IMG Academy -- lowdown?

Very prominent, SD... perhaps the most.   You can search IMG here and there are tons of threads.

Football powerhouse - baseball not so much. 

It's expensive - I believe $70Kish per year but they do offer financial aid.

Huh... interesting.

Did he de-commit and is looking for a new home?  One of his former teammates' parents is a HSBW member so maybe he'll chime in. 

SluggerDad posted:

Just heard that a top player I know in the area, one  who has been  committed to a major West Coast D1 program since his sophomore yea and is now a senior -- is spending his senior year playing  at the IMG Academy in Florida, rather than finishing up at his powerhouse team here in the Bay Area.   I discovered this cause I happened by a game of theirs, noticed he was nowhere to be found and asked what happened to so and so.

I hadn't heard of IMG until now.  Looked it up and it seems to be a national boarding school built around elite athletics.   

Anybody had any experience with it? 

Why would transferring to IMG be lowdown?

I wonder sometimes about kids who already have D1 commitments continuing to showcase a lot, or in this case playing for IMG, but I suppose that is about draft positioning?

I've seen or heard of kids blowing out their arms at showcases after they've already had a D1 commitment and that really seems like a head scratcher.

Go44dad posted:

SluggerDad posted:

Just heard that a top player I know in the area, one  who has been  committed to a major West Coast D1 program since his sophomore yea and is now a senior -- is spending his senior year playing  at the IMG Academy in Florida, rather than finishing up at his powerhouse team here in the Bay Area.   I discovered this cause I happened by a game of theirs, noticed he was nowhere to be found and asked what happened to so and so.

I hadn't heard of IMG until now.  Looked it up and it seems to be a national boarding school built around elite athletics.   

Anybody had any experience with it? 

Why would transferring to IMG be lowdown?

Low down as in anybody got the lowdown on it

I've posted a number of times about IMG. There are many pros and many more cons IMHO.

I now suspect that the sophomore year verbal commitment may not have worked out for this kid.

I don't have the "lowdown," but I've got a recent recruitment story with IMG in it: 

Once in a while I will remember a kid from a showcase or a tournament who played with or against my son in years past as a 14, 15, 16, 17 year old, who impressed me, and I will do a quick "search" to see if the kid stuck with it?  See where he ended up?  Etc. 

I've kept tabs on a young man my son was a teammate of at a showcase about 4 years ago.  Kid was 15 then and a stud.  Hailed from mid-west,  6-3, 215, Switch hitting 1st Baseman, LHP, dual sport QB in the fall, bright young man.  If I was doing casting for a film that needed a rugged mid-western farm boy?  This would be the kid.  And had baseball skills.  Even had the "good face." 

Fall of Jr. year he committed to an American Conference school that I would not have predicted.   Solid school, great city, academic kid, but it was not the place I'd of guessed.  Coincidentally, the school had a burst of success last year in NCAA tourney, and a coaching staff change. 

I looked him up the other day thinking he'd now be on that  AAC team's roster, and he was nowhere to be found?  Appears to have never even set foot on the campus of AAC school he committed to as a Jr?  Did a quick search and bingo!  He's a PG at IMG.  No idea why, other than I'm guessing things did not work out for him at the AAC school he committed to?  Maybe the coaching change did not sit well with him?  Maybe he did not sit well with the new coaches?  I have no idea. 

Maybe he just thought he'd "take a year" at IMG (yes, an expensive one) to restart his recruitment?   That appears to be what has happened as he is now committed to a WAC school.  Good for them and him.  This kid has the "it" factor, I believe.  And I will keep following him in the next few years.

So, not necessarily the "lowdown," but just one player's story with a stop at IMG. 

Forgot to mention that they have both high school and post grad programs. 

SluggerDad posted:

I now suspect that the sophomore year verbal commitment may not have worked out for this kid.

I think you are right as I hear that many big programs here in the east are recruiting him. Don't know if this is really true or not.

SluggerDad posted:

Go44dad posted:

SluggerDad posted:

Just heard that a top player I know in the area, one  who has been  committed to a major West Coast D1 program since his sophomore yea and is now a senior -- is spending his senior year playing  at the IMG Academy in Florida, rather than finishing up at his powerhouse team here in the Bay Area.   I discovered this cause I happened by a game of theirs, noticed he was nowhere to be found and asked what happened to so and so.

I hadn't heard of IMG until now.  Looked it up and it seems to be a national boarding school built around elite athletics.   

Anybody had any experience with it? 

Why would transferring to IMG be lowdown?

Low down as in anybody got the lowdown on it

Low Down....Gotcha, too much time in New Orleans...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0_eRVroLqs

I hope we don't look back in 10 years and see IMG as a big cause for the demise of HS baseball and football  

HS soccer was ruined by the rise of groups that wanted to compete directly with the HS season. I'm afraid IMG may open the door for the same in other sports. 

Here in Texas football there's a very public war with Tx HS coaches and IMG recruiting away top talent. 

I see where it may benefit a kid, don't misunderstand, but big picture I personally don't like the direction it takes us. 

The Georgia High School Association has prohibited football teams from playing IMG since they are an independent member of Florida's high school association. 

http://www.gwinnettprepsports....1b-9ab7b4af3b54.html

Jason Groome -- first-round pick of Red Sox last year -- did junior year at IMG but actually returned to his hometown high school team as a senior. 

http://usatodayhss.com/2016/di...y-barnegat-mlb-draft

Brady Aiken also went there when he didn't sign with the Astros.

IMG is loaded with very talented kids in every sport they offer, e.g., football, basketball, baseball, soccer...and of course tennis and golf.  Now lacrosse, track and field, etc. etc.

In baseball, there are future sure fire draftees and a bunch of D1 caliber guys.  There's also about half or more of the kids who will never play baseball in college.  For every superstar (who typically get a massive discount on the cost of attending) there's a few guys who'd struggle to make their high school JV team but are paying full freight (~$75K per year). 

There's multiple varsity teams.  A post grad team.  JV team.  Middle school team.  There's a lot of kids who's families are paying massive $$$.  And there's a few superstars who aren't paying much if anything.  IMG is a for-profit endeavor. 

My kids play college baseball.  My oldest played D1.  That's in spite of IMG IMHO.  If I had it to do over again, we would never have let my boys go there.  For many, many reasons which I've stated before.  

So what in general makes kids want to go there and parents willing to foot the bill? Especially the elite players -- do they get increased visibility? Better competition? Or are they mostly like the kid I know -- high early expectations that didn't pan out and a second bite at the recruitment/draft apple?

For those who don't know IMG's origins are Nick Bolletieri's tennis camp. Becker, Agassi, Seles, Sharapova , Courier, Hingis, and the Williams sisters are among those who attended. 

IMG bought him out and expanded into other sports. Talk about an opportunity to scout for talent that needs an agent!

SluggerDad posted:

So what in general makes kids want to go there and parents willing to foot the bill? Especially the elite players -- do they get increased visibility? Better competition? Or are they mostly like the kid I know -- high early expectations that didn't pan out and a second bite at the recruitment/draft apple?

I know for my son, it was the weather (like not for laying out on the beach, but for being able to truly work out comfortably year around) and the ability to focus on baseball, even more so than academics.  I know that doesn't sound right......obviously the academics would be a focus but relative to my kid, baseball would for the first time take EQUAL footing with school.  He has never done that.  Ever. 

In the end, not the right place for him.  Never even applied.  But for a kid who has attended a "northerly" boarding school for the past 3 years, and a cold, wet, rainy year on France's west coast, the thought of playing baseball in Florida for a year was really attractive. 

But, ain't happening. 

A young man I know took a gray shirt year there. He had no D1 offers out of high school despite a pro-looking body because his game wasn't there yet. He came back with a shorter, quicker swing and got a shot at a major conference school. 

Locally, we have a couple of former Clemson players looking to start their own local version of IMG.  Will it fly?  I doubt it.  But, I've been wrong before.  http://psabb.com/

SluggerDad posted:

So what in general makes kids want to go there and parents willing to foot the bill? Especially the elite players -- do they get increased visibility? Better competition? Or are they mostly like the kid I know -- high early expectations that didn't pan out and a second bite at the recruitment/draft apple?

We have two players from our area (midwest) going to IMG.  They went for greater competition, more full time dedication to their sport, more exposure opportunities, and the improved weather enabling more games.

One of these players is a 2017 with a commitment to an SEC school, and after a year of being there he looks like a higher level player with his increase in size and refined skills, and he's now a draft possibility.  In this kids case, I don't think he would have been able to commit as much time to baseball or draw the interest of top SEC or ACC schools if he hadn't of gone to IMG.  While funding IMG was not an issue for the family, IMG offered substantial "scholarship" assistance as an incentive.  Probably a great choice for this player.

The other kid, a 2018, is still as small as he was when he left for IMG a year ago.  The kid and family have never been on board with the off season commitment required to increase chances of playing at the next level; hopefully IMG will be able to help.  Hopefully things will turnaround for this player.  Parents are funding IMG because they can, just another boarding school to them....

We know a kid who transferred into IMG for baseball and another for football. Their football program is better some years than others but baseball is really good. This baseabll kid is able to concentrate on his sport year round and dedicate himself to getting better. I will check back in the fall with my reports. 

Football is only good ,IMHO, if you are from an area where your school teams dont play on a national level. In our area for football and basketball there are many national choices so we dont have as many kids go for football and we scheduled them the last several years with mixed results. But we have cold winters most years that make baseball challenging during that time. So it makes more sense for that sport.

Their facilities are second to none. Their proximity to the beach and ocean is very tempting. IF you get the chance to do ao tourney or showcase near there check it out. Easy to recruit kids once they see the campus 

Branson Baseball posted:

IMG is a for-profit endeavor. 

They sure are. I visited IMG's website yesterday and now I'm being followed by  "remarketing" ads for IMG Academy everywhere I go on the internet. 

JCG posted:

Branson Baseball posted:

IMG is a for-profit endeavor. 

They sure are. I visited IMG's website yesterday and now I'm being followed by  "remarketing" ads for IMG Academy everywhere I go on the internet. 

Me too.  And this is just going to get worse with the bill that just passed the Congress to allow ISP to sell your search history to whomever they want. 

I had my first visit to IMG last June and will return this coming June for what is to become an annual 16u event.

I would describe the facilities, in a word, as "palatial."  Somehow, somewhere, there is a ton of money flowing through that place.

The assessment of the talent pool there as noted above is accurate.  I have noted their teams' performance in Perfect Game events, and they are pretty much in the middle of the pack.

I think for some people, if they have the money, it's a way to try to pull out all the stops to get where they want to go.  That might be a high level talent trying to assure a Power 5 deal or a pro draft.  Or it might be a "bubble" kid trying to assure a college deal of some sort.  The idea is to go all in with sport-specific coaching as well as nutrition and conditioning at a level you won't get otherwise.

I do not worry about them hindering HS sports generally because, quite candidly, there aren't but so many people willing to pay that kind of money to go to a baseball boarding school.  The ROI can't be all that great except for a veritable handful who might some day make it to MLB.  When I think of someone spending that sort of cash on a boarding school, I think more of the kinds of places depicted in "Dead Poets' Society."  The kind of place where everyone is going to end up a captain of industry or a Wall Street magnate.

nxt lvl posted:

We know a kid who transferred into IMG for baseball and another for football. Their football program is better some years than others but baseball is really good. This baseabll kid is able to concentrate on his sport year round and dedicate himself to getting better. I will check back in the fall with my reports. 

Football is only good ,IMHO, if you are from an area where your school teams dont play on a national level. In our area for football and basketball there are many national choices so we dont have as many kids go for football and we scheduled them the last several years with mixed results. But we have cold winters most years that make baseball challenging during that time. So it makes more sense for that sport.

Their facilities are second to none. Their proximity to the beach and ocean is very tempting. IF you get the chance to do ao tourney or showcase near there check it out. Easy to recruit kids once they see the campus 

Great points but their football program is one of the best in the nation, at least over the last few years, while baseball program is okay from what I've heard from a few parents of kids who've played them. 

SluggerDad posted:

JCG posted:

Branson Baseball posted:

IMG is a for-profit endeavor. 

They sure are. I visited IMG's website yesterday and now I'm being followed by  "remarketing" ads for IMG Academy everywhere I go on the internet. 

Me too.  And this is just going to get worse with the bill that just passed the Congress to allow ISP to sell your search history to whomever they want. 

Going to get worse than you and I and everyone else could ever imagine.

Midlo Dad posted:

When I think of someone spending that sort of cash on a boarding school, I think more of the kinds of places depicted in "Dead Poets' Society."  The kind of place where everyone is going to end up a captain of industry or a Wall Street magnate.

Somewhat unrelated background.  The author of Dead Poets based the story on his experience as a student at the school my boy attends.  The cost is a lot less than IMG, though it is not a boarding school. However, the school has produced a couple of current MLB pitchers.

Branson Baseball posted:

IMG is loaded with very talented kids in every sport they offer, e.g., football, basketball, baseball, soccer...and of course tennis and golf.  Now lacrosse, track and field, etc. etc.

In baseball, there are future sure fire draftees and a bunch of D1 caliber guys.  There's also about half or more of the kids who will never play baseball in college.  For every superstar (who typically get a massive discount on the cost of attending) there's a few guys who'd struggle to make their high school JV team but are paying full freight (~$75K per year). 

There's multiple varsity teams.  A post grad team.  JV team.  Middle school team.  There's a lot of kids who's families are paying massive $$$.  And there's a few superstars who aren't paying much if anything.  IMG is a for-profit endeavor. 

My kids play college baseball.  My oldest played D1.  That's in spite of IMG IMHO.  If I had it to do over again, we would never have let my boys go there.  For many, many reasons which I've stated before.  

I can believe you on the "In spite of" comment. IMG recruits players not develop them. 

Along the IMG lines ... this dropped today: IMG Baseball Continues to be Cutting Edge