Santo's Energy Fuels R.A.M. Life Program
Addazio wants players prepared for post-playing career
There will be more eventually.
While on campus, football coach Steve Addazio is focused on creating athletes who win games in the short window which is their collegiate career, a big reason why they chose to play for Colorado State. But when it closes, he has a trio of paths he wants them ready to follow.
A shot at the pros, graduate school or a career. Thus, the creation of R.A.M. Life –Real and Meaningful Life -- within his program
“It’s all about giving back to our players. You come to Colorado State, you’re coming to get an education, play football, win a championship and get a career,” he said. “Too many athletes come out of college, they have a degree, they don’t have a career, and we do them a disservice.
“Along the lines of player development, along the lines of letting them know we care about them, it’s not just, ‘hey, get in here get your degree and we’ll make you the best player you can be.’ I think it’s our responsibility that we prepare them so they have a career and they have a chance to have a great life, because the vast majority of them will not play pro football.”
To make it all work, he needed the perfect person to head the program. Someone with energy and passion. Someone who would relate to the players, who had been in their place and gather the resources to present to them.
Enter Ricky Santo.
“There’s no one better. The energy he brings, it makes it fun for us to want to come to these events and be a part of it,” Adam Korutz said of Santo. “We can share our own energies and our own passions to take us on a path to our future endeavors which might take us to life outside of football. He’s the best one to do it. Its’ a great experience.”
Santo had a history with Colorado State which was attractive to Addazio, as was his involvement with Real Life Wednesday’s at Ohio State. He had started with the football program back in 2013 under former coach Jim McElwain, and returned to finish his stint under Mike Bobo. At the time, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and kidney cancer, so Bobo created another position for him while he underwent treatments.
He eventually became an offensive quality control coach from 2015-2019. He stepped away in February following the season to pursue other activities, mainly as a way to focus on himself and his life following treatments. He is nearly five years cancer free, but then Addazio called him in to meet him.
“Ricky has a passion for it. He’d been exposed to it with coach Urban Meyer,” Addazio said. “He’s go-go, a vivacious personality. Ricky has gone through a lot in his life, and it makes him s appreciate life, and it’s made him want to give back.”
The chance to come back to the program, to be around college football and the players, who inspire him, was too great to pass up. He and Addazio were very much aligned in what the program needed to expose the players to for them to be prepared.
It means developing the skills for these guys for a real and meaningful life on and off the field, not only while they are here, but then beyond football.Ricky Santo
While college teaches the players a lot, there are aspects of “adulating” which aren’t always covered in class. How does one prepare for a job interview, including preparing a cover letter and resume and how to dress? What is the best type of insurance to purchase? How do you buy a house and what does a good mortgage look like?
“It means developing the skills for these guys for a real and meaningful life on and off the field, not only while they are here, but then beyond football,” Santo said. “What is a real and meaningful life are those real-life experiences you’re going to engage and encounter when you get in the real world. We want them to make meaning and the correct decisions in all those times – the tough times, the easy times, those good times – whatever time it is, when they come up, you’re making the right choice to help yourself, whether it’s in your athletic career, your work life or family decisions.
“We want to win games, of course. More importantly, we want to love them, trust them, embrace them, to help them make those decisions down the road which will help them.”
Part of the program was to set up seminars and guest speakers, all of whom are business leaders in the community, and as a bonus, many of them are former Rams. Nick Eaton of Virtus Insurance spoke about his field; Kevin McDougal of ReMax addressed how to buy a home; and Jack Graham about building a culture.
Other programs were targeted on budgeting, how to dress and building a team and giving back, all foundations which not only help later but in the present.
The players are given a custom notebook, and Santo sees not only enthusiasm but an attentive group asking the right questions.
“We’re more than just football players, and that’s what this coaching staff realizes,” Korutz said. “They’re trying to build men who are good in the household, can be a good father, a good husband, be a good worker and be a good person in society. When football’s over, they want us to be able to transition into society and start working hard and start making a name for ourselves outside of football.
“These are all the intangible skills that through R.A.M. Life we’re able to learn and implement into our daily life, even at school.”
Santo has designed the program for an even more active role, helping to establish a more hands-on approach with job shadowing and internships. The pandemic slowed down some opportunities, but they were able to establish 16 job-shadowing opportunities, as well as a handful of internships. It’s a start, but Santo wants to see those numbers continue to rise through the years.
With good reason. Some of those internships have led to job offers for Korutz, Toby McBride and Vincent Picozzi.
“Thanks to the R.A.M. Life program and coach Ricky Santo, I was able to get this opportunity with a commercial construction company called Swinerton Construction, which was here a couple of months ago,” Korutz said. “Through talking to them initially at that event, we were able to formulate and build a relationship, and I ended up securing a nice job offer for myself. That’s all you can ask for. If football doesn’t work out, it’s nice to have a backup plan where you can go and get right in the workforce and start your life in the real world.”
These are the types of success stories which energize Santo even more. To him, it’s just the start of something bigger he envisions for the program. His life has shown him the importance of support and a helping hand, and this post gives him the perfect chance to play it forward with the players in the football program.
All will enter with a goal of being the best player they can become while with the Rams. His goal is to not only help them achieve just that, but to be prepared for when their final game is played.
Whenever that may be.
“I love, first of all, being around the guys. They’re my heart and soul,” Santo said. “That and being around CSU and Ram football and Colorado State University, that’s where my heart is. As far as R.A.M. Life, helping these guys reach their goals is the most rewarding thing for me. I just get an incredible feeling when something clicks in their mind. To hear them ask real questions to learn a skill and then apply it is so rewarding.”