at South Caldwell High School. She said there are some weeks she spends an additional 40-50 hours helping students put on plays or musicals at the school. She receives a stipend of just $955 a semester and can’t understand how some high school coaches can make so much more.
“They do it because they love it, that’s why I do it because I love it or obviously I wouldn’t put the amount of time in,” Woodard said. “Those kind of numbers are just baffling to me. I don’t understand how anyone could justify that.”
In North Carolina, coaching supplements can vary from district to district. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, coaches receive just over $4,000 in supplements, but a few miles away in Cabarrus County, coaches get nearly $7,000 a year.
But coaches said those higher salaries can come with a price.
“If you’re going to get paid that kind of money you’re going to have a pretty short leash when it comes to wins or losses,” Whittenberg said.
McNeely said he hasn’t seen an increase in his coaching supplement since 2010, but said most coaches he knows aren’t in it for the money.
“Every time I get my football coach supplement it’s almost like getting free money. Not that I wouldn’t do it for more, it’s just the way I feel,” McNeely said.
“You love it that much,” Faherty asked.
“I do,” McNeely responded.
Channel 9 checked and the supplement for football coaches at CMS has not increased during the past 10 years.
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