Hyde Park's View Park Preparatory High football team scores in classroom

The football team from View Park Preparatory High School in Hyde Park has earned this year’s honor as the top football team -- academically -- among 72 local teams, a sports league official confirmed Thursday.

The 43-member team achieved a grade point average of 3.3 and finished as the California Interscholastic Federation, L.A. City Section, Division 3 champion, said Jo Ann Heller, who oversees the academic award for the Los Angeles area.

Division 3 is for small-school teams such as View Park, which is a public charter school. But the competition is among all varsity teams in the Los Angeles Unified School District and independently run charter schools in that region; 22 teams entered the academic competition this year.

View Park Head Coach Robert Ambers enforced and led mandatory 1 1/2-hour study hall sessions every other day for all football players and “visited the main office weekly to check the grades of players, who also had to submit weekly progress reports,” according to a spokesperson for ICEF Public Schools, the nonprofit that operates View Park.

“Students know that success in the classroom comes first, and I have no doubt that has led to our success on the field,” Ambers said in a statement.

The players and coach are scheduled to be honored Friday at the Los Angeles City Council.

-- Howard Blume

Comments

[Keith]

Congrats to Coach Ambers, his staff, and the ICEF family. I believe this is a first year football program. ViewPark did not allow the academics first motto to waiver in their quest to compete with student transfers due to not having a football team. These will be the young men that can go to a Stanford or Notre Dame because they can compete both academically and athletically. Well done young men, well done indeed!

[logan street]

very commendable

[GingerSnaps]

Congratulations, good job. Keep it up and aim for even higher scores.

[Mike]

Now that's a two-fer: The ability to play for a pro team through athletic ability or own one through academic ability!

[Very Proud]

A college education lasts for life, a career in professional sports lasts a few years if ever. Mr. Ambers is to be commended for teaching these young men the truth about the odds of becoming a professional athlete vs. the odds of becoming a college graduate. I also hear that View Park Prep and Frederick Douglass High School have among the highest SAT scores for their students in the city - for those high schools that test over 70% of their students. The college counselling office says that 100% of View Park Prep and Frederick Douglass students (another ICEF High School) take either the SAT or the ACT. Job well done!