re: IMG Academy could 'destroy our profession,'

I'll be honest. The $100,000 number is always brought up by someone as a point of consternation, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. The schools and alumni expect big things from their football programs and are willing to pay for it.

Basketball has been doing it for years. Oak Hill Academy, Mater Dai in CA, etc.

What is Jacobs sports academy? Saw several at a track meet yesterday.

If all high schools quit scheduling IMG, would it still try to get football players--knowing they will have no games to compete in?

IMG:Travel Ball as High School Football:REC Ball

Eventually, we can just get IMG type schools for junior high, then grade school. Finally, we can be like the Russians and East Germans in the 80's and Chinese now where they ear mark a kid super early on and have them train to be that specialty for their entire life.

I really don't get why people hate so much on this place. It's what this country NEEDS.

Specialized high schools, whether for STEM, votech, military (would include free college) or athletic academies. Put the kids where they will thrive.

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As a coach in Texas, you get kids from within your community, coach and develop them for 6 years (from the 7th grade) in many cases, and build your team from the ground up. Its a community game, not an all star/traveling squad you put together. Through coaching and community support, not by raiding the rosters from around the country.

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So what percentage of these players from your community are leaving for schools like IMG?

1%?

Juilliard hasn't stopped young people from studying music, drama, or dance throughout the country.

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Unless he means something else by his profession

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i dont get these high school coaches who try to act like being a high school football coach is in and of itself a profession.

granted, at some texas high schools it is, they get booster pay on top of state salary.

as far as paying people to coach high school football, it should really just be voluntary.

if a guy wants to get paid to coach, he can stop posing as a teacher (which they get paid for) and move up a level where guys are just getting paid to coach, though i think college teams that need state money to operate shouldn't exist either.

that high school coach and his "profession", what a joke.

I don't disagree with you, but if in 1987, you told me that summer league baseball would, by and large, be replaced by travel ball, I'd have made the same argument you just made. No way that many people will pay that much money so their kids can travel around and play baseball.

Except they have.

It doesn't seem viable now but if more of these start popping up and become "the thing to do," then we know from the baseball experience that parents are willing to pay way too much money so their kids can have these things.

I don't necessarily see a day where everybody is sending their kids to a boarding school in Florida, but I could see a sports academy drawing the best athletes in BR, one or two around New Orleans (yeah, I know, John Curtis is ALREADY one...), etc. That will help keep costs down and make it more viable.

I think something like the LHSAA split could help spur that on in Louisiana. It would be tougher in Texas, but in Louisiana, I can definitely see a day where an "elite" sports league develops with a handful of academies. Not that I'm predicting it, but I could see it happen here. Unlike Texas, the general perception is that the better competition is in the private division (especially as you go down in class), so the habit of searching for a sports factory already exists.

I the private schools split completely, I could see a culture here where these places could emerge.