The 2023-2024 season is the first where the NCAA eliminated the role of “volunteer assistants” but gave programs the opportunity to expand their full-time coaching staffs – with or without pay – and we saw a number of Power 5 programs do so.
In many cases, these assistants were given the minimum $35,568 salary that is the minimum to exempt them from overtime wages (under federal law; some states have raised that threshold).
The University of Florida, however, is paying one one of its new swim coaches more than that, in spite of it being her first collegiate coaching job.
Annie Lazor, a US National Team member, World Champion, and Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist in the 200 breaststroke, took her first NCAA coaching gig with the Gators swimming & diving team this season, and the University of Florida released her contract this week. Under the terms of that agreement, Lazor will earn $45,000 per year on the one year deal.
That is not the full value of the contract though. Florida uses a standard set of bonuses for all of its head coaches and assistant coaches that awards performance incentives as a percentage of base salary.
The bonuses start with a $3,000 academic incentive per year for the term of the contract, which has no apparent strings or academic performance standards tied to it.
The bonuses escalate from there. Bonuses for athletic achievement can add up to 40% per sport. The terms of those bonuses specify that if someone is a coach for more than one sport, which is the case for the swimming & diving coaching staff, they can earn up to 40% of their salary for all of those sports that they coach. That gives Lazor the opportunity to earn up to another $36,000 in incentive bonuses.
Those bonuses include:
- 30% for an NCAA Championships (team)
- 10% for an SEC Championship (team)
- Based on finish at the NCAA Championships (per team):
- 10% for 5th-10th place OR
- 12% for 4th place OR
- 15% for 3rd place OR
- 20% for 2nd place OR
Based on last year’s results, where both teams won SEC Championships, where the men placed 6th at NCAAs, and where the women placed 9th at NCAAs, Lazor would have earned 40% of her base salary in bonuses – or $18,000. With both teams favored to win conference titles again this year and the Gator women looking lined up for a top 5 finish, that could be even higher in the 2023-2024 season.
Lazor retired from competition for a year after graduating from Auburn in 2016, working at Cal in Olympic sports operations. After a year away, she returned in 2017, where she worked as the head age group coach for Team Pittsburgh Aquatics from 2017-2018.
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/279/tableA1.xlsx
more than a lot of HCs or coaches with years of (actual) experience make!
how much do szaranek and hite get payed?
For anyone questioning…40% is a massive bonus
This must have been written to encourage women who are considering getting started in coaching 😉
Love to see it
This seems like a fair salary and bonus system – just because other programs pay the minimum they can get away with that doesn’t make this “massive”.
The tone of this article seems to be that she doesn’t deserve this very modest salary. I’m used to seeing that tone about football head coaches making millions. It sure sounds weird when directed at an assistant coach in her first job. Do better, swim swam.
those football coaches do their work first and then rise up
I don’t know much about taxes in Florida but god damn is it difficult to get your own house with a starting salary like that. You gotta wait like 10 years
Not many people in any industry that can afford to purchase a home in their first year of a career. What world are you living in or have ever lived in?
no income tax… welcome to the promised land… desantis is pretty cracked