Academy Awards

By Brandt Young

Sports Columnist

Brandt Young

Do me a favor – Google the top 25 high school football teams in America right now. Is there something that catches your eye? We all know the powerhouses are (generally) in California, Texas, and Georgia, but that’s not my concern here.

And ‘concern’ is too tough a word, I suppose. I’m not concerned with what I see, necessarily, just aware. 

What am I aware of, you ask? Academies.

Yes, you read that correctly. Academies. They are on the rise, and frankly, it’s taking away from small-town sports that we’ve all grown up with. 

But before I dive into that, let me be clear: I will never, ever fault a kid for honing their skills, getting exposure, and building their brand. I actually want to help with that journey, in fact. There is no bigger joy in my life than being able to recreate the Leonardo meme where I’m pointing to the TV and saying, ‘I know that kid!’ and showing pictures of them in high school.

This, in my eyes, is the result of parents and their obsession with their kids’ success. There’s nothing wrong with that, either. But, couple that with the world of NIL, viral fame, and an ever-competitive sports world, and we now have mini-colleges.

Take IMG Academy, for example. For $74,900 a year, your child can go to a premier… institution? $95,900 with room and board, of course. 

I put the question mark because we know IMG as a sports powerhouse, but what is the academic standing of the institution? Well, according to niche.com, not very good. Like, not even in the top 100 boarding schools in the country. Not even in the top 350 private schools in the U.S. Not even a top-five boarding school in Florida.

That might be a bit of a dramatic example, but it’s still an example of what I mean. These prep schools get kids prepared for collegiate athletics, sure, but there are many pitfalls.

Take a trip with me, if you will, down memory lane. Do you remember the kid from your area who made it to the pros? Or even a Power-5 school? You took a lot of pride in that, didn’t you? You still probably brag about that to this day. “See that, son? (Insert professional player here) once helped me fix a flat tire on my bike over there,” or something to that effect, has been said a time or two by either you or someone you’re close to.

Shelby, or Crest, or Burns, or Kings Mountain, or whatever other school you’re loyal to – they’ve had someone ‘famous’ that you and your fellow alumni have clung to the coattails of. And that’s OK. It’s welcomed. It’s awesome. It’s what makes sports fun.

Private academies are taking that away.

I have no issue with academies. They’re great places to learn. Smaller classes, more intimate instruction, learned uniformity, the list of benefits go on. They’re becoming less about that, though, and more about how to churn out super teams that LeBron would be jealous of.

What used to be a no-no in recruiting is the standard for private academies now. NIL used to be outlawed, but the first schools to be allowed to offer it were the private academies.

Gone are the days of equal competition, and in are powerhouses that literally buy talent for high school-aged children. If you’re not the top one percent of athletes in your area, sorry, you’re not going to make it at our super expensive, super exclusive academy. 

Take me back to when private academies were just that – a private academy, not a private sports training facility living under the guise of being academically superior.

This also shouldn’t be taken as me saying every private school is like this – this is probably far closer to the exception than it is the rule, but something about the loudest voices being the smallest sample sizes (or something to that effect). 

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Brandt Young is a columnist, sports writer, and a described self-taught cigar aficionado. He has freelanced for various publications, and most recently served as a sports editor for a newspaper in North Carolina. Originally from Ohio, he resides here in North Carolina with his family.