MONTVERDE, Fla. – If you walk into the Nest at Montverde Academy, you will see a wall full of former students who have gone pro and multiple national championship banners.
If you are lucky enough to be on campus when one of the basketball teams is competing in a championship game, you will see teachers and students glued to the game, following every score.
The school is regularly featured on ESPN, especially this year when both their boys and girls basketball teams won the national championships, further securing their reputation as the place to be for star athletes across the country.
Krystal Phiri is the woman at the center of the Academy’s athletics program.
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She joined Matt Austin and Ginger Gadsden on Florida’s Fourth Estate to talk about what makes the school’s athletic program so unique.
She said that despite a winning run, the coaches refuse to slow down.
“Coach Boyle, who’s had all of the national championships, he’s not done, you know? He’s ready for more. He’s ready to see what he can do next year, how many wins can he finish the season with? How many kids can he have go on to D-1s? How many kids can be highly ranked? That’s what all of the coaches are constantly thinking about and it breeds excellence among them,” Phiri explained.
She said the coaches’ personal experiences also help Montverde Academy students get ahead of the pack.
“It’s the people that we bring on staff who have been there and done that, so they themselves have gone on to do some amazing things in their life and understand the experience. They have the network. So if you are talking about a kid that wants to go to a Division I college, does the coach have that network that they can pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I have this really great kid.’”
The school’s facilities and flexible academic schedules also give student-athletes a leg up on the competition.
If a student is in the tennis, boy’s basketball, or boy’s soccer academy their day starts at 7:45 a.m.
“They will have their full five classes, then from there, they will go to lunch, and they will go into training, and so training will wrap up at 3:30 p.m. That’s part of their academic day,” Phiri said.
Other students have different academic schedules.
“You may have the varsity athlete that is in class the full day and then has practices after school... Then, we also have some varsity athletes that may have eight periods, and then their 9th period starts their training,” said Phiri.
Though Phiri and the coaches at Montverde Academy are proud of all of their success on the court, Phiri said it’s about more than that.
“When I talk to parents, I say, ‘Yeah, I hope we can make your kid a great athlete, but I hope we can make them a great person.’ I hope we can give them the tools they need if they want to be an investment banker, or a doctor, or a realtor, whatever it is. I hope they look back on this experience and say, ‘Montverde Academy helped to get me to where I am even if it has nothing to do with sport,’” she told News 6.
Learn more about Montverde Academy’s secret to success on Florida’s Fourth Estate.
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You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: