Coaching is a calling, no matter the salary

When I read that Florida men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan signed a five-year, $30 million contract to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder, I laughed.

It’s not that I begrudge a coach a $6 million-a-year contract – especially when it’s Oklahoma City, the ownership group that whisked away the Seattle Sonics. I couldn’t think of a better bunch to shell out that much money on a coach.

I laughed because the world where coaches make seven-figure annual salaries is a galaxy far, far away from the one I know.

In my world, coaches earn a stipend that can easily run into the high three-figures, and a good many of them donate it back to help pay for the things their programs need that aren’t covered by the school’s budget.

 I admire the people who go into coaching. To them the profession is a calling they heed instead of a career they choose.

Over the years I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the winningest coaches in the state. None of them got into the profession to post wins. They sought the job because they knew they could make a positive difference in the lives of young people. They’re teachers and use sport as a different avenue for teaching valuable life lessons.

It’s not an easy job, and there are major challenges involved. Fragile egos, parents who think their kid should be the star of the team and learning how to deal with outside influences, from social media to controlled substances, just to name a few.

Coaching is one of those jobs some think they can do from the friendly confines of their comfy couch. Everything you do gets second-guessed.

But when you balance all those challenges with the chance to make a difference in the life of a young person, it’s well worth it.

Jim Ennis thought it was worth it.

Ennis was a coach and athletic director in the Everett School District for more than four decades. In his first season, as the Seagulls basketball coach, 1939-40, he led Everett to a 29-0 season and a state championship. There are more than a few who call that team the best the state has ever produced.

I met five members of that team on the 50th anniversary of that championship. Sadly, it came a week after Ennis died at age 78. The five remaining players talked about the difference the coach had made in their lives.

A long list of Ennis’ former players followed in his footsteps: Dennis Erickson, Mike Price and Jim Lambright, to name but a few.

And so did Jim’s son, Terry, who I got to know as the head football coach at Renton, Archbishop Murphy and at Cascade High School, where he won a state Class 4A championship.

Even while battling the cancer that eventually took his life, Terry stayed on the sidelines teaching life lessons to kids in shoulder pads and helmets.

It’s not easy being a coach’s kid, so surviving that experience may be a key to understanding why a good proportion of them follow in their parent’s footsteps. For another, when you grow up so deeply involved in a sport, it tends to get into your DNA.

Young coaches who go into the job for the first time have a learning curve to deal with. I’ve seen good people stymied by the start-up costs: The challenges start the day you’re hired; the rewards come down the road. It can be tough to ride out that initial storm.

Second-generation coaches grow up seeing the whole picture, warts and all.

And still they want the job.