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High School Football Inc.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by lcjjdnh, Sep 19, 2015.

  1. lcjjdnh

    lcjjdnh Well-Known Member

  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I don't know why on Earth anyone would agree to play against IMG.
     
  3. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Here's a number that stood out: $70,800.

    If your kid is a tennis prodigy, and there's a chance at a real professional career and at an early age, then maybe that makes sense. But for football, it doesn't make any.
     
    Smallpotatoes likes this.
  4. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    How many kids on the team actually pay that much?
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    I don't know why any public high school would ever play a "sports academy," which barely makes even the slightest pretense they don't, FAIAP, pay players.

    If I were a public superintendent, I'd slam down an ironclad boycott against ever playing a sports academy in anything.

    And ditto for ever renting or allowing them to use any facilities such as football fields.

    For the real good players, it works the other way: they get free tuition, room and board, etc etc -- effectively they (and their parents) are getting paid.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2015
  6. cjericho

    cjericho Well-Known Member

    Good job by Rick Scott to veto the $2 mil that was pledged by lawmakers. Andre, Serena and Maria can make a bigger donation if the Academy needs it.
     
    heyabbott likes this.
  7. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    I know a kid (former player's son) who went there for the final two years before college. It made sense for him, but he's the exception. He had the athletic gift and the money.
     
  8. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    I think if you're actually paying the full amount in football or tennis... The chances that you will become a professional athlete are pretty low.

    In fact the less you are paying, the better your chances of making it-- probably.
     
  9. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I agree that this does not make sense for a sport like football, where size, speed and other natural gifts are much more important than hours and hours of practice, as in tennis.

    If you are a tennis prodigy, you need to hone that to become one of the best in the world and get paid.

    If you are one of the nation's top high school quarterbacks, you are going to get a free ride to the college of your choice. So the IMG route seems unnecessary.
     
  10. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    For many people, yes. But that IMG QB is taking the approach that his current setting --- which simulates a college atmosphere --- will better prepare him to seamlessly enter a college environment and better prepare him to earn a starting job from Day 1 (or close to Day 1). He might be wrong, of course. But that seems to be his thinking.
     
  11. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Those big-time guys don't live a normal high school life anyway. How many of us would have our kids finish their senior year in December so they can get to college in time for spring football? Yet that's very common among elite HS players, particularly quarterbacks.

    IMG seems like a ridiculous amount of money, and it is, but it's not a lot different from what people are already spending on that track. Even staying home, private school ($15-20K easy) and football coaching (as much as $25K) eat up a lot.
     
  12. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I think it's natural as a parent to want to give your kid every type of opportunity that is available. However, I really have a negative response to these kinds of programs and suspect that for team sports they are set up more for the benefit of the agents and shoe companies than the kids.

    If you are the third string QB at IMG Academy, are you better off there vs. the star for your hometown high school? That means a lot, even if you end up selling cars for a living.
     
    Lugnuts likes this.
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