Behind every successful high school athletic program and team is a coach who helps guide and support student athletes. With three head varsity coaches leaving from boys’ swim and dive, girls’ cross country, and girls’ field hockey, teams must adjust while the school begins the lengthy process of finding the right replacement, Tom Mietus, Assistant Principal of Athletics, said.
The recruitment process for athletic coaches is different from the hiring of teachers and staff at South, Mietus said. The Athletic Department typically begins seeking potential candidates through information from student athletes or through interest posts online, Mietus said.
“South has our own Illinois Athletic Directors Association, which we will send out interest there, and each athletic team typically has an association,” Mietus said.
After canidates look at openings on the Illinois Athletic directors Association website, interested candidates can apply and after will then enter a multi-stage interview and screening process, Mietus said. Candidates will first be screened, a process of reviewing and selecting interview applications, to draw an overall number of potential candidates, Mietus said. Then, candidates go through a round of committee, a structured interview where candidates meet with a panel of stakeholders to assess their suitability for the position, Mietus said. This review procedure may occur more than once, depending on the number of interested candidates, so committees can understand the overall background, values, and coaching ideaology of each candidate, Mietus said.
“When candidates get to me, I want to get to know their philosophy a little bit, how they fit, and how I can support them,” Mietus said.
The number of potential candidates can vary depending on the sport’s popularity level from the audience and team numbers, Mietus said. Sports with less popularity may go through a different hiring process, depending on the number of interested candidates the sport receives, Mietus said.
“When it is a little bit more of a public role, like football or basketball, those are typically really large positions, and you have got to reflect on that a little bit more,” Mietus said. “A smaller sport might get a lot of candidates, but it is just not going to be as forward facing as some of the more highly coveted jobs.”
There is a high expectation of how coaches interact with their players and influence the overall atmosphere of the sport, Mietus said. A coach’s ability to create strong bonds with athletes and unite the team is a necessary quality that the Athletic Department seeks in each of their candidates, Mietus said. Candidates that apply who have had both teaching and coaching experience in the past tend to foster stronger relationships with their athletes that regular club sports do not possess, Mietus explained. Choosing a suitable coach ultimately brings out a successful season and puts forth the best effort and potential of every athlete, Mietus said.
“I love when we have teachers that are coaching because it’s just interscholastic athletics that is different from club sports,” Mietus said. “If you can build relationships, you can coach anything.”
