City Official Leveling Playing Field For Philadelphia HS Athletes
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia high school athletes are missing out on opportunities to attend college and Councilman David Oh hopes to correct that.
He's sponsoring a yearlong effort to help students leverage their sports prowess for bigger things.
When Oh hired Cheyney University's former track coach, he learned Philadelphia's disturbing reputation among collegiate coaches.
"There's talented people in Philadelphia, but their paperwork is not good," Of said. "They don't have the support, they don't have mentoring and there's so much that has to be done to make sure they actually get to college."
For example, good athletes with good grades who don't take the SAT. The test is not strictly necessary for college, but it is for athletic scholarships and since tuition is usually the biggest barrier to college, simply not knowing the rules could be a tragic waste of potential.
Oh's solution -- he's calling it the 'Blue Chip' initiative -- is to familiarize students, coaches and counselors with NCAA rules in addition to the usual encouragement.
The first event is Tuesday in Manayunk.