Florida — and Miami-Dade — seriously need to change the way high school football coaches are treated. I am a volunteer assistant coach for the Miami Central High School Rockets, so I know the amount of time and effort my colleagues put into preparing teenage boys for adulthood. Football is bigger here than in 47 of the 50 states.

These coaches are not being fairly compensated. Consider Texas, which is number two after California. In 2006, the Austin American-Statesman revealed that head coaches in classes 5A and 4A — schools with 950 or more students — made an average of $73,804 annually while teachers averaged about $42,400. The article cited then-Texas education commissioner Shirley Neeley: “Those football coaches put in more hours than people realize.”