Emergency coaches: Hiring plan puts coaches on the spot

It’s two weeks before pre-season practice starts for a high school sports team. The athletes are ready, the uniforms are folded in a neat pile, the field is lined and the equipment has been laid out. There’s only one problem: No teacher is willing to coach the team.

As strange as it sounds, it’s not an uncommon circumstance at Anne Arundel County public schools. The solution? Emergency coaches.

Emergency coaches have become a necessity with increased athletic participation and dwindling numbers of teachers willing to coach. However, many of those coaches are pleading for changes in the way coaches are hired and retained in...