Athletic Director Proud of Culver Sports Programs
(EDITOR’s NOTE: This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview with
Tom Salter, Culver City High Athletic Director)
I began coaching at Culver City High School in 1999. I was the head football coach for 10 years. In 2012, I worked with the previous athletic director Jerry Chabola through the last semester of 2012 and this year
I took over as the athletic director. My dad did it for 25 years at Arcadia high school. He was the head football coach and athletic director for a long time. Athletics have always been in my background so I knew possibly one day that I would do it.
We are so happy with Jerry. He has done everything here. He hired all the coaches and he trained them well. So I’m just trying to keep the train on the track. It has been a great experience working with these coaches on a daily basis and seeing how hard they work.
Being the A.D. I get to see them closely and they put in a tremendous amount of hours with the student / athletes.
They take great pride in what they are doing. Not only are they great coaches but they are really good people. They ask me questions, they ask me for things they need and I try to get what they need. It’s good working with people like this.
Working with the school administration has been super. Dylan Farris is a great principal. He’s a real people person. He has great vision and is very enthusiastic about his job.
The assistant principals all have great sports backgrounds: Jon Chapman coached for me for many years, Lisa Cooper is a former coach and Lisa Michel does a great job with the curriculum. So Culver City is a great place to go to school and a great place to work.
I think the Culver High athletic program is really strong. We have consistency in the coaches so we don’t have any turnover there. We have the same coaches all coming back this year. We have a good blend of experienced coaches who have been around a long time. It’s a great fit.
Nestor Dordoni with aquatics has coached for 30 years. Rick Prieto has been running the baseball program close to 20 years. John Sargent with the softball program has been with the school for over 25 years. Phil Rothenberg with tennis has been here a very long time. We have young coaches like Julian Anderson who has done a great job with the girls basketball, Adam Eskridge with boys basketball, Jahmal Wright with football and Joe Manzo with volleyball.
We haven’t had to recruit new coaches too much because once they get here they stay. Coaching takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and the pay is not the best. So the school must be doing something right for all these coaches to stay.
We have great community support. The Culver City High School Booster Club is run by Lloyd Dixon who is the president. We have great commissioners: Larry Zeidman, Scott Zeidman, Nancy Ashley and Patti Madden. The Booster Club has been around for a very long time in Culver City. We have a good caring group and we work very hard.
We see what the athletic programs need and we go out and fundraise. All the programs do fundraisers with their own parents and within their own teams. That’s the way things get done. It’s community based. We get the community involved with the students and it works out.
There are new facilities that are going on. We are getting a new synthetic football field that Jerry Chabola, I believe, has worked on for ten years. That will be open for the first game in the fall. We are getting a new tartan track. We are getting a new snack bar and new restrooms.
The whole stadium complex including the renovation of the bleachers is going to change. We are re-doing the practice fields, upgrading those, leveling them.
So the football teams, the soccer teams, the lacrosse teams and the track teams will all be playing in new facilities. The stadium is going to attract a lot of people and put a lot of pride into the community. It’s going to make a big difference for Culver City.
We’re trying to fix the baseball and softball fields up too. We’re spending money on getting those fields leveled and upgraded. The Booster Club is putting more money into the weight room which is very important with the students being able to lift. We have a very good weight room. We are just upgrading it with new equipment. Things are really shaping up around here.
We put in new blue wall pads in the basketball gym. The Booster Club bought those. We are getting new banners. The new League Championship banners will be up hopefully by September with all the League and CIF Championship banners. The gym will have a new look next year.
I grew up around football. My dad coached football for over 30 years. My brother is coaching probably into his 20th year now at Upland high school. I was the head coach for five years out of the 15 years I coached at Bishop Amat before I came here. So I’ve been around football my whole life.
It helped me with organization and preparing. Football takes a lot of time and effort and that helped me out with just preparing to do a job. I’ve been around and seen a lot of sports. I also coached baseball for 16 years and basketball for 12 years at the other school. So I had a lot of sports background coming here and I think that’s helped.
Last fall, the football team had a great run. Coach Jahmal Wright, who is a Culver City High graduate, has done a great job. We’ve got a tough schedule this year. We’ve got a young team but it’s going to be a pretty good team.
We’re very excited. We open up with West Torrance and then we go to Peninsula. Our home games are going to be with West Torrance, Redondo, and Bishop Amat. Those are three very good teams and we should have big crowds for those games. Then we get into our league play.
The volleyball team just won the Watts Summer Games, the girls volleyball team led by Joe Manzo, who does both the boys and the girls. And I look for them to have one of their best teams they’ve had in a long time. The girls volleyball team is going to be very strong next year.
Girls tennis, Coach Rothenberg is back again for his 15th or 16th year. They went to the playoffs last year. They are going to have a young team with new players. A lot of seniors graduated but they always do a really good job.
Boys water polo, Nestor Dordoni is a legend here at Culver High. He’s been coaching for 30 years. The water polo team will be a good team this year. And of course, girls water polo had an incredible season last year.
Boys and girls cross country is led by Tom Fritzius. He does a great job and they’re very competitive with Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. We’re really looking forward to having a big year in the fall sports.
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