It’s a Real Summer Jobs Fair
Four days a week, 17-year-old Joe Boskovich rises at 5 a.m., leaves the urban setting of his home in Westlake Village and becomes Farmer Joe.
Wearing a baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans, Boskovich drives a tractor and plants green onions, corn and radishes on family farms in Camarillo and Oxnard. Then he returns home early in the evening for football practice at Westlake High.
Boskovich is in the middle of his summer vacation, but he’s busier than if school were in session.
“We’re stretching. I’m all beat. ‘What’s wrong with you? I’ve been on a tractor all day,’ ” he tells teammates.
Boskovich is learning about farming because one day he could be asked to take over Boskovich Farms, a family-owned produce operation started in 1915 by Boskovich’s great grandfather.
Boskovich isn’t the only local high school athlete with an intriguing summer job.
Daniel Herr, a Harvard-Westlake water polo player, hopes to become the next Warren Buffett. He’s working for a stockbroker in Sherman Oaks.
Jason Wagner, a Reseda football player, dresses up as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil entertaining visitors at Magic Mountain.
Matt Thayer, a Harvard-Westlake baseball player, is working on his James Dean impression by starring as a troubled 16-year-old in a student film.
Each is preparing for the day when sports is no longer a top priority. And they’re earning some money, too.
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Boskovich, a 6-foot-5, 240-pound senior tight end, is paid $6.50 an hour by his father to drive a tractor.
Sometimes it takes two full days to plant 23 acres of land.
“You get tanned,” he said.
He rides in an open tractor even though there are enclosed, air-conditioned tractors.
“My dad won’t let me drive them,” he said. “He says I don’t deserve it yet.”
Learning the family business from the bottom up is what Boskovich is doing. Last summer, he worked in the mechanics shop.
“It’s fun,” he said.
It’s giving him a chance to see if farming is really something he wants to do in the future. And the good part is he gets to eat lots of vegetables for dinner.
“I love corn,” he said. “We have a vegetable every night.”
Any Westlake teammates who complain if Boskovich drops a pass had better watch out. Remember, Boskovich has access to lots of smelly onions that could be conveniently placed near someone’s locker.
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Since he was 11 and invested in his first company on the stock exchange, Herr has been considered a financial wizard. He loves to offer stock tips to friends and coaches at Harvard-Westlake.
“This kid is always crunching numbers and he’s always coming in with economic books,” water polo Coach Rich Corso said. “He’s a wheeler dealer.”
Added teammate Brian Ault: “If he had his way, he wouldn’t go to college. He’d go straight to Wall Street. He has the ultimate interesting summer job.”
Herr works for a stockbroker at Salomon Smith Barney three days a week. He researches stocks, answers phones and tries to observe the office happenings.
“I’m trying to get into the business,” the 17-year-old junior said.
He’s already made thousands of dollars on his first investment, DeKalb Genetics. He paid $28 a share. The stock has split several times since and may be bought out for $100 a share.
“I knew the stock and picked it because it’s agricultural [genetics] and I thought some of the stuff they were doing is unbelievable,” Herr said.
Herr’s father, Stephen, takes stock advice from his son.
“He’s pretty good,” Stephen said. “And my brother thinks he’s dynamite.”
Herr hasn’t been able to convince Corso to take any advice just yet.
“I walked in one day and told Corso I had this job,” Herr said. “He goes, ‘Give me some stock tips,’ and I told him, ‘Short the Hong Kong dollar.’ He said, ‘Get out of here.’ ”
Herr’s friends don’t mind hearing about his stock tips--to a point.
“He’s always floating tips when we’re in the weight room working out,” Ault said. “He tells me all the time, ‘Go put your money here. That’s going up.’ OK, Danny. Where am I going to get the several thousand dollars I need to invest?”
As for Herr’s hot stock tip of the day, it’s Archer-Daniels-Midland--although he’s searching for a good water polo stock.
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If anyone has the perfect size to wear a Bugs Bunny costume, it’s Wagner, a 5-8, 160-pound junior receiver at Reseda. He has been demonstrating his dancing skills this summer at Magic Mountain wearing lots of costumes.
“It’s one of the funnest jobs,” he said. “It’s no holds barred. You dance around and jump around. When we do parades and I’m in character, I’d grab a security guard and put little jukes on.”
Reseda football Coach Joel Schaeffer has no problem envisioning Wagner as a cartoon character.
“He’s a happy guy,” Schaeffer said. “He doesn’t need a costume.”
For $7 an hour, Wagner has been a friend of many children looking for a hug from Daffy Duck.
“Working in a theme park, everybody’s always in a good mood,” he said.
Well, almost everybody. Teenagers like to pull his tail or hit him in the head.
“Most teenagers want to be tough guys in front of their girlfriends,” he said.
But under his suit, Wagner is always having fun.
“They think you’re Bugs Bunny,” he said.
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There aren’t many high school outfielders with Thayer’s natural swing. He also plays football and soccer at Harvard-Westlake. This summer, Thayer has done more than just play sports.
First, he was a handyman, fixing up a house. He moved furniture, pounded nails into the roof, hooked wire in the attic, mowed the lawn--all for $10 an hour.
His real summer fun was his two-week acting job playing a “just turned 16-year-old messed up” in a film directed by a Loyola Marymount student.
Thayer has been acting and appearing in print ads and commercials for several years. Perhaps you saw him on a Slip and Slide box.
He said playing the role of a troubled 16-year-old was fun. “It was kind of a weird part,” he said.
Not that summer is all work and no play. He’s ready to go water skiing with his friend, baseball player Conor Jackson of El Camino Real. Maybe he’ll discuss acting with Jackson’s father, John, one of the stars of “JAG.”
Then again, maybe they’ll talk baseball. That’s what 16-year-olds usually do during their summer break.
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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.
