Exclusive: Most DFW high school football coaches make $120K. One makes $175K
.png "The Fort Worth Star-Telegram obtained the salaries of 144 Dallas-Fort Worth high school football coaches through open record requests throughout the summer. North Crowley coach Ray Gates (Left), Southlake Carroll coach Riley Dodge (Middle) and Highland Park coach Randy Allen (Right).")
In Dallas-Fort Worth, high school football isn’t just a Friday night tradition.
It’s a booming industry, with districts pouring tens of millions into stadiums, indoor facilities and training complexes.
The leaders of the programs, the head coaches, are compensated well.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram obtained the salaries of 144 Dallas-Fort Worth high school football coaches through open record requests throughout the summer. That figure includes athletic stipends or any additional compensation.
The average head coach in Dallas-Fort Worth makes $125,724.28. Some coaches have additional responsibilities or roles, including serving as an athletic director, athletic coordinator and a coach for another sport.
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Forty-seven coaches make more than $130,000, while 16 make more than $140,000. Two coaches make less than $100,000: Lake Dallas head coach Jason Young ($95,854) and first-year Diamond Hill Jarvis head coach Irwin Garcia ($94,970).
Paschal head coach John Killough, whose salary is $125,049, said head coaches’ pay is “exactly how it should be.”
Killough said that over the decades, he has gotten used to a job that “never ends.” During the season, he spends more time with his athletes than he does his own kids. When he takes vacations and gets family time, he savors it.
“We’re not on a normal teacher contract,” Killough said. “We spend pretty much the entire summer at the school. Our job is never done. We’re Mondays through Sundays just about every week throughout the year. When summer starts, we give the kids a week or two off and then we’re back at it.”
DFW’s highest-paid coach: Riley Dodge
Southlake Carroll head coach Riley Dodge is the highest-paid coach in the area with a $175,000 annual salary. His job, however, goes beyond football.
As executive director of athletics, Dodge oversees a department that consistently contends for the Lone Star Cup, an award given to the best overall athletic program in every classification.
“I don’t think people on the outside looking in truly understand how hard his job is,” Skyler Wetzel, a running backs coach at Carroll, said.
“Just being an athletic director and a head coach in the state of Texas at this level, it’s an extremely hard job, especially at a place like Southlake where expectations are so high.”
Amid the pressure, Dodge has kept the program near the top of Texas football — the Dragons enter this season ranked No. 1 in Class 6A.
“[Dodge] pushes us through the way he approaches his daily work — the attention to detail, the intensity that he brings,” Wetzel said. “It’s completely unmatched. As a younger coach, you couldn’t ask for a better role model.”
With former head coach Todd Dodge’s four state championship wins and son Riley Dodge’s three title wins as a player and two Texas Player of the Year nods, the Dodge name has become synonymous with Southlake, a town that still shuts down for home games. Riley Dodge is still seeking his first title as a head coach.
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“Southlake still has a small-town feel,” Wetzel said. “Everyone knows who Riley Dodge is. And that’s why he means so much to this community and Carroll football, because he grew up in it. He has sacrificed a lot for it. ... He bleeds Carroll green. His family bleeds Carroll green.”
To spectators, Texas high school football may seem like it is larger than life, especially at Carroll. But at its core, the game revolves around the small things: relationships, character development, learning the value of discipline and having fun.
“A lot of times, head coaches lose sight of why we do this,” Wetzel said. “But [Dodge] still takes time to connect to the kids, relate to the kids and pour into the kids. … He can relate to them well because he played football at Carroll. [The players] all idolized [Dodge] growing up.”
In football towns like Southlake, there is a lot of outside pressure to compete at a high level, develop talent and, most importantly, win football games.
That takes 3 a.m. wake-up calls, late nights preparing for opponents, long hours and plenty of personal sacrifices.
Wetzel is the son of longtime Texas high school football coach David Wetzel. He knows more than most the level of sacrifice it takes to be a head coach and said it takes a strong individual with lots of family support to endure the challenge.
“You really do sacrifice so much time being away from your family,” Wetzel said. “If you don’t have an understanding wife, it’s going to make things really hard for you at home.”
The responsibility of a head coach
Not every head football coach has the same expectations. Some programs are expected to compete for state titles, while others would be thrilled to win a few district games. Success is relative to the situation.
Performance aside, the duty of the head coach is still to look after the athletes and put them in a position to succeed in whatever they choose to do in life. According to the NCAA, only 3% of high school football players will play Division I college ball and only 1.5% of those athletes will make it to the NFL.
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Parents trust programs to develop and look after their kids on and off the field.
That responsibility is something Hutto head coach Eli Reinhart has come to learn. Reinhart, North Crowley’s offensive coordinator during the 2024 state championship season, is entering his first year as a head coach.
“As an assistant, everything is lined out for you,” Reinhart said. “When things have to be done. The biggest difference is everyone is looking at you for those kinds of answers.”
Reinhart emphasized that as a head coach, one must look after all three phases of the game. The work also goes beyond varsity, with coaches tending to junior varsity, freshmen and even the middle school level.
“How can we make the most vertically aligned program?” Reinhart said. “There is so much more than just your side of the ball that goes into being a head coach.”
Reinhart said he learned a lot from North Crowley coach Ray Gates, who has an annual salary of $129,726. Gates has earned consecutive Star-Telegram Coach of the Year honors.
Being a head coach at a championship program can take you in “a million different directions,” Reinhart said. He said the entire staff was so locked in during last season’s run to the Class 6A Division I state title that “no stone was left unturned.”
Reinhart said Gates is great at delegation, a vital tool for every head coach. Gates has also developed a reputation as a motivator with passionate postgame speeches.
On top of the X’s and O’s of football, getting 17-year-olds to buy into something bigger than themselves, making athletes believe anything is possible and giving credit for a job well done can be just as important.
Making the investment worthwhile
Lake Worth’s Todd Peterman has one of Dallas-Fort Worth’s highest head coach salaries at $150,000. Lake Worth Superintendent Dr. Mark Ramirez said high coach salaries are worthwhile, and their value comes through mentorship, connections and even boosting attendance.
“For me growing up, most students come to school, not to learn algebra or to solve for X,” Ramirez said. “They’re coming to school because they get to compete. They know they’ll be with friends. Coaches add that value. Connecting with students, motivating them and giving them direction. And a lot of times, especially football coaches, serving as father figures.”
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Although some outsiders may scrutinize head coach salaries, Ramirez has seen the type of work Peterman does on a consistent basis.
“What is not seen is the work that’s done before school and after school,” Ramirez said. “And throughout the year, even during the summer. Our coaches are here. Long hours. Even after football games. They’re there on Saturdays and Sundays, preparing for the next game.”
The Star-Telegram reached out to a representative of the state teachers’ union for comment about head coaches’ salaries but did not receive a response.
Numbers to know
The district with the lowest average salary is Keller ISD at $107,861. In 2022, Keller’s average salary was $112,010. Since then, the district has hired two head coaches and has dealt with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
Rockwall ISD has the highest average salary for a multischool district at $150,280.18, which is a significant increase from its average of $118,607.50 in 2022.
Lewisville ISD and Grand Prairie ISD follow behind with average coach salaries of $139,852.90 and $139,615.29, respectively.
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Fort Worth ISD’s average is $116,735.19, and the district’s highest-paid coach is O.D. Wyatt athletic coordinator Zachary Criss at $131,682.
One-school districts have seven of the top eight salaries. After Dodge, Highland Park head coach Randy Allen is second at $158,904, Duncanville’s Reginald Samples is fourth at $156,675, and Allen’s Lee Wiginton ranks fifth at $153,560. (Rockwall Heath’s Rodney Webb is third at $158,862.)
Salary Database
Editor’s note: Byron Nelson interim head coach Zach Woodward ($83,738.31) was not included in the averages. Dallas ISD did not release salary information for Dallas Skyline, Dallas Roosevelt and Dallas Samuell.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 4:50 AM.
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