summarize this post for a response. Professional development for coaches offers a variety of benefits that go beyond just learning new techniques or drills. Attending professional development opportunities provides the chance to stay ahead of the curve in your sport, expand your coaching toolbelt, and networking amongst the coaching community. As an athletics/activities administrator, professional development is an aspect that should be encouraged to your coaches, as well as something that the administrator should accommodate for whenever an opportunity arises for a coach. With that, an athletics/activities administrator should have funds set asides to prepare for these professional development opportunities. Creating a athletics/coaches professional development funds portion of your athletics budget can be a specific pool of money used to allow coaches to attended these conferences. This can either be pulled directly out of the athletics/activities fund, or, if your district is willing to help, can be pulled from district funds. Communicate to your school board why professional development is important for that athletics/activities department could provide a working relationship and a greater pool of money to pull from. In regards to who can attend these conferences, it should be anyone on the staff that is willing and wanting to attend. An opportunity to learn and grow should not be denied from an administrator, and more likely than not the assistant coaches on your staff will end up being the head coaches in the future. Starting their professional development prior to them being the head of a program could make them a better candidate once the time comes to make a head coaching hire. For substitute teachers, this would be paid by the district. The district has a set budget set aside for substitute teachers, and with this being school related business, pulling from that already existing fund makes the most sense. If a coach is asked to present at a conference, they should have the opportunity to accept or decline the request. For these conferences in particular, it's usually the coaches who are the most networked who are asked, so most will accept the request. However, I don't feel it should be a requirement for a coach to have to accept a request to present. For budgeting purposes, I feel that coaches should be able to attend two professional development opportunities per sport coached that are funded by the school district. Anything greater than that amount will need to be covered by the coach. This provides all of your coaches ample opportunity to attend professional development, while maintaining a budget that could handle that amount. Expanding more than that could create a situation where coaches start taking advantage of the fund