Activities and athletics director says Newton needs more coaches

Newton Community School District needs more coaches, said activities and athletics director Ryan Rump. He told the school board during a presentation on July 8 about 80 percent of the student body in grades 9-12 participated in sports this past year, but there are not enough coaches to support growing programs.

“If we can all absorb it, we are in need of some additional coaching stipends,” Rump says, noting the sports that deserve coaches the most are boys and girls track and field, boys wrestling, boys and girls cross country and middle school wrestling. “…Those are the areas where we need at least one more coach.”

For better safety and supervision of student athletes, Rump suggested it would be best to get an extra set of eyes for the aforementioned sports. As far as he knows, there is no policy in place that determines how many kids need to participate in an activity before additional coaches can be hired.

During the 2023-2024 school year, more than 50 students participated in boys track and field under the supervision of two coaches. Girls track had more than 40 participants with two paid coaches. Girls and boys cross country had more than 35 participants lead by one boys coach and one girls coach.

Meanwhile, boys wrestling had more than 40 participants and now there are only three paid coaches. Middle school wrestling had over 40 participants, which are a mix of both boys and girls. Currently, boys and girls wrestle together at the middle school level. The middle schoolers are supervised by two paid coaches.

“We have not added a coach at the middle school wrestling level since girls wrestling came to be,” Rump said.

School board member Kristi Meyer added, “I tell ya, they need one.”

Prior to his presentation with school board members, Rump contacted other, similarly sized school districts and “conference brethren” to see how they handle adding new coaching staff. He learned that some schools utilize a lot of volunteers and that Newton is on the low end of total paid coaches.

However, it is important to note Newton does utilize the services of volunteer coaches for a number of sports. But Rump said with only three paid coaches in wrestling, if a varsity tournament and a junior varsity tournament are held on the same day there are not enough coaches to cover it.

“Quite often you’ll have two matches going at once at one site, and if that’s the case you got, say for the varsity, two coaches at varsity. They go to that. Then in (junior varsity) you may have two matches going at the same time with only one coach to cover,” Rump said. “That’s not a good deal.”

Rump expanded on the 2023-2024 participation data from students in grades 9-12. He said it included all state-sanctioned sports and activities, which includes fine arts, speech/debate and student council. If non-sanctioned, sponsor-led clubs were included, then the number would be closer to 85 percent.

Rump asked if the matter of adding new coaches was on the agenda. Tim Bloom, director of business services, said it was not and it did not need board approval. Administrators did speak internally about filling those coaching slots, Bloom said, and the district should be able to cover those positions with current funds.

“Again, it goes back to safety and having the coaches that we need to cover the sports,” Bloom said. “…We can have one and have them shared between boys and girls or whatever. I think that’s the easy way to go through some of those things. So, yeah, we sent those to (human resources) to approve those.”