Ensuring the viability of any football program at any level starts with hiring an elite coach with a proven track record – and keeping him. For Alabama high-school football, that increasingly means paying a higher coaching salary than ever.

Hoover football coach Josh Niblett received a raise earlier this month from $114,471 to a state-best $125,000 per year, according to Hoover City Schools. That marked the fourth time over the last 10 months that one Alabama high-school coach's salary leapfrogged another to become the state's highest-paid public school coach.

“It has kind of been getting outrageous," Niblett said. "It started off with the money college coaches were making, but I think if you go to other states like Texas or Georgia you will find [high school] guys making a lot more than $125,000. The numbers those guys are making -- and not teaching -- are unbelievable.”

RELATED: See slideshow of Alabama coaches making $100,000 or more

Niblett is referring to another growing trend in high-school football – coaches being paid simply to coach, and not also teach an academic class, which has been common for generations.

Prior to Niblett's raise, Hewitt-Trussville's Josh Floyd, a four-time state championship coach from Arkansas, who moved to the state in June and landed a $120,000 salary.

In 2004, a Birmingham News survey revealed $51,915 in 2013, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

“Being the highest-paid coach in the state is not something you think about on a day-to-day basis,” Floyd said. “You don’t have any time. All you have the time to think about is just building the best football program you possibly can.”

According to figures obtained by AL.com, there are now nine high school football coaches in Alabama who make at least $100,000 per year. Conversely, more than 110 public high schools pay their head football coach less than $60,000 per year. Some of the salary figures obtained reflect 2013 numbers, some schools have changed coaches since the figures were obtained, and some schools declined to provide information requested.

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Floyd played for Auburn coach Gus Malzahn at Shiloh Christian and runs the same innovative offense. The 34-year-old was approved by Trussville City Schools in June and received a stipend of $10,000 per month over the summer until his annual salary kicked in. His offensive and defensive coordinators also received more than $5,000 per month during the summer until the 2014-2015 fiscal year began.

Seven of the nine coaches who earn at least $100,000 per year work in Class 7A, which features the state's 32 largest high school enrollments. The other two are Jamie Riggsat 3A Florence, both of whom serve in a school system with a single high school. (Typically in high-school athletics, whatever is provided for the employees at one school in a system must also be done for employees at all other schools.)

Wingarden made $80,607 at Auburn. He receives a $91,000 base salary as director of football operations to oversee the entire athletic program beginning in the middle school, plus a $32,000 supplement to be the varsity head football coach.

Unlike Floyd and Freeman, whose compensation includes at least some monies from teaching, Winegarden’s pay scale reflects no classroom duty. Traditionally, coaches teach at least one class and it is often a football-specific course like weight training. Niblett teaches four strength training classes at Hoover, including two periods designated for non-athletes.

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Winegarden is a quality coach with a proven track record, but his teams have never reached the state championship game. Freeman won four AISA titles and two AHSAA Class 5A titles, but didn’t mind hearing the news that he was no longer the state’s highest-paid high school football coach.

“That was sure going to be OK with me, brother, to pass that highest-paid coach in the state stuff on,” Freeman said. “That brings a lot of pressure, but at the same time no coach I know got into coaching and working with kids to make more money than anybody else.”

Vestavia Hills Coach Buddy Anderson talks to Vestavia Hills' Joshua Denny at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Ala., Friday, Oct. 17, 2014. (Mark Almond/ malmond@al.com)

The salary boom has also created a market in which Vestavia Hills coach Buddy Anderson – the state's all-time leader with 311 wins – now seems like a value hire. Anderson, who has served as head coach for 37 years and won two state titles, earns $102,265 to be head coach and athletic director.

Niblett has won four state titles at Oneonta to the 2004 Class 3A title.

The Hoover coach adds to his income through summer football camps, something other coaches are also allowed to do. Some cities, including Spanish Fort, also provide a stipend – through a separate consulting contact with the city’s recreation department – to their head football coach, that augments his salary.

Among the state's 10 highest-paid public-school coaches, Niblett is the only one who won a state championship last season. The salary survey found that Jerry Hood earned $79,704 for leading Clay-Chalkville to the Class 6A state championship last season.

Class 5A Madison Academy coach Eric Cohu.

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Hoover City Schools Interim Superintendent Jim Reese said the system viewed Niblett's salary as a "market driven" number. Hoover Athletic Director Andy Urban recommended the raise for what Niblett does -- working daily with nearly 200 varsity football players, along with his class schedule.

“He deserves this salary, but our goal when we started talking about his raise wasn’t to make him the highest-paid football coach in Alabama,” Urban said. “With what he does for as many athletes as we have he deserves it. I really believe that. But we wanted to make it to where he wouldn’t leave our school for another high school job in this state for financial reasons.”

Then-Fairhope coach Adam Winegarden looks to the scoreboard in the first half against Davidson during a prep football game Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile. (Mike Kittrell/mkittrell@al.com)

Niblett and Raney also went from 208-day to 240-day teacher contracts with their recent raises. Teachers and administrators are paid on 10-, 11- or 12-month salaries. Adding days to the contact also gives the coaches a higher teaching salary.

Reese said he had no idea what Winegarden was being paid. “I can’t worry about what other schools do and if another school might offer more than that,” he said. “I was trying to come up with fair compensation. If another school offered him $130,000 and he wanted to go all I could say was ‘Good luck, Josh. I hope you do really well,’ and wish him my best.

“I promise you I didn’t go out and say that so-and-so is making $123,000 and let’s go make Josh Niblett the highest-paid coach in the state,” Reese added. “Put a stack of Bibles in front of me and I will swear on it about that and that means something to me. My daddy was a Baptist preacher.”

Jeff Sentell covers prep sports for AL.com and the Birmingham News. Follow him on Twitter for the latest high school cool across Alabama.

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