Customized-Constructed for Scholar-Athletes, This College Emphasizes Each (Opinion)
IMG Academy, based in 1978 in Bradenton, Fla., could also be one of many nation’s extra fascinating and fewer well-known personal colleges. A residential educational and sport-focused faculty serving grades 6–12, it trains student-athletes in 9 sports activities with a concentrate on getting ready many for school and even skilled athletic careers. In 2022, the college launched IMG Academy+, a web based teaching instrument connecting student-athletes in all places with the college’s coaching and training workers. I first realized about IMG Academy a lot of years in the past and have all the time been intrigued. So, I used to be happy after I not too long ago received the possibility to speak with Michael Lehan, the top of faculty at IMG Academy since 2021, about their work. Lehan is a former school and professional athlete who performed six years within the NFL and is a veteran faculty and system chief who was named 2020 Principal of the Yr by the Minnesota Affiliation of Secondary College Principals. Right here’s what he needed to say.
—Rick
Rick: So, I believe that quite a lot of readers aren’t aware of IMG Academy. Are you able to say a bit about what it’s and the way it received began?
Michael: It’s outstanding how a lot IMG Academy has advanced over the course of 45 years. What began because the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in 1978 has grown to change into the world’s main sports activities schooling model. This 12 months, 25 % of all school freshman roster spots have been stuffed by student-athletes who participated in our on-campus or on-line experiences. Many individuals mistakenly assume we’re an athlete manufacturing unit that exists solely to provide high-level collegiate {and professional} athletes. The fact is that now we have been growing an all-encompassing strategy to schooling and private growth for many years, by way of the distinctive and provoking lens of sport. In “conventional” schooling circles, there’s usually a division between sports activities and lecturers. This division pushes sports activities to the facet as “further” curricular. Our one-of-a-kind holistic schooling mannequin blends the 2 approaches.
Rick: Virtually talking, what does it imply to mix these two approaches?
Michael: Just a few issues. First, now we have a 4:1 on-campus student-to-teacher/coach ratio with one of the intensive supply fashions on the earth. And our workers is nice—over 90 members devoted to college students’ private growth, psychological efficiency, and life expertise. Moreover, we work to make sure a studying setting fitted to each learner and educational ambition stage with three educational tracks together with honors and AP. On the finish of the day, we empower student-athletes to win their future, getting ready them for school and for all times.
Rick: How do you determine which college students to confess?
Michael: At IMG Academy, we consider sports activities, lecturers, and private growth all play an equally essential position in serving to a baby notice their full potential. We purpose to seek out college students who work laborious and are devoted to non-public progress and growth. We take a look at the strengths and alternatives of every particular person and contemplate their previous efficiency and capabilities, in addition to how they’ll contribute to the general IMG Academy group.
Rick: How a lot does IMG Academy price?
Michael: Tuition begins at $70,900 for a day scholar and $89,900 for a scholar who requires on-campus housing. Our sports activities coaching camps begin at a worth of $2,250, and our on-line recruiting and training experiences are wherever from free to a number of thousand {dollars}. Boarding faculty tuition charges are based mostly on the uniquely complete nature of our programming and the breadth of assets accessible to student-athletes. We’ve got over 400 extremely expert academics and coaches on our campus. The place the common D1 school has one or two devoted psychological efficiency coaches overseeing all athletic applications, now we have 12. Our bodily campus consists of top-of-the-line amenities to assist college students throughout 15 totally different sports activities. There’s an simple power to our campus, and it permeates 20-plus multisport fields, 50-plus tennis courts, a 5,000-seat state-of-the-art stadium, an 18-hole golf course, two basketball gyms with a number of courts, two 10,000-plus square-foot weight rooms, the Gatorade Sports activities Science Institute, and a lot extra. Monetary assist is accessible for college students based mostly on an instructional, athletic, character, and monetary overview.
However the in-person expertise isn’t accessible to everybody. That’s why we’re investing so closely in extensively disseminating one of the best practices developed and refined on this distinctive “studying lab” of a campus by way of know-how for on-line teaching (by way of the IMGA+ app) and on-line school recruiting Subsequent Faculty Scholar Athlete (NCSA). There, youngsters, mother and father, and educators can entry first-class assets on every little thing from mindfulness to diet to discovering the precise school match.
Rick: Typically talking, after all, few highschool athletes make it professionally. Are most of your college students hoping to succeed in the skilled stage of their sport? In that case, how profitable are they?
Michael: I used to be lucky to play six years within the NFL, however my expertise may be very, very uncommon, and I retired from soccer after I was 29. We definitely have student-athletes with skilled aspirations; nonetheless, the bulk perceive that what they study at IMG Academy units them on a lifelong path to success of their careers—not simply on the sphere. Scholar-athletes that make the most of our providers are 15 occasions extra more likely to play sports activities in school than college students at conventional excessive colleges. In our 2022 graduating class of simply over 350 student-athletes, 209 are attending D1 universities, greater than 20 are matriculating to high 25 U.S. Information educational universities, and 6 dedicated to Ivy League colleges. Past greater schooling, I encourage all our student-athletes to construct capability past sports activities and discover all their items and skills. By way of our programming and the professionals on campus, our student-athletes see a mirrored image of themselves whereas additionally activating the totality of their humanity. The best present we may give younger individuals is illustration—each a mirror and a window into what is feasible. The higher you perceive your self, the higher you understand your path and path ahead.
Rick: Are you able to say a bit in regards to the educational construction of the college?
Michael: Our college students take six educational courses over two days. Some college students take three programs within the morning after which go to sport- or personal-development periods within the afternoon. Others have sport- or personal-development periods within the morning, adopted by three educational courses within the afternoon. We optimize these schedules based mostly on the game they play. This permits for an ideal mix of sports activities and schooling. We cowl the essential components of the curriculum—math, science, social research, and English—in addition to electives. We’re sturdy within the arts proper now and exploring different alternatives to broaden by way of experiential job-shadowing experiences that we consider will construct a well-rounded profile. We need to present our student-athletes with acute publicity in order that they’re positioned effectively for school and profession. As IMG Academy continues to evolve, it’s necessary to know we’re now not only a bodily campus. Scholar-athletes in all places can now get elementary components and classes, whether or not it’s private growth by way of the lens of sport and efficiency by way of the IMG Academy+ app or on-line college-recruiting assets by way of NCSA. The app specifically is permitting us to democratize entry to the data and assets which were cultivated over the previous 45 years of IMG Academy. College students now not should be bodily on campus to coach in expertise that may assist them thrive in class, athletics, and life.
Rick: Are you able to discuss a bit about educational outcomes? What varieties of educational metrics do you take a look at, and the way do your college students fare?
Michael: At IMG Academy, we attempt to serve the wants of the entire learner and are dedicated to offering an eclectic strategy to studying. We would like our students to be challenged and have the chance to discover their pursuits and construct upon their passions, whereas persevering with to study and develop. We offer 19 AP course choices to our college students and supply distinctive courses in well being and wellness and media broadcasting that empower our college students to develop new expertise. In actual fact, 55 % of our college students are AP students. For the previous 5 years, our students have achieved Nationwide Advantage Scholarship Finalist, Semi-Finalist, and Counseled scholar distinctions. I’m extraordinarily pleased with the work of our students and their potential to thrive on this dynamic and numerous setting. We take a look at educational efficiency, after all, however finally, we would like our college students to thrive after commencement, not simply check effectively. One space the place we’re particularly sturdy is supporting college students to seek out the “proper match” for school and past.
Rick: What’s the philosophy in terms of character formation and the stuff that sometimes falls underneath the umbrella of “social and emotional” studying?
Michael: Our college students take part in an built-in holistic-development program known as Athletic and Private Improvement (APD). This multipronged strategy is designed to hone skills that IMG Academy efficiency consultants and coaches have recognized over time as essential to student-athletes’ achievement and well-being. These expertise embrace coachability, focus, resilience, confidence, dealing with stress, management, and diet. Every of those attributes helps the event of the life expertise we’re hoping to nurture in our younger student-athletes. When our college students graduate and transfer on to varsity and profession, we would like them to really feel assured about the place they’re going. They’ll achieve any aspect of life if their voice, company, and objective are firmly planted and well-informed.
Rick: If there’s one lesson that different Ok–12 colleges may take out of your strategy to teaching and cultivating student-athletes, what wouldn’t it be?
Michael: When our college students graduate and transfer on from IMG Academy, we hope that they know who they’re, what they stand for, and what their values are. Oftentimes, student-athletes are praised for his or her athletic pursuits, however their educational or private identities are missed. It’s essential that we put money into our college students’ holistic-identity growth and assist them to change into all of who they’re. This may be achieved by celebrating our students’ incremental wins as an alternative of solely specializing in the last word or aspirational wins of the longer term.
