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Maine Schools Struggling to Find Coaches as Sports Participation Increases

Gabe Souza
/
Portland Press Herald
Joe Schwartzman, center, the athletic director in Kennebunk schools, confers with volunteer assistant coach Joe Bush, center left, as they lead the junior varsity girls’ lacrosse practice recently.";

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.

Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.