Samo alumni Greg Morena gives winter sports athletes NIL course to learn crucial money management skills

Manny Lopez / The Samohi

Greg Morena ('96) teaching students how to manage their money.

After their seasons ended, Samo’s winter sports student-athletes were introduced to a seven-week course about Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). It is organized by Greg Morena (’96), a Samo alumni who also coached football and track at Samo from 1997 to 2001. The course is laid out into multiple weeks, with each session focusing on a different task to lay out a plan to create a business. The class is split up into three different groups: Group 1 is filled with athletes who plan to play their sport at the next level; Group 2 has athletes with mixed feelings, some wanting to play at the college level and some not planning to play after high school; and those in Group 3 are the athletes that don’t plan on taking their sporting ability past the high school level. Each group can create their business plan with a workaround of five thousand dollars. Andy Sparks (’27), a football player and track runner at Samo, believes that the seven-week course will prepare him for his future in athletics

“This course is gonna really show us how we can make money through our name,” Sparks said. “Over the weeks, [Morena] has given us a base and plan to show us real-world situations and what could happen.”

The athletes get a certain amount of funding and are supposed to make a company to increase their initial funds. They have the freedom to make whatever they feel is profitable with their allotted money, which can range from a sports app to even editing software. Morena, who was unable to make money during his time as a collegiate athlete, is passing down knowledge he wished he had during his time playing football at Cal State Northridge. Morena believes his money mismanagement stemmed, in part, from a lack of education about finances. Now he is sharing his experience playing professional football and knowing how to manage his earnings with the next generation of Samo athletes.

“It’s what I missed when I played college football, and I didn’t know these things and I had to learn through those mistakes and because of that,” Morena said. “I created a non-profit and I’ve been helping out at Samohi [since] before I graduated college.”