After public backlash, the supplements Pasco County coaches receive in spring sports are being reinstated.
The move reverses the plan the county initially made after the Florida High School Athletic Association decided to officially cancel spring sports. Administrators were not going to pay football coaches the roughly 30 percent of their overall supplement they receive in the spring since their month-long training camp that was supposed to start on Monday never took place.
Coaches in other spring sports, such as baseball, softball and track-and-field, already had gone through an abbreviated schedule of games and meets once their seasons were cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic. Those supplements were originally to be paid on a prorated basis.
That did not sit well with coaches or parents, many of whom called or emailed the district office about that decision.
Now, coaching supplements for all spring sports in Pasco will be paid in full.
Matt Wicks, the county athletic director, said he wanted the coaches to get their entire supplement but only had one voice in the decision-making process.
“I’m thrilled for the coaches, but I can’t take the credit for this,” Wicks said. “My phone had been blowing up, and I’m sure it was the same for others in the county. Enough of the right people made the right calls for it to happen.”
Pasco joins Hernando and Pinellas as the three counties in the area that are paying the full supplement for coaches in spring sports.
