IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
1. Hire a name coach – This one is completely off the books now, but it’s worth repeating. I am not saying Mark Verti isn’t going to do a good job. Nobody has a clue about him yet. But the school had a wide open door of opportunity after Mike DiFiori resigned, and they hired from within. Great.
Verti could either be the find of a lifetime or a 20-something-year-old gamble that sends Amat fans off the deep end. Not exactly the predicament most fans wanted to be in, but hey.
Here’s the thing Verti has going for him. His youth can be played two ways. He’s either too young to handle such a position or he’s the young guy who relates to the players. No matter how you feel about himt, Verti is a former UCLA football player and he’s got that on any other local coach. He knows what it takes to go from Amat to the big-time. He can wield his connections to the next level as something that gets kids to Amat because the coach can help them to the next level.
2. Field turf – Uh … I don’t care how much it costs … the cash wasn’t spent on a coach, so put in a nice field. Amat’s field is already solid, but some artificial stuff would give the impression that the school is a cutting edge athletic institution. The new gym/weight room/locker room/coaching offices were a step in the right direction. When some kid comes to Amat to watch a game, he should see a state of the art field that will get him excited to possibly play there.
3. Throw rocks at South Hills, Los Altos and Charter Oak high schools until they crumble – Why go to Amat for $ 4-5 Gs per year when you can find a loophole and go to one of these schools for free?
“Gee lil Billy, you want to go play for Steve Bogan, Greg Gano, Lou Farrar or Mark Verti?”
And when the kid asks “Who’s Mark Verti?” … see No. 5 (below)
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