EVERYBODY! GETS! PAID!*
Andrew Zessar
Helping teams and coaches find each other | Co(ach)-founder @ CoachCorner | Techstars 2024
A few months ago we placed a very qualified youth basketball coach (Coach Marc) with a private school in the Boston area. I recently followed up with Marc for feedback about the school and CoachCorner. He liked the kids and the school, and he hoped that he would be invited back for future seasons. When I asked him if and why he’d go through CoachCorner again, he said that he absolutely would because it was the first time he got paid to coach basketball.
CoachCorner came about because we recognized a few key facts in the US youth sports industry: many youth sports programs (YSPs) only used to bring on volunteer coaches, many YSPs want to (re-)open and grow in this post-covid era, many YSPs need coaches and staff to grow, and these YSPs are beginning to realize that coaching sports is a job, no matter the level.
That brings us to CoachCorner’s number one value: Everybody! Gets! Paid! Every team who works with CoachCorner MUST pay their coaches. CoachCorner has done pro bono work for teams in need from time to time, but the team must always compensate the coach.
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In a time when the US job market is evolving so quickly, with big tech companies laying off qualified employees left and right and moving more towards contracted labor, the part-time and gig economies seem as ripe as ever. If the hirers in the part-time job market want to add and retain staff, pay them!
The good news is that with the unprecedented demand for youth sports in the US, many YSPs are beginning to meet the wage demand from the labor side, and more and more workers are becoming coach-curious (as we call them). You see ads from Uber to “get your side hustle on”, making $20 in the US. At CoachCorner, I can guarantee you that $20/hour is the bare minimum we would see a youth sports coach make in any sort of position in the US. If you’re going to find a side hustle, why not be like Coach Marc and pick something as fulfilling as coaching, especially one that pays you at least as much as driving Uber?
*Including interns! (Only good asterisks here.)