Program turns coaches into academic leaders

The effort trains academic coaches in high schools with high rates of poverty.
MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) -- Todd Filtz is trying to turn X's and O's into A's and B's.
Filtz, an assistant varsity football coach at Maple Heights High School, is also the school's academic coach. When he's not working with his linebackers on pass coverage technique, he's poring over the grade sheets of all student-athletes in the school or perhaps making sure they've made up missed classes or signed up for a college-entrance exam.
He also arranges for athletes to participate in regular public-service projects, whether by visiting a nursing home, reading to grade-schoolers or cleaning up a city park.
Cooperative effort
Play It Smart, a cooperative effort between the National Football League Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame, seeks to train academic coaches like Filtz in high schools with high rates of poverty. Depending on the school, the program pays for all or part of the coach's salary, educational materials and SAT or ACT fees for participants.
"It shows us that the coaches really care about what's going on in the classroom," said Lonnie Bogard, 17, a senior co-captain. "And it shows us that we're loved and wanted."
The academic coaches in Play It Smart are not tokens, but rather integral parts of a head coach's staff. The program, which began with four schools in 1998, is now in 136 high schools in 84 cities and 35 states.
11 schools participate
Eleven high schools in Ohio participate, including Maple Heights, Cleveland Glenville and Akron Buchtel. Nationally, nearly 12,000 students will be in the program this fall.
The effort seems to be working. Nearly all Play It Smart participants graduate from high school, and 80 percent of the seniors enroll in college, compared with 64 percent of their peers not in the program.
"There's absolutely no down to it," said Steven Hatchell, president of the National Football League Foundation. "Football creates leaders, and the players are the leaders in the school. Because that happens in the fall, it sets the tone for the whole year."
At Maple Heights, every football player was academically eligible for the team's playoff games last season; in the past, grades typically kept at least a few out of uniform. It was the first year the school had the program, which pays a portion of Filtz's salary.
Study practices
In addition to tutoring younger students, the Maple Heights student-athletes landscaped a courtyard at the school and painted the interior of a church.
Filtz works with coaches from other sports at the school, bird-dogging falling grades or skipped classes. He sets up study tables before football practice, giving players a chance to do their homework before social distractions or sleep overtake them at home. Attendance is mandatory, and the players have to bring their books.
"Just like any other program, it takes some time to implement," said Filtz, who is beginning his second year at Maple Heights after playing linebacker at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. "But the teachers are buying into it here, and the district is committed to it. I think a lot of schools would benefit by it."
Maple Heights Athletic Director Dave Miller agrees. In fact, he gets calls from other schools about the program.
"It's a big help," Miller said. "Todd has done a nice job keeping up with things. It's one less paperwork issue for our other coaches."
The academic pressure on student-athletes is getting tougher. Students entering Division I college programs in 2008, for instance, will see their high school core requirements raised from 14 to 16 courses, including at least three years of math and four years of English, science, foreign language or philosophy.
The new rule will affect players like Dominique Grimes, a junior at Maple Heights. But by the time Dominique, 15, gets to college, he will have had three years of Play It Smart under his belt.
"It's a good program," he said while lifting weights. "It's given me more time to study so I can keep my grades up."