Inside IMG Academy — the high school football factory that teams love to hate

BRADENTON, Fla. — Within the moments after IMG Academy as soon as once more finishes lighting up a scoreboard someplace throughout the nation, its gamers are sometimes swarmed. Youngsters faucet gamers asking for a pair of gloves worn throughout one other IMG rout. They even ask for sweat-stained towels. Teenage contemporaries have their Snapchat apps open on their telephones and ask for selfies. Those that present as much as watch IMG know they’re watching brightening stars who will quickly explode onto the nationwide school soccer scene.

“These children are rock stars,” IMG coach Billy Miller mentioned.

These are additionally highschool college students.

IMG, nonetheless, just isn’t your common prep soccer powerhouse. IMG’s sprawling 600-acre campus, bathed in sunshine and palm bushes, features a 5,000-seat stadium for observe and soccer, a state-of-the-art efficiency and sports activities science middle and its personal 150-room luxurious lodge for guests. A Johns Hopkins College hospital affiliate manages all well being companies and bodily remedy, in keeping with the varsity’s web site.

Since Florida State’s 2000 Heisman Trophy winner, Chris Weinke, helped launch IMG’s soccer program in 2010, the Ascenders have gone 92-7. That features a 38-game successful streak, the 2020 nationwide title and blowout wins over a number of of the nation’s high highschool packages. IMG had 14 alumni on NFL rosters because the season opened, essentially the most of any highschool within the nation, according to the NFL.

The boarding faculty with 75 former gamers on rosters of Energy 5 school packages, together with seven on two-time defending nationwide champion Georgia, retains annihilating opponents.

Final yr, the Ascenders beat West Toronto Prep, 96-0. Most IMG video games are blowouts — whether or not it’s an incredible highschool staff lining up throughout the sector or an 0-7 staff like WTP. This yr’s staff has gamers who’re dedicated to packages reminiscent of Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee and Georgia.

Bear in mind the Bishop Sycamore charade? IMG is this system that awkwardly stampeded over what would ultimately be found to be a fabricated faculty and program on nationwide tv.

In 2020, IMG went on the highway and beat nationally ranked Duncanville, Texas, 41-14. The Ascenders haven’t landed a single Texas highschool staff on their schedule since.

Some colleges have stopped answering cellphone calls to play once more, mentioned Miller, who coaches the nationwide staff. Some who haven’t performed IMG don’t trouble to answer emails, texts or calls in any respect. The Athletic reached out to packages in 5 totally different states which have performed IMG in recent times and the one coaches who have been keen to debate IMG have been not too long ago approached in particular person at a match in Florida.

IMG’s ascent within the prep soccer world has left many soccer followers pondering frequent questions: Is IMG Academy too good? And who precisely is monitoring its recruiting practices?

This system with rock stars at almost each place could be essentially the most dominant faculty within the nation, however it isn’t with out its detractors. Some coaches have accused IMG of actively recruiting gamers away from their packages, promoting the IMG actuality that, in Bradenton, you possibly can simulate life as a future school soccer student-athlete extra precisely than wherever else and observe and play alongside the very best expertise within the nation. Others have determined to see IMG’s rise as a gold commonplace of types.

“The factor I attempt to train my guys is to run to the fireplace, not from it,” mentioned Messay Hailemariam, who coaches St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, one of many common staples on IMG’s schedule every season.

IMG Academy began because the Nick Bollettieri tennis academy in 1978, a spot for tennis prodigies. It’s the place Venus and Serena Williams developed into legends. Within the years since, IMG has expanded to fifteen sports activities and produced a whole bunch of Olympic {and professional} athletes.

However what’s now one of many preeminent highschool soccer packages within the nation began in a single-wide trailer surrounded by tomato fields. Weinke skilled at IMG within the months after his stellar profession at Florida State resulted in 2000. Ten years later, he was employed to discover a method so as to add soccer to the academy’s rising listing of distinguished sports activities. Weinke instructed IMG it could take 5 years to get a soccer program off the bottom. It took him and his newly assembled employees three.

There simply wasn’t anyplace to do it on the time.

“I needed to actually order my very own soccer gear. I didn’t have a soccer subject. I needed to make the most of a soccer subject,” mentioned Weinke, now co-offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. “I used to be on a campus that was a lot totally different at the moment than it was again then.”

The idea for what IMG soccer might turn out to be over time began to materialize.

“My entire imaginative and prescient and aim of that program was to reflect what a school soccer program appeared like in order that gamers who left IMG have been extra ready and able to play at an earlier age in school than your typical highschool participant,” Weinke mentioned.

IMG started to buy extra land round its expansive campus. These tomato fields, Weinke mentioned, quickly grew to become football-specific observe fields. Soccer gamers used to share a weight room with different athletes earlier than the 55,000-square-foot IMG Efficiency & Sports activities Science Middle was constructed. All this was obligatory for IMG to succeed in that aim Weinke envisioned early on.

Now?

The soccer program has 155 gamers unfold out over 4 groups, Miller mentioned. It begins with the star-studded nationwide squad, however there are additionally two varsity groups (IMG white and IMG blue) and a postgraduate staff, which received the Nationwide Publish Graduate Athletic Affiliation championship final yr. The rosters on the varsity and postgraduate groups aren’t very massive so gamers get extra taking part in time. That’s by design.

“The one downfall about going there may be that whenever you depart there to go play school soccer, the amenities could also be worse than what you simply had in highschool,” Weinke mentioned, laughing.

Dedication. Sacrifice. Exhausting work. Whenever you come to @IMGAcademy, it’s larger than you.

Shield the #Brotherhood. pic.twitter.com/mftZBY8b6G

— IMG Academy Soccer (@IMGAFootball) August 18, 2023

Kevin Wright, who succeeded Weinke after Weinke left to be the quarterbacks coach for the St. Louis Rams in January 2015, remembers going to go to former star linebacker Dylan Moses at Alabama just some months after Moses graduated from IMG in December 2016. Moses instructed Wright that life at Alabama — sure, Alabama — was a breeze in comparison with the strict schedule as a student-athlete at IMG.

“We’ve by no means had a lot free time in our lives,” Moses joked with Wright.

Wright, who coached at IMG till 2019, has spent the previous 4 seasons as tight ends coach at Indiana. He reiterated that whereas IMG comes with all of the perks of constructing a modern-day star athlete, it doesn’t work with out embracing the grind of the schedule and life-style. That’s what Weinke needed to construct, in any case.

“That place is hard,” Wright mentioned. “It’s completely not for everyone.”

Soccer followers would possibly know Josh Lambo as a kicker who spent almost a decade taking part in within the NFL, however he began out as a member of the U.S. youth soccer staff at IMG. Lambo lived the Bradenton life earlier than he transitioned from soccer to soccer, however mentioned the trials of IMG ready him for the pressures of life and the place.

“We weren’t actually allowed to be children, however being a child is overrated,” he mentioned. “I’d reasonably achieve success as an grownup than have enjoyable as a child.”

Winston Watkins has rather a lot going for him.

He’s the cousin of 2014 NFL first-round decide Sammy Watkins and an elite highschool receiver within the graduating class of 2025 who’s dedicated to play at Colorado for Deion Sanders.

He doubtless nonetheless would’ve developed into one of the coveted recruits in his class had he not transferred to IMG in ninth grade. However there’s a purpose Watkins purchased the recruiting pitch when he was nonetheless an eighth grader: IMG’s top-notch infrastructure and its observe file of placing gamers into the NFL.

“IMG provides me that publicity I want and likewise retains me from all that nonsense I don’t have to be round,” mentioned Watkins, who caught 25 passes for 393 yards and 10 touchdowns on the Ascenders nationwide staff final season as a sophomore, and who’s ranked the fifty fifth finest participant in his class in keeping with the 247Sports Composite.

“I get to be round greats on a regular basis. If I stayed in Fort Myers, I really feel like I wouldn’t be nearly as good as I’m now as a result of I wouldn’t must attempt at observe. As a result of there’s loads of children who don’t care about soccer. Right here, I am going towards the very best of the very best in observe and actual video games.”

Watkins transferred to Naples First Baptist final week, he said recently in a social media post, to be nearer to an ailing member of the family. However he liked his time at IMG.

Gamers at IMG mentioned they’re satisfied entry to world-class amenities, high coaches, a college-type schedule — observe within the morning and college within the afternoon — whereas dwelling on campus prepares them for the subsequent stage in methods going to a conventional faculty can not.

Alabama freshman defensive again Desmond Ricks, who transferred to IMG after his freshman yr of highschool in Norfolk, Va., mentioned IMG helped him hone his time administration expertise. Discuss to present IMG nationwide staff gamers, and also you hear lots of the identical causes they left their respective highschool packages.

“I wasn’t mature sufficient to return and depart my household when IMG first recruited me as a highschool sophomore, however on the finish of my junior season I used to be like, I have to enroll early (in school). I have to deal with my enterprise and it is a faculty that I felt prepares you,” mentioned four-star offensive sort out Jordan Seaton, who transferred to IMG from St. John’s Catholic faculty in Washington, D.C., in Might.

“I’m not saying I wasn’t ready again there. However this faculty is as shut to a school as you get. With the ability to breathe this life, eat this life — sleep, eat, sleep, work — doing it again and again constantly, I really feel like I’m one step nearer to my huge aim.”

Seaton, whom Miller compares to 2022 No. 7 decide and former IMG star Evan Neal, has trimmed his physique fats down to eight.4 % after weighing as a lot 350 kilos at his earlier faculty. He’s labored with nutritionists at IMG and adjusted his food regimen. At 6-5, 300 kilos, he’s one of many high remaining uncommitted highschool recruits within the 2024 cycle. Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Colorado are amongst his present leaders.

Attending IMG isn’t low-cost. The varsity web site listed the soccer program’s tuition for the 2022-23 faculty yr starting from $65,400 to $87,900 per yr relying on age, boarding and grade of student-athlete. Some obtain monetary assist. Others don’t. Sponsorship from firms reminiscent of Below Armour and Gatorade helps cowl among the prices.

“All people paid one thing, I do know that,” Wright mentioned. “On the finish of the day, it’s a for-profit enterprise.”

The day The Athletic visited campus, there was an indication posted within the males’s lavatory above a urinal reminding college students on campus to ensure they have been utterly outfitted in Below Armour attire.

Endeavor, the mother or father firm of Worldwide Administration Group, bought IMG Academy to a Hong Kong-based non-public fairness agency in April for $1.25 billion. The academy generates roughly $80 million a yr, in keeping with Zippia, and doesn’t take part within the Florida Excessive College Athletic Affiliation state playoffs, partly, as a result of it recruits gamers globally.

Highschool coaches and fan bases aren’t pleased when IMG recruits their finest gamers away to hitch its star-studded nationwide staff roster.

“I can let you know there’s loads of highschool coaches that didn’t like me,” Weinke mentioned. “I can promise you that. And that’s OK. My final aim was to place one thing in place to create alternatives for younger males to maximise their potential. Backside line.”

St. John Bosco coach Jason Negro, whose staff from Bellflower, Calif., ranks tenth within the nationwide polls, is a kind of coaches. He mentioned IMG recruited away one among his high receivers in 2018, Josh Delgado, who’s now at Oregon. Delgado had the provide from Oregon earlier than he left for IMG, Negro confirmed.

“The one downside that I’ve (with IMG) is there’s no governing physique that regulates their capacity to chase after gamers,” Negro mentioned. “We’re sure by guidelines by way of contact interval, undue affect. My children are always referred to as by folks from their group, and that doesn’t sit properly with me. If I’ve a child that chooses to go there or come to me, I’m not against transfers. However what I don’t perceive is that they need to name my gamers and name two weeks later to play a recreation. That doesn’t sit properly with me. Coach your guys up together with your folks. However don’t come and actively hunt my guys.”

Negro mentioned he’d schedule IMG if he might, however Bosco can’t as a result of California state guidelines don’t permit it to play versus colleges ineligible for their very own state match. Bosco’s rival, Mater Dei, beat IMG, 28-24, in 2018 earlier than state guidelines modified, Negro mentioned.

The packages who do schedule the Ascenders, Miller mentioned, are led by “like-minded folks” who “need to play good soccer packages.” IMG opened the season with a 35-10 win at Nashville’s Lipscomb Academy and a 17-14 victory towards Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s Prep, two colleges that received state championships final yr. They defeated Indianapolis’ Ben Davis, one among Indiana’s top-ranked packages, 34-14, and Glenville (Ohio) 28-6. Bartram Path (Fla.), which went 12-1 final season, is up subsequent on Oct. 6.

#Oklahoma 5-star DL commit David Stone with a ridiculous 94yd decide six to place IMG Academy up 27-7 at Indianapolis Ben Davis within the third. An important play as the house staff had momentum. https://t.co/sduoLIuZjx pic.twitter.com/R0xxNO28E2

— Steve Wiltfong (@SWiltfong247) September 9, 2023

There are solely two groups ranked forward of IMG in MaxPreps nationwide rankings: top-ranked Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei and Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman.

“(IMG) reached out to us, however our schedule was full,” mentioned Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade coach Dameon Jones, whose staff has received 5 state titles previously seven years and is ranked two spots behind IMG in MaxPreps’ nationwide rankings at No. 5. “We performed them my first yr (in 2016, shedding 43-0). They confirmed us the place we needed to get to.”

IMG’s Anthony Rogers, a four-star operating again within the Class of 2025 who’s dedicated to Alabama, mentioned his outdated highschool teammates and coaches referred to as him a traitor when he transferred to IMG in March and instructed him he “wouldn’t have the ability to compete at this stage.”

Miller waved off the notion that IMG’s ascent is a blemish on the state of prep soccer.

“To me, whoever has one thing damaging to say, it’s in all probability envy,” he mentioned. “You possibly can’t say one factor till you reside it. You haven’t any concept what it’s about.”

Like dozens of his teammates, four-star linebacker Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng is within the midst of his school recruitment course of. Identify a blue-blood program, and it has already provided. In selecting a faculty, although, Owusu-Boateng is in search of out an expertise that can present him there’s extra to life than simply soccer. He desires to be ready for the time soccer ends.

However as a way to look past soccer method down the road, he had to consider the soccer path he’s on first — the one which introduced him to IMG this spring from Hyattsville, Md.

“It was a enterprise transfer, however on the identical time an incredible transfer,” he mentioned. “Realizing the fellows who got here in and got here out, you possibly can simply see the trigger and impact.”

(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photographs: Manny Navarro / The Athletic)