Mount Carmel is the latest school to be hit by the aggressive recruitment tactics from IMG Academy.

The start of the 2016-2017 school year brought news that junior Houston Griffith was headed down to Florida to join IMG – the International Management Group Academy – in Bradenton, Florida.   Then, following the conclusion of Mount Carmel’s football season, Griffith’s former classmate Verdis Brown announced he would be transferring to IMG.

IMG is not your typical high school. It’s a boarding school for elite athletes from across the country. The academy  started as the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in 1978 for world-class tennis players, but in recent years, with multiple games broadcast on ESPN, the football program seems to be its calling card.

In an article published on NorthJersey.com, JJ Conrad explains how IMG has “morphed into an international sports juggernaut that trains more than 12,000 athletes every year,” and plays high school teams from across the country, including Bergen Catholic from Oradell, New Jersey.

That article explains how International Management Group (IMG) bought the academy in 1987, and added soccer and baseball programs in 1994. By 2001 the academy was offering basketball, and six players who spent time with IMG were selected in the 2015 NBA draft.

Conrad writes that “IMG is now home to a 584-acre, international training site . . . double the size of the University of Miami.”  Not only do high school athletes live and train there, but professional athletes such as Serena Williams (tennis), Cam Newton (football), and Jozy Altidore (soccer) use the academy’s facilities.  (goo.gl/7fb2Zy)

To say IMG’s football program has been successful would be an understatement.

How good is the IMG Academy Football Team? Good enough to have 20 players receive scholarship offers from the same university. According to sbnation.com., last year the University of Tennessee offered 20 IMG players across three graduating classes a full football scholarship

In the class of ’17, IMG has 1o players ranked in the top 300 (according to ESPN). For the class of ’18, including Mount Carmel’s Verdis Brown, they have 12 players ranked on ESPN’s list.

Its easy to see how with all this talent IMG had an undefeated season, going 11-0.  But their record cannot be viewed in the same manner as that of most high schools, which draw students from a local area.

Mount Carmel’s experience losing Griffith and Brown illustrates that IMG is aggressively recruiting athletes from all across the country.  As Conrad noted in his article. “Most of these prospects aren’t actually from Florida, where the school is located. It’s common for IMG players to return closer to their hometowns when they actually go off to college.”

While the implications for local schools like Mount Carmel, a name synonymous with football in Illinois, are still to be determined, some see cause for concern.

In the 2012 Mount Carmel football season, the team was ranked number 56 in the nation. In the 2013 season, the team was ranked 20 spots higher at number 36 along with the number one spot in Illinois.  Both seasons ended in a state championship. When a program is that dominant, its best players are bound to be noticed.

Special teams and running back Coach Blew is not a fan of IMG, and regards the decisions made by Griffith and Brown as “disappointing.”

According to Blew, not only would Brown have been a significant contributor to Mount Carmel’s squad as a senior, he likely “would’ve received the same (college) offers if he stayed.

Although Mount Carmel’s Athletic Director, Dan Lacount, understands that it is the athlete’s right to choose where to play during his high school years, it’s disappointing when players transfer. Lacount points out that the faculty and coaches build relationships with students and their parents, so when one leaves, “It’s like losing someone in the family.”

In short, Lacount does not like where schools like IMG are leading high school sports. He points out that MC has had great success in helping its student-athletes earn college scholarships – from the Ivy League to the Big Ten to smaller, private universities. He also believes that high school is supposed to be about family, and fears that if schools like IMG have the freedom to recruit anywhere they choose, programs like Mount Carmel’s will suffer.

Not every football player on Mount Carmel’s team agrees.

Junior offensive lineman Brendan Butts sees his former teammates decision as strictly “business,” and is happy they will get the chance “to shine on a bigger stage.”  In fact, Butts admits that if he had the chance, he would do the same thing.

Senior defensive back David Rodgers also applauds the move by his former teammate. “The idea of playing football in Florida sounds appealing; I would probably do it too.”

Jeremy Cooper, another junior offensive lineman, has mixed feelings. While wishing they had stayed at MC, he feels “It’s their decision, and I can’t control what they do.”

But at least one former teammate, a senior who asked that his name be withheld, feels that the move was a betrayal of the values behind the MC football program.  “I think it’s selfish, because they were excelling a lot here at Carmel, and there was no need for them to leave.”

For now, even without two fine players, Mount Carmel and its football program will carry on and continue to strive for success.  Only the future will show the impact IMG will have on local high school programs and student-athletes.