By FRANCIS FEDOR
Every week during the high school (HS) sports season, a reader can follow coverage of our South Shore teams, Spoto, Sumner, Lennard, Riverview and East Bay, in the pages of the Observer News. In recent years there has been a rise in the competitiveness in the HS sports landscape. It’s always a proud moment for the school and coaching staff when a player commits to a college program or, even better, when the athlete turns pro. The South Shore has seen Lennard and Riverview players advance to the major leagues. Jackson Tetreault, from Lennard HS, was drafted in 2017 by the Washington Nationals and was added to the major league roster in 2022. He made his first start on Tuesday, June 14, vs. the Atlanta Braves, a loss where he allowed seven earned runs. He finished that stint with the big club after four games, due to injury, and returned to the Minors to rehab and is now currently out of the league. The South Shore still has two players actively on either an MiLB or MLB roster. Freddy Tarnok is on the minor league roster for the Philadelphia Philles, a former top prospect of the Oakland (soon to be Las Vegas) A’s, and Jordan Leasure is on the major league roster of the Chicago White Sox. Both players graduated from Riverview HS. Tarnok was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2017 in the third round and made his MLB debut in 2022. He has appeared in six games over two appearances with the big club. Leasure was selected in the 14th round of the 2021 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, made his MLB debut on March 30 of this year and has appeared in 25 games. He has been credited with two saves, including one against the Tampa Bay Ray’s in Chicago on April 28. Those players are the outliers of a very competitive route to the pro’s. But there is a HS just south of the area that has a charter to position players to make it to the college and pro levels.
IMG Academy (International Management Group), based in Bradenton, is a prep school that declares on its website, “Across IMG Academy’s available programs and services, our student-athletes fill approximately 25% of all college freshman roster spots annually. Through world-class on-campus and online experiences, IMG Academy helps student-athletes win their future, preparing them for college and beyond.”
In 2021, IMG set a new record with having seven IMG alumni selected into the NFL, including Greg Newsome as a first-round pick to the Cleveland Browns. Locally, the Buccaneers took Offensive Guard Robert Hainsey, with their third-round pick. The previous record of selections from a single HS was the previous year, 2020, from Elite Sports Training Academy.
And in 2023 IMG had several players make the USA Today Top 100 list and the HS football varsity team ranked seven out of 25 ranked teams in the nation.
A year of high school at IMG can cost a student up to $90k, including room and board. But the cost is an investment in the future of the student athlete (or student with a sports career aspiration). By comparison, another Tampa Bay area HS that sees a lot of scout interest, Jesuit, costs nearly $22k a year. The Jesuit baseball program has also attracted top talent. Gary Sheffield, a former MLB player for 22 seasons, playing with a number of teams, including the Dodgers and Yankees, has two sons that are in the Jesuit program. Noah completed his senior season as a part of Jesuit’s 2024 state championship team.
Christian is entering his junior season and a source familiar with the program suggested he has a high athletic upside. One area where IMG has an advantage over other HS programs is that it offers a “gap” year where a fifth year HS student can enroll at IMG and take advantage of the coaches and training and scout looks to get additional exposure in the hopes of consideration at a top tier college or even pro sports consideration.
The success of the academy created international interest, and IMG Academy ownership, Endeavor Group Holdings, sold IMG in 2023 for $1.25 billion to BPEA, a Hong Kong based equity group in an all-cash deal. BPEA considers IMG a symbiotic relationship as Asia is purportedly IMG’s largest source of international students and looks to expand the reach in the region. IMG is certainly a model that can be replicated and advanced to increase the talent pool.
There is big money in preparing a student athlete to make it to a Division 1 college or straight to the MLB or NBA draft. Parents have to make a decision as their child advances through their travel sport through their HS career as to the viability of their prospects of playing in college or the pros. A player scouted by a college can have their college education paid in full and in the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (or NIL), the player can monetize their athletic success without losing eligibility as early as HS. One of the biggest names in pioneering NIL as early as HS was Arch Manning. His NIL valuation is estimated to be around $3.8 million, and he signed a partnership agreement with Panini America, a trading card company and is contributing a portion of the proceeds from that deal to charitable causes. Florida, through the HS governing body FHSAA, just became the 36th state to enter into the NIL sweepstakes for HS athletes. There are guidelines around how the athletes can take advantage of NIL, including being prohibited from the using the HS name, logo or uniform, among other school specific entities, either in public, print or on their social media platforms, unless granted a specific authorization from an approving authority. It remains to be seen how the HS administrators will rule in cases where the athlete requests access to those items to accompany the sponsorship agreement. The students themselves will not be allowed to negotiate the NIL deals but will need to have either the parent or guardian represent the student (as they could be a minor in the transaction). The NIL environment will continue to evolve and adapt to this new world, and the FHSAA is committed to NIL education for the student athlete community.
Seen here in action vs. the Lennard Longhorns, Noah Sheffield of Jesuit High, along with his Jesuit teammates, celebrated a season ending in a state championship.
I reached out to a number of coaches in the district and the remarks were mixed from coaches that thought that it was great for college players, but it could make it difficult on the various HS programs to develop as a player could just go somewhere out of their home school and get paid. Another was all for players having the opportunity for compensation for their athletic abilities, and it could bring more to the school in admission and parking and concession revenue. But this same coach believes that a small percentage of the players may fall into a scenario where NIL could be in play. He did share a concern, with the other coach, that it could lead to scenarios where the players were better compensated than the coaches themselves.
The money (and fame) is there for talented HS student athletes who can make the gamble of the high tuition season worth the investment. And the prospect, more than ever, evaluates a sports program to give themselves the best opportunity available by enrolling in a program that already has a scouting program or has traditionally drawn college and pro scouts. I, personally, watched as NFL players in Northern Virginia moved into school districts with the best HS football programs and took on roles within those programs to help elevate and bring scouts to the program. Setting up a student athlete for success is the goal of every parent, be that in sports or whatever their pursuit may be, and being in a program that can help achieve those goals could be worth every penny of the investment. The path to a pro sports career is very competitive and few achieve the dream, but here in this region, there have been success stories and there are still success stories to be written.
