IMG Academy the best high school for ANY sport development?

I cheer for their opponents. Too much talent on one team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFnFq_52Vj0

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

I only hear about it's football and basketball talent but has IMG produced any notable high school distance runners?

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Freshman Carly McNatt just started there this year and is the top ranked freshman in the nation.

She finished 36th at NXN last year and is much improved this year.

Too early to tell though how things will turn out in the long run.

I only knew about it for their soccer academy. It's in Florida, right? I didn't know that they had other sports involved.

High School phenoms wrote:

I only knew about it for their soccer academy. It's in Florida, right? I didn't know that they had other sports involved.

Yeah it's a comprehensive high school sports school. Sports preparation is the school's primary purpose.

It's very well known for it's tennis alumni as well: Agassi, Sharapova:

The IMG academy recruits already established prime athletes in order to use them as positive examples so they can overcharge kids with average talent that have rich or desperate parents.

Like it or not, that's what it is.

Tennis? Or am I thinking of something else?

$55,000 to $77,000 per year.

I haven't been impressed with their XC or track results. Somebody has to pay the bills to keep those scholarship kids rolling in for football and basketball.

big game wrote:

The IMG academy recruits already established prime athletes in order to use them as positive examples so they can overcharge kids with average talent that have rich or desperate parents.

Like it or not, that's what it is.

+1 it's true.

Started for just gifted tennis kids by sports agent Mark McCormack of International Management Group (IMG). He made money as their agent and lawyer first, it became a success, and, then rich parents asked to pay for their (average) kids coaching.

It's always the rich kids parents, next thing you know is that they will be cheating on tests and faking athlete ability to get their kids into prestigious schools.

random ray wrote:

I haven't been impressed with their XC or track results. Somebody has to pay the bills to keep those scholarship kids rolling in for football and basketball.

IMG Academy is now ranked #18 on Milesplit

High School phenoms wrote:I only knew about it for their soccer academy. It's in Florida, right? I didn't know that they had other sports involved.

I also only knew about their soccer academy. I didn't know until a few years ago that they had other sports. I did know about tennis but didn't know that they were at the same location.

random ray wrote:

I haven't been impressed with their XC or track results. Somebody has to pay the bills to keep those scholarship kids rolling in for football and basketball.

In sports like Tennis, soccer, baseball, Football, basketball and so on, there has been a lot of talent evaluation before you hit high school. You might not be able to tell who will turn into a AAA recruit but getting people who can be starters on a top level program is pretty doable. With distance runners a ton of talent has basically never trained til HS. There are some decent kids with good results pre HS but I am not sure there are enough.

And beside who the heck goes all in on a distance running career at 13? The potential pay off just isn't there.

There’s just no reason to pay over 50k in tuition to get your kid on a pretty average XC team.

top frosh wrote:

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

I only hear about it's football and basketball talent but has IMG produced any notable high school distance runners?

/

Freshman Carly McNatt just started there this year and is the top ranked freshman in the nation.

She finished 36th at NXN last year and is much improved this year.

Too early to tell though how things will turn out in the long run.

Opinion: IMG isn't "producing" Carly. She was a top runner in the state before she showed up there.

IMG has THE best collection of high school coaches across all sports in the country. Just take a look at who they bring in to coach their athlete-students. But, yes while they have had some individual and team successes over the years, there is a large population of good (not great) athletes who attend the school. Parents with the resources send their reasonably gifted kids in hopes the top notch coaching can get them to that next level. Even with the best coaches though, it rarely happens.

carley has been hurt for months and has had to put on weight because she was very far under weight all last year. IMG has done a fantasic job developing her slowly and keeping her healhty

Their tuition package is $82,400 per year for track and field athletes (roughly comparable for other sports), but then they add non-refundable fees that bring it to $95,000 per year!

That is not including "U.S. insurance fees." That is insane outside the revenue sports, where the top athletes are probably on scholarship anyway.

Tatum David of olney Illinois was 2A state XC champ as a frosh has apparently enrolled there.