Georgia Prep Sports Academy, founded by head coach Michael Carson in 2013, has quickly developed into one of the nation’s premier second chance opportunities for high school athletes. Thousands of highly talented high school athletes fail to land on college campuses each year due to academics, off-field challenges, or injury. Georgia Prep provides these athletes with the resources to get back on track and the opportunity to attain a college education.
GPSA’s mission statement prioritizes bridging the gap between performance
on the field and in the classroom. The curriculum embodies this by enforcing strict academic standards that enable athletes to become knowledgeable and responsible citizens of the community. Ultimately, Carson uses structure and discipline to help these players evolve from a mere athlete into a student-athlete. This has been evident in Carson’s SAT/ACT prep course that takes two times per day, five days a week.
While initially designed for athletes in the southeast region, the enormous success of Georgia Prep has led to athletes registering from all over the country. As a result of this success, Carson launched a brand new, state-of-the-art facility in Decatur, Georgia to accommodate the growing number of athletes in attendance. The facility includes a brand new football field, basketball court, and a garage-style weight room overseeing the fields on which the athletes compete.
Classrooms exist in abundance at the new location, exemplifying the curriculum’s focus on helping athletes grow mentally, morally, physically and spiritually. “Our number one goal is to bring a kid in here in August with the hopes of getting what he needs together and [place] him onto a college roster,” Carson reiterates. “Most of the time it is academics or standardized tests and usually the kids here are so close that they just need that extra little bit to make it.”
The second level
of the new facility features housing corridors. These military-style dorm rooms reinforce the structure and discipline necessary to instill change. Such rooms also facilitate team chemistry, enabling athletes to perform their best against other elite teams. When asked about the competition, Carson explained, “We will keep bringing in the best kids we can and we will keep putting them against the best competition we can. If they want to play Division I they need to know what their Division I competition is.”
Ninety students enrolled at Georgia Prep Sports Academy in 2015. Of those ninety, seventy-five graduated the program and sixty-five received college scholarships. GPSA looks to continue their success this semester with a class of more than 100 students.
