New Samohi Athletic Director Kim Prefers High School to College Level

photo by Margaret Molloy

Mitch Chortkoff
Mirror sports writer
  
   Douglas Kim has held several jobs in the last decade. He’s at Santa Monica High now because he prefers the high school level to the college level.
   Especially if the high school is well-regarded.
   Kim officially becomes Samohi’s athletic director Sept. 1 but has been working at the school several days a week since June to learn the nuances of the position.
   “This is a 12-month-a-year job, not a 10-month job,” he explains.
   Kim was chosen to replace Mike Griswold, who retired from the position even though he will spend another year teaching at Samohi.
   He came to Samohi from UCLA, where he was Assistant Director of Recruiting. Previously he was a highly successful coach, guiding girls’ basketball teams at Culver City High and Cerritos High into the CIF Playoffs.
   “I feel I can make a contribution at the high school level,” he said. “College athletes are pretty far along in their development. High school athletes have less of an idea what they’re going to do in life and there’s a greater opportunity to help.”
   But Kim wouldn’t have left UCLA unless he felt a high school had a lot of potential.
   “I’ve often heard that Samohi is a sleeping giant,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of potential here. You need a vision and mine is that we’ll achieve in the classroom and on the field. Our student athletes will represent the community as well as the school.”
   Kim presides over an athletic program that is moving along well on most fronts with one notable exception. The football team has a grand tradition and won a CIF championship three years ago but went 0-9-1 last season. It was the first season as head coach for Michael Burnett.
   Kim has positive things to say about Burnett.
   “I tend to observe rather than jumping in with a lot of opinions,” said Kim. “From my observation Burnett is doing a great job. The substance of what he’s doing is very good. Keep in mind he was a young coach with a young team last season and there were a lot of close games. It takes awhile to develop a system.
   “We have some good athletes and they need to have some success to gain confidence. Losing close games is a characteristic of young teams.”
   Burnett had a tough act to follow. He moved up from the junior varsity level when Norm Lacy gave up coaching football but remained on the faculty and coaches the Samohi golf team. Lacy won a CIF championship at St. Monica High in 1998 and another at Samohi in 2001.
   The 2001 team had several star players who went on to college. Receiver Charles Gordon was outstanding last season at Kansas. As a redshirt freshman he set a Frosh school record with 769 reception yards. Then he had three interceptions in the recent spring game and may play this season on defense.
   James Cooper, the 2001 Samohi quarterback, plays baseball at Loyola Marymount. Other members of the team are scattered throughout college football.
   Lacy coached one more season, admitting the Vikings’ move from Division 10 to Division 4 made the competition tougher and the task more challenging. Then in 2003 Burnett took over with a new cast of players.
   Kim has already hired his first coach. Kevin Brockway was brought in to replace Mike Czarnetzki, who was Samohi’s baseball coach the last six years.
   The baseball field has been renovated, which required the Vikings to play at Marine Park rather than on the campus field two years ago. Now the home park will have a new name, the Don Sealy Baseball Field.
   Some other coaches have excelled over a long period of time, most notably James Hecht in basketball, Pat Cady in cross country, Matt Flanders in water polo and Debbie Skaggs in softball.
   It’s not just coaching. It’s building a program. Samohi softball has a field apart from the baseball park, complete with adequate seating and signage on the outfield fences. As softball fields go it’s a beauty.
   “The coaches are the strength of the athletic program, not me,” said Kim.
   That may be, but a new athletic director at the city’s largest high school merits a story. Especially when he has some interesting personal news to tell.
   “We have two sets of twins,” said Kim. “The girls are almost eight years old and the boys nearly four months.
   “I’ve been quite lucky in my life and I couldn’t have accomplished anything during my career without my wife, Jennifer. She’s been supportive in every way.”
   Kim went from Culver City High to Cerritos when a teaching position was offered, a situation that didn’t exist at Culver. He went to UCLA for a greater opportunity that wouldn’t include a one-hour ride each way to work.
   Now he believes he has the best of all worlds. He’s back on the Westside, back on the high school level and he’ll teach history in addition to being athletic director.
   This story wouldn’t be complete without recognizing Griswold for the outstanding work he did for many years. He led Samohi athletics through some of its’ greatest triumphs and ably handled the down years, too.