Alabama High School Offering $180K Salary For Head Football Coach, Which I Guess We're Supposed To Be Outraged About
Dexerto – An Alabama high school is offering up to $180,000 a year for a new football coach, nearly three times what the state’s average teacher earns.
Dothan High School is looking for someone to turn its struggling football program into a championship contender, and the school district is prepared to pay big money to make it happen.
According to an official job posting published October 28, Dothan City Schools is offering between $150,000 and $180,000 annually for its next head football coach, depending on experience.
For comparison, the average Alabama teacher earns $62,659 annually, according to figures reported by AL.com in February 2026. Starting salaries for first-year teachers were just $47,600 during the 2025-26 school year.
That means the school’s highest advertised coaching salary is approximately 2.9 times the statewide teacher average and nearly four times the starting pay for a new educator.
At the risk of coming off anti-teacher pro-football, the reaction to headlines of this nature are always along the lines of – $180K IS NEARLY 3X MORE MONEY THAN SCHOOL TEACHERS MAKE. It's the entire angle of that Dexerto article.
But I've always thought that was a stupid equivalency to draw. Don't put teachers being underpaid on football. I know they do it because football coaches are school employees as well, and "education is more important than sports" is an obvious take that everyone agrees with on the surface. But let's be real here. There are people making WAY MORE money than teachers who work WAY LESS important, and far less consequential jobs than coaching high school football.
Consider any employee at Barstool Sports. There's not a school teacher in America who we should be paid more than. At least a quality high school football coach can be a positive thing for the community. A winning high school football team brings money to the school. It gives students, alumni, sometimes the whole town something to look forward to Friday night. Something to take pride in. It would be fantastic if a bitchin' math teacher could do that. Unfortunately, they stop teaching math in Alabama once kids have learned to add 7's and 3's.
My point is, don't get mad at the football coaches. Get mad at the internet.
To be honest, $150,000-$180,000 for a good high school football coach in the South doesn't sound terribly shocking. The salary is probably being funded by one or two semi-rich car dealership owners with kids in middle school who don't mind spending money to set them up for athletic success with a quality football coach. And you know this school is going to have high standards. If an aspiring football coach moves his family to Dothan, Alabama, and just so happens to get a shitty crop of athletes, he could be gone in two years. That salary would still make taking the job worthwhile, but it's not the most fruitful endeavor ever. It's not like he can coach a couple years, then ride off into the sunset with all his riches. It's kind of the perfect amount of money to keep a head coach's full attention. For a football coach, that's not a situation you want to fuck up.
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Take this with a grain of salt, but from what I can find via Googling, head coaches at elite high school programs in Alabama often make between $100,000-$200,000. The Dothan High Wolves are not that, but they want to be. So $180,000 is high, but isn't some crazy, never-before-heard-of salary.
If I were interested in taking this job, my biggest concern would be with the way Dothan High School went about posting their open position – by way of this shitty, possibly AI (or PowerPoint) generated Facebook post.
The football team, in general, seems big on using those terrible AI graphics that are supposed to look sick but always end up looking a little bit off.
Why are the e's in "Week 1" like that? C'mon, Dothan.
Anyways, there's your breaking news for this morning. A high school in Alabama is willing to pay good money for a winning football coach. More money than most teachers make. I know, I know. It's hard to believe. Good luck to Dothan High. I hope they find their coach of the future.