When I think of the word “amateur” versus “professional” I see dollar signs. An amateur coach is doing it for nothing and a professional coach is being paid.
There are no professional coaches at the high school level in any way, shape, or form. Somebody asked the question about the retention of coaches. It's one of the problems. When you're dealing with teachers for the most part, you've got the teacher staying after school to coach basketball, football, volleyball, or whatever it might be, making the same amount of money as a teacher who is leaving at 3:30. That becomes an issue. Clive had talked about retention of coaches. That's a difficult sell at the high school level. There is a certain amount of turnover. I'm understanding that's what you meant by the word “instability” that you used earlier.
Another thing that Clive said is that for someone to have basic coaching skills, at the high school level, they don't need to be a professional. It needs to be somebody who.... Again, I was a math teacher but that doesn't mean they couldn't have told me to totally turn around and teach a science class, which I did. Guess what? You learn and teach yourself enough so that you can teach the kids. It's the same thing at the sports level. If I'm going to teach badminton, I'm not a badminton player, but I can research the game and find enough information to give them the grassroots foundation skills that will lead them to getting good enough to maybe join a club team or whatever they're going to do. Whatever the next level is I can help them find that badminton club team, volleyball club team, or whatever.
I don't necessarily need to be a professional. And you're not going to get that as long as it's volunteers.