Competing During the Covid-19 Pandemic | IMG Academy Football x ESPN

The year is 2020; the sport is football. While many thought that a high school season would be nearly impossible, IMG Academy recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to focus on growth, both on the field and off.

While IMG's Bradenton campus faced extensive challenges during the global pandemic, our staff, including a team of experts within our Health Services department provided by Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, established new safety protocols and guidelines that began rolling out across campus in June. From employees to teachers to coaches and athletes, IMG Academy's Safer Campus Initiative provided a way for campus to reopen. 

The football program, like IMG's seven other boarding school sport programs, departed campus in mid-March for spring break and would not return to campus until late summer. Following weeks turned to months of distance learning and virtual training, IMG Academy football student-athletes checked in to campus in late July for fall camp where they began training for their imminent, upcoming season.

"I took the job, we started off really embracing our new vision, our new philosophy. The kids bought in quickly, and then we went off for spring break on March 13, and that was the last time we saw the kids for months." - Bobby Acosta, IMG Academy National Team Head Coach

Fast forward to September, and the program kicked off for their first game of the 2020 season; a feat that many feared may never occur this year.

The 2020-2021 academic year began on August 31st, and student-athletes have adapted to the campus' new regulations and are fully focused on picking up right where they left off last season. Read the full article from ESPN about IMG Academy's health and safety efforts in 2020, the football program's "restart," and the way that many of the nation's top football recruits are handling the opportunities at hand.