Since the pandemic, the athletic department has seen a decline in the number of coaches it has been able to maintain . While the athletic department has all coaching positions filled for the fall, it is still on the hunt to fill the positions for the winter season and it has been reportedly harder to find qualified coaches, according to Athletic Director VJ Sarullo.
For the past three years, the Staples varsity cheerleading team has found it especially difficult to keep consistent coaches. By the end of the 2022 winter season, the team had lost two head coaches and one assistant coach. After re-filling these positions for the 22-23 fall season, the head coach resigned before the season began. Prior to beginning the 23-24 season, the cheerleading team lost an assistant coach but was able to refill the position. Now, the team is in need of a head coach for the 23-24 winter season.
The department of athletics began the search for coaches in early June, with hopes of being able to fill all open positions. They were able to fill all but one assistant coach position for the fall season.
“There definitely is a shortage statewide of people that are coaching in high school,” Sarullo said. “We try to post on different websites when we have positions open.”
When a coach resigns from their position, the athletic department posts to social media and other websites to advertise the available coaching positions. According to Sarullo, there is no lack of applications being sent in; the hold up is that few are meeting the qualification standards required.
“Obviously we don’t want just anyone working with our kids,” Sarullo said. “It’s become more challenging to find qualified people. The most important thing that I can stress is that we always wanna make sure whoever we hire is good for kids, and good for kids in Westport.”
