Charlotte-Mecklenburg coaches want better pay

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Garinger High football coach Jupiter Wilson said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' inaction on improving coaches' stipends leaves district programs at a disadvantage compared to neighboring districts and states.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg coaches want a bump in their allowance.

Since 2018, school district-provided stipends have remained $5,000 annually. Since the last raise, North Carolina’s cost of living has increased over 30%. Stipends don’t include extra pay for the postseason or offseason player workouts. 

“I think the word that comes to mind is just disappointing,” Mallard Creek football coach Kennedy Tinsley said. “I think we as coaches try to do things the right way. Obviously from the teaching profession side of things, teachers should be valued and respected more but coaches as well. And it is tough to see other states and even other areas within this state value their coaches more than we’re valued. I don’t have all the knowledge of budget numbers and things like that, but I know what we as coaches do for kids and families.”

Messages left with CMS for comment were not returned.

Tinsley has been Mallard Creek’s coach since 2020, the year after Michael Palmieri left for a head coaching job in Georgia. Palmieri, who won three state championships with the Mavericks, said he was “definitely getting a pay raise” at his new job. 

Most experienced high school football coaches in Georgia average over $80,000 annually with some top tier coaches making over six figures. Joey King, Carrollton High’s head coach, was the state’s highest paid at $219,000 in 2025. 

“[The district] has to invest in what is important,” Tinsley said. “That has not necessarily been in our favor. Then last year we talked about doing a strike. To me, I’m like, why should we have to do a strike to get someone’s attention? At the end of the day, this is a calling and we want to be supporting the kids. So, it is like they are saying, ‘we want y’all to be quiet and not make any noise so we can continue to set a poor standard.’”

Jupiter Wilson, Garinger High’s football coach, took over in 2025 after coaching at Hickory Ridge in Cabarrus County. Before that, he coached in other states. He sees the disparity between CMS and other districts.

“Coming from Cabarrus County, I think my last year there, they gave a 20% increase,” Wilson said. “Coaches who had 12 or more years’ experience were getting close to $10,000. You go over one county and for a coach that has been in the game for more than 10 to 12 years, you’re going to $5,000. That’s a big decrease.”

Wilson said he understands effort to increase the pay for teachers, but coaches need to be valued the same.

“I know they’re doing everything from a teacher standpoint, trying to get money,” Wilson said. “From that standpoint, teachers feel like we’re working hard, overworked and underpaid, and I think coaches feel the same way. I just want the same mindset as it relates to a teacher, where I feel like people are kind of behind them, the same needs to be about the coaches.”

Wilson, who coached Garinger to its first win in several years at the beginning of the 2025 season, uses the catchphrase “things are going to change at the G.” And while he is reshaping a program that didn’t have much of a football culture, getting help from the district would go a long way. 

“At a place like Garinger, I am trying to set aside money to do things like pay for Ubers or meals or whatever the case may be,” Wilson said. “I tell people all the time that I love what I do. I love what I do, and I do get paid to do what I do. I probably wouldn’t be able to do what I do if we didn’t get [a stipend] at all. But, then to say that you’re probably going to get less than your counterparts who are 10 minutes away… that is a tough pill to swallow.”

As of April, 22 CMS employees make over $200,000 annually while coaches’ compensation includes their teacher salary and stipend. Tinsley applauded Wilson and the mission he has embarked on at Garinger.

“If anybody knows Jupiter’s situation, that is an elite CMS coach,” Tinsley said. “Jupiter is doing things that anyone who is making $200,000 isn’t doing. They aren’t adopting kids that have lost parents into their home. I am not downing anybody’s job; all of them are important and our leaders need to get paid. I have no problem with that, but don’t sleep on our coaches and people like Jupiter who is at a very challenging school. He has to pick up kids to go to practice. That is insane. When we have practice, 100 kids are ready to go. That man is driving around, picking up kids just to have practice. … It is a calling for him, and really all of us.”

Wilson admits he’d prefer a level playing field. Many CMS teams schedule out-of-state nonconference opponents for extra revenue, but facilities and coaches’ pay in bordering states like Virginia and Georgia are often superior, putting CMS teams at a disadvantage.

“The expectation is for Charlotte schools to go out there and compete with out-of-state schools,” Wilson said. “I think Tinsley went and played Buford (one of Georgia’s top programs). Sometimes though you are playing with your hands behind your back in regards to what things look like from the pay perspective. And we put guys in the NFL here just like they do. Maybe not quite as many, but it would be nice to be on a level playing field. We’ll continue to work and I know we will keep pressing [the district] just like teachers are pressing to do the same thing for them.”

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