Will be interesting to see the impact of the new NCAA D1 age-based eligibility model on students taking a PG year. The age-based model gives an athlete 5 years of eligibility that start when the athlete enrolls in college or the academic year when an athlete turns 19 (whichever is earlier.) So some PGer’s PG year would eat up a year of NCAA D1 eligibility. Obviously they would still have four years of eligibility left, but there is no more redshirting in case of injury. Just something PG peeps will have to consider. There’s a lot of noise that D2 may also adopt this age-based eligibility model.
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I had the same thought about PG years for Boarding schools across the board. Some PGs will probably think that it’s worthwhile to spend the extra year in HS in order to get a better chance at college recruiting–even if it means giving up a year of eligibility.
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Agreed…each athlete’s journey and considerations are unique.
I don’t know the stats, but I would expect most PG year athletes do not play D1 which is currently the only league/division with this age based policy.
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They have clarified this:
The 5 years begin upon college enrollment or the academic year AFTER the athlete turns 19. So an athlete can turn 19 at anytime before the academic college year begins. That means they can turn 19 during their senior year of high school or during PG or gap year and still get 5 years beginning the academic year AFTER they turn 19.
Also, D2 did adopt this age rule and 5 years as well.
So reclass, PG and gap years have no affect on 5 years. Double reclass or 2 years gap will affect so hockey juniors might be impacted greatly.
A PG or gap year reduces the athlete’s eligibility from 5 to 4 years. For some of these athletes, that loss of a year means a loss of money. Potentially big money that some players may receive via NIL, revenue sharing, etc (talking D1.) It will be important for each athlete to analyze the situation and do what makes sense for them.
I agree that men’s hockey is going to be greatly impacted, women’s hockey not so much.
So for a typical high school graduate (e.g., 18-year-old who’ll turn 19 the following spring) one PG year is generally fine. They still enroll in college by the academic year after they turn 19, so they keep all five years. The PG year just delays when the window opens rather than burning a year of it.
Where the real risk shows up is for athletes who are already older or who reclassed down/got held back earlier. Once you cross that age-19 threshold, the clock starts whether or not you’re actually on a college roster. For a kid who’s already 19+ during the PG year, that year genuinely eats into the five-year window.
So ultimately, it sounds like there will still be PGs, but for a narrower more deliberate pool of candidates.
Can a Mod break this into a new thread?
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Any more information about the academics or courses the school will offer?
We spoke to one family who said electives are light at this point but core strong. Limited language I believe Spanish and French only but thru the Advanced level. Stem strong as this kid taking BC and Multivariable. Advanced lit, lang etc all there. If they wanted Econ it would have had to be thru online partners so they skipped and did advance gov and psych instead. More will be added next year. No arts or anything like that but they weren’t looking for that and did not care. Apparently easy to pull in top faculty from the colleges around to teach the advanced classes. No clue on middle school or early high school.
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In person reaching or online through another accredited school? Do they have critical mass of kids taking Multivariate to have an actual classroom teacher?
In person teacher for multivariable. Econ wasn’t available this year and would have to be thru partner online school. Same for language outside of French and Spanish.
Is it true that all students will need to take at least one online class before graduating?
That isn’t what I heard. There are classes that are not offered (like Russian) so if there was a clsss not taught in campus then there would be no other choice. I suppose if you had maxed out early on AP and finished physics, lang, lit, Multivariable, linear and needed more than they offer in person, then you would have to go find an online option. I do believe that they also offer advanced seminar and advance research so that’s another way to go higher with in person faculty and that seems like it could be unlimited.
FWIW their website says there are tracks you can pick (presumably based on sports needs?)
Fully online, flex, or totally in-person (though I can only guess the latter is dependent on availability if your kid is advanced).
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Just drove by. For new parents that will be coming on weekends in Sept/early October, remember to add an extra 1/2 hour for Apple Traffic. Every year it catches me by surprise.
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So they got the MA Governor (a college athlete herself) to show up for “grand opening” and made local news – good PR
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300 kids is a lot for a new school!
What do you think of the quality of the new coaches that they’ve hired? It looks like a few assistant coaches, but no new head coaches besides basketball.
Have there been any updates on the quality of the academic teachers?
I was shocked by that too!
I have no way to judge the coaches, I am afraid, especially as across many sports the few I saw seemed legit.
I looked for teachers awhile back on their website to see if I knew anyone and they made it REALLY hard to find the actual teachers, which I found, well, interesting… I didn’t care enough to try REALLY hard. That said, I suspect they are solid. Plenty of qualified teachers around that area.
Isn’t it 6-12? So 300 across 7 grades? I would be curious to know the distribution.
The locals we know are all middle school kids. They want to play sports at school and that’s not really a thing here until high school. From what I’m sensing they are mediocre kids whose parents have been sold a dream.
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Does the school make kids specialize in one sport that young or can they play multiple sports? I assume for high school it’s the first as the website lists sports “majors” and the teams seem to play year round but wasn’t sure if that started at 6th grade.
As for academics it all says “powered by Newman.” Does that imply virtual or outsourced as opposed to live teaching, or they just use a preset curriculum? I’m still skeptical of the claim that classes like linear or multi variate has enough kids to warrant a MAI-dedicated teacher with those credentials.
Most schools have links to watch games on their websites. Doesn’t appear MAI does which seems a big oversight.