Carter has top salary in state
Lake Travis coach, AD has an annual income of $155,156.
According to a comprehensive survey of salaries for Classes 6A and 5A football coaches by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lake Travis’ Hank Carter is the highest-paid high school football coach in Texas with an annual salary of $155,156.
Carter, who also is athletic director of the Lake Travis school district, has seen his salary increase by $16,172 since the American-Statesman surveyed Austin-area coaches’ salaries in 2015. He has taken on additional administrative duties for the district during that time.
Now in his eighth year as coach of the Cavaliers, Car- ter is 91-11 and has won three state titles, including a Class 6A, Division I championship in 2016.
Carter is one of 28 coaches in the state who earn $120,000 or more, the Star-Telegram reported. He also leads a short list of Class 6A and Class 5A coaches in the area who top $100,000 in earnings annually.
Also in that group are Westlake’s Todd Dodge ($131,600), Manor’s Jimmie Mitchell ($110,000), Stony Point’s Craig Chessher ($107,187), Round Rock’s Jeff Cheatham ($100,669), Pflugerville’s George Herrmann ($100,580), West- wood’s Anthony Wood ($100,468), Hendrickson’s Chip Killian ($100,321) and East View’s Robert Davies ($100,199).
Matt Green made $101,066 as the coach of Marble Falls last season, but he left to become the coach and athletic director at Llano after the Star-Telegram’s survey. Mike Birdwell replaced Green at Marble Falls, and his salary information was not included in the report.
To a large degree, the sal- aries of high school football coaches in Texas are deter- mined by their tenure as an educator, their duties as an administrator and their school district’s pay scale.
In June, the Star-Telegram made 205 requests through the state’s Public Information Act to obtain the salaries of every head football coach and principal at UIL-mem- ber 6A and 5A schools. The results were entered into a searchable database for fur- ther analysis.