Hidden Gems: Meet Wes Terry of Santa Monica Sports Academy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wes Terry.

Hi Wes, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have a rich history and relationship in coaching and developing players in the Santa Monica area. I’ve coached football, soccer, basketball, baseball and softball. As a former little league board member, soccer commissioner and coach respectively, I have a unique perspective on the Santa Monica area youth and how I can best serve them like no other. Since I created the Santa Monica Baseball Academy, I expanded the program to include the Santa Monica Softball Academy to offer a positive learning environment for young girls. Both programs have introduced hundreds of elementary and middle school children in the Santa Monica area to the primary fundamentals of baseball and softball. SMBA/SMSBA has grown from seasonal to year-round programs to include afterschool programs, club teams, elementary, middle and high school based instructional programs throughout the city of Santa Monica. To date, we are the largest baseball and softball academy on the Westside. In 2026, we expanded our baseball programs to Los Angeles schools with our developmental afterschool baseball and softball programs. In 2018, I expanded the academy to include basketball teaching fundamentals and skills training programs to establish a solid foundation of basketball for elementary and middle school players. I also partnered with the LA Clippers youth program and the Jr. NBA to further expand our programming and introduce players to more basketball resources. We now have developmental basketball programs with the city of Santa Monica schools too. Early on, I included strength and agility training with baseball, softball and basketball with an emphasis on healthy eating and fitness. We do a weekly speed and Agility class to offer a complete and unique experience for our players at each session. Working with certified trainers I came up with unique training strategies that give a new and fresh approach to coaching youth players. The success of each of our programs is evident by our return rate to camps and clinics which has been in excess of 70%! Our programs focus on training and development first. Our club teams are competitive, but focus on player fundamentals first to prepare them for high school sports. A major accomplishment is that we build a strong community feeling and players and families stay with us for many years!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, youth sports is empowering, complicated and filled with emotions. Navigating parents, players and programs present their own unique sets of emotional land mines. When SMBA first started, there were no baseball, softball or basketball academies on the Westside devoted to the development of youth sports. Since we began, dozens of other individuals have tried to follow our unique brand and compete with us on a local and regional level. We are constantly upgrading, improvising and finding new ways to separate what we do from organizations who make the same claim, but cannot fulfill the promises that we do on a daily basis.
Youth sports has exploded from the high school and college level down to the little leagues, travel ball and fitness!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The Santa Monica Sports Academy encompasses, the Santa Monica Baseball Academy, Santa Monica Basketball Academy, Santa Monica Softball Academy and now the Santa Monica Sports Academy that fulfills Flag Football.
We were the first to create, build and have yearly programs devoted to each sport for winter, summer, fall and spring camps for players on the Westside. We are innovators of training programs, camps, and clinics for each of the individual sports that did not exist before us. To date, we are the largest baseball, softball and basketball academies on the Westside serving thousands of youths each year. We are especially proud of our return rate of players who come back to our camps and club programs. In 2023, we took our 16U baseball team to the Pony League International World Series! A feat that had never been done in the history of youth baseball on the Westside. We went 15-0 and competed in Illinois with teams from Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico with regional teams across the U.S.! In 2020 we started Saturday Night Hoops! A weekly basketball jam, whereby local kids can come and hoop it up each Saturday from 5pm-9pm. It was such a success, we had girls coming out competing with the boys with over 40 players each Saturday night! SMSA offers camps, skill clinics, private training and club teams that focus on development and fundamentals.

What’s next?
SMSA has already expanded to international play. We are looking forward to taking our 14U baseball team to the Eurocup in August in Germany and our 11U baseball team to Taiwan next year. We are petitioning the NFL Flag program to start a Westside team and division to compete on a larger stage.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://santamonicasportsacademy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/santamonicabaseballacademy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiZr2RSBYMQd8oe30X5w3ow

Image Credits
SMBA