> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Samohi coaches push athletes toward college recruiting and academics - URL: https://www.smdp.com/020208-story-20080202/ - Published: 2008-02-02T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T18:19:03.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Sports, Santa Monica, #archive-import Matthies and her assistant coaches spend much of their time watching high school athletes that participate in the off-season club programs, which for volleyball, takes place around January. “I’m looking for the best student athlete in the country,” Matthies said. Verdugo, who is only in his second year as the head coach of the girl’s basketball team, said he anticipates that colleges will begin eyeing the Samohi program more as he sends more and more students to play in college. He got a start last year when he sent Allie Southam to play at a Division III school and Emily Foshag chose to attend New York University, where she currently is a walk-on and getting minutes as a freshman. BEING A STUDENT FIRST Tom Salter, the head football coach at Culver City High School, is tough when it comes to academics. It starts in his players’ freshman year, going over the core classes that they need to take in order to be able to play in college and the scores they’ll need to achieve on standardized tests to even get a look. The required courses have been committed to memory for Salter as he has been over the process numerous times before — four years of English, two years of science with a lab class, three years of math. “When they don’t come in as good students... sometimes it does-n’t register until their senior year when all of a sudden they (know) they can go to college if they get better grades,” Salter said. “A lot of times, it’s a maturing process.” For the Katz family, academics always took a priority over athleticism. If all else fails in the world of sports, at least the younger Katz could rely on a solid education, said father Mike Katz. “We always emphasized that (education) was our number one priority and athletics was a dream,” Mike Katz said. “Ryan was always a good student in the classroom.” It’s a concept that has been ingrained in Keating, who said a lot of student athletes believe that their physical talent is their ticket out of a bad situation. “You need to have the drive to be a student before an athlete,” Keating said. “Be a student in the classroom and athlete on the floor and push yourself academically and athletically.” Academic standards depends on the school, some more stricter than others. The NCAA Clearinghouse sets a minimum requirement for student athletes that is based on a sliding scale — the lower the grade point average, the higher the SAT score needs to be. The transcript is usually the first thing a college recruiter asks for when they receive word about a gifted athlete, Cuda said. “When they come down, they have an entire city of Los Angeles to recruit and they can’t waste their time courting a kid who academically isn’t able to get into their school,” Cuda said. “They start with the grades and the test scores... and once that hurdle is crossed, then you get down to the evaluation of athletic talent.” REACHING OUT AT A YOUNG AGE Recruiting is striking closer to the womb. Case in point — last June, the USC basketball program made headlines when Coach Tim Floyd offered 14-year-old Ryan Boatright, a middle school basketball star from Illinois, a scholarship to play at the Galen Center. At Pepperdine University, the recruiting process is near completed for the class of 2009 — current high school juniors — and coaches are getting ready to evaluate high school freshman and seniors, Matthies said. “Volleyball is perhaps one of the sports where recruiting is becoming more escalated,” Matthies said. She added that there are students from the class of 2012 and 2013, who are currently in middle school, sending her letters asking that she come down and watch them play in a weekend tournament. “I think kids see it as a way to help them pay for a college education,” Matthies said. “There’s pressure as they get a little bit older and understanding what it is they have to do.” Salter said he believes that the early recruitment efforts can take an emotional toll on the student athletes, but doesn’t fault the student if the school’s offer is too good to pass up. “It’s a lot for them to handle,” he said. “Some kids could handle it with great motivation — if they get a letter from a school, there’s this stress to really work and do better in the classroom.” There’s been a lot of concern about the pressure placed on young athletes to push themselves to the limit physically and mentally, perhaps stripping them of having a normal childhood. Some have played through injury out of fear of disappointing a coach or a parent, while others simply burn out. Mike Katz said he was concerned about the level of recruiting on his son, but had confidence that the young quarterback was level-headed enough to handle the stress. “I always try to talk to him to get him to keep things in perspective,” Katz said. “There comes a time when people say a lot of things, but you have to wait and see what the final decision and final offer is, especially in the early phases of recruiting.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/020208-10_01.jpg) ON THE OREGON (STATE) TRAIL: Santa Monica High School’s Ryan Katz will be an OSU Beaver next year. (Photo: Photo courtesy) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 2, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/020208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)