But months after his arrival in 2021, the teenager and another boy were sexually assaulted on campus by an older teammate, according to sheriff’s office reports and the lawsuit.
A criminal investigation followed, and the teammate was sentenced to nearly a year in jail. Now, the assaults, their aftermath and the circumstances that preceded them are the subject of a civil suit against IMG and the convicted former student.
The lawsuit, filed in Manatee County Circuit Court last November, depicts a darker portrait of the academy during that school year, where boys as young as 13 lived in residence halls alongside teammates as old as 20, where drug and alcohol use among minors was alleged to be rampant and adult supervision scarce.
