---
title: "Coach and Scout"
description: "Instruct or coach groups or individuals in the fundamentals of sports for the primary purpose of competition. Demonstrate techniques and methods of…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/coach-and-scout"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Coach and Scout

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-2022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-2022.00

Instruct or coach groups or individuals in the fundamentals of sports for the primary purpose of competition. Demonstrate techniques and methods of participation. May evaluate athletes' strengths and weaknesses as possible recruits or to improve the athletes' technique to prepare them for competition. Those required to hold teaching certifications should be reported in the appropriate teaching category.

Also advertised as: Baseball Coach; Basketball Coach; Coach; Cross Country Coach; Football Coach; Gymnastics Coach; Soccer Coach; Softball Coach.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,320 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,790 to $98,860, with the middle half between $35,330 and $64,710
- **Total US employment:** 248,950
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.4% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 41,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 248,950 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,790 |
| 25th | $35,330 |
| 50th (median) | $47,320 |
| 75th | $64,710 |
| 90th | $98,860 |
| Mean (average) | $60,160 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NJ | $76,700 | $70,493 | 5,670 |
| DC | $65,360 | $59,472 | 630 |
| LA | $60,960 | $69,110 | 2,550 |
| VT | $59,990 | $61,241 | 630 |
| NY | $59,920 | $55,522 | 11,220 |
| HI | $55,860 | $50,804 | 760 |
| MA | $55,130 | $52,129 | 6,310 |
| CT | $54,790 | $52,881 | 4,070 |
| RI | $53,630 | $52,434 | 1,170 |
| AZ | $53,130 | $52,773 | 4,120 |
| WV | $52,050 | $58,158 | 910 |
| NH | $51,490 | $49,431 | 870 |
| NV | $51,020 | $51,031 | 2,390 |
| MD | $50,590 | $48,200 | 3,960 |
| NM | $49,980 | $54,201 | 590 |

35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/coach-and-scout/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/coach-and-scout.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 306,500 in the 2024–2034 base year to 326,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 19,500 jobs, or +6.4%. Much faster than average: 6.4% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 41,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 48.9% |
| Master's Degree | 19.4% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 17.4% |
| High School Diploma | 8.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 3.7% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.8% |

## What the work involves

- Provide training direction, encouragement, motivation, and nutritional advice to prepare athletes for games, competitive events, or tours.
- Keep abreast of changing rules, techniques, technologies, and philosophies relevant to their sport.
- Adjust coaching techniques, based on the strengths and weaknesses of athletes.
- Instruct individuals or groups in sports rules, game strategies, and performance principles, such as specific ways of moving the body, hands, or feet, to achieve desired results.
- Plan strategies and choose team members for individual games or sports seasons.
- Plan, organize, and conduct practice sessions.
- Arrange and conduct sports-related activities, such as training camps, skill-improvement courses, clinics, and pre-season try-outs.
- Explain and enforce safety rules and regulations.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Originality — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Enterprising (E), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.31 |
| E — Enterprising | 5.15 |
| R — Realistic | 4.25 |
| C — Conventional | 3.45 |
| A — Artistic | 2.43 |
| I — Investigative | 2.15 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 82.7 |
| ESFP | 75.6 |
| ESTJ | 69.6 |
| ENFJ | 66.4 |
| ISFJ | 60.7 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Referee](https://nuecareer.com/careers/referee) — median $40,710
- [Professional Athlete](https://nuecareer.com/careers/professional-athlete) — median $66,710
- [Exercise Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/exercise-trainer-and-group-fitness-instructor) — median $47,160
- [Athletic Trainer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/athletic-trainer) — median $62,520
- [Self-Enrichment Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/self-enrichment-teacher) — median $46,800
- [Training and Development Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-specialist) — median $69,280
- [Fitness and Wellness Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fitness-and-wellness-coordinator) — median $69,770
- [Recreation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-worker) — median $36,560
- [Training and Development Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/training-and-development-manager) — median $133,000
- [Recreation and Fitness Studies Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreation-and-fitness-studies-teacher-postsecondary) — median $77,270

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/coach-and-scout