The number of kids playing sports in Maine and across the country is up — in fact, there has been a 22 percent increase in the number of sports programs at Maine high schools.
There are now more than 2,500 athletic programs in the state — not just for old standbys like basketball and football, but also for a growing number of sports including nordic and alpine skiing, girls ice hockey and competitive cheerleading.
And all those sports need coaches. But because of the complications of school team coaching — the strange hours, the seasonal nature, low pay and increasingly social media-savvy parents — districts are having a difficult time attracting people.
Steve Craig, who wrote about the coaching shortage this week in the Maine Sunday Telegram, says a big part of the problem is that teaching isn’t the same job it used to be.
Steve Craig is a staff writer with the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram.