Stress and coping for high school head football coaches

Athletic coaching, specifically high school football coaching, is a stressful profession (Frey, 2009). Coaches can improve their own and their athlete’s performances by recognizing and coping effectively with specific stressors. These stressors include Organizational stressors such as administrative duties, teaching responsibilities, staff organization, and team logistics, and Performance-based stressors associated with outcomes within a practice or a competition. This study focuses on the specific stressors high school football coaches face and the strategies they use to cope with these stressors. High school football coaches in North Carolina completed a survey (n=84) that included the PSS, Brief COPE, survey questions on stressors and coping strategies, and open-ended questions. Following the survey, coaches (n=5) completed a semi-structured interview on basic stressors and coping strategies. Coaches determined that coaching is a moderately to very stressful job. They identified the top stressors they face, between the survey, open-ended questions and interviews, to be their own performance as a coach, time demands, and stakeholders of the program. The main coping strategies that were identified were planning, hobbies, and socializing. These findings enable coaches to prepare for the most common stressors and help to provide stress coping strategies for coaches for when they encounter stressors in their profession.