The three models
Which model fits depends less on tennis than on your family — how your student learns, where you live, and how much external structure the child needs.
- Accredited online school + a day academy. The player enrolls in an accredited online school and trains at an academy during conventional school hours. The most flexible model, and the one most Florida academies now run — including Saviano's full-time program.
- A private school that partners with the academy. The student attends a physical school on a schedule adjusted around training. Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, per its published materials, runs academics through a partnership with Grandview Preparatory School.
- A boarding school with classrooms on campus. School, dorms, and courts on one campus — IMG Academy in Bradenton is this model at its largest scale.
Model 1: online school + a day academy — a real training day
This is the model we run, so we can show it concretely. Saviano's full-time program runs Monday through Friday across a nine-month academic year — an August–December semester and a January–May semester. Players in the morning group are at the academy from 10:00 to 5:00, with a 12:00–2:00 midday block reserved for school and lunch; players on the afternoon-only track do schoolwork in the morning and train from 2:00 to 6:45. Coursework that doesn't fit the midday block moves to evenings and travel days — which is exactly what online school makes possible.
The school half comes from Laurel Springs and ICL Academy, Saviano's education partners: both accredited, both built for flexible schedules, with discounted tuition for Saviano players and student-visa support for international families. Students at American Heritage Academy are accommodated too, with transportation between school and the academy. One thing this model is not: boarding. Families relocate to South Florida, commute, or use the academy's network of vetted host families in Davie. Our full guide to the academy + online school model covers how to choose the school half.
Model 2: a partner private school
Some families want a physical classroom — teachers in the room, classmates outside tennis, a campus. The partnership model keeps that: the academy and a local private school coordinate schedules so the player trains seriously without leaving conventional school. Evert's arrangement with Grandview Preparatory, per its published materials, is the best-known Florida example. The trade-off is a harder day: two campuses, fixed class times, and less flexibility when tournaments run long. It suits students who genuinely do better with in-person teaching.
Model 3: the boarding school
IMG Academy in Bradenton is the total-immersion version — school, housing, training, and sports science on one campus. For some families, especially those far from Florida who won't relocate, one campus that handles everything is exactly the point. For others, handing a teenager to an institution of that scale is exactly what they want to avoid. We compare the options honestly in our guide to tennis boarding schools in Florida.
Why Florida, specifically
- Year-round outdoor training. There is no indoor season here. A Florida junior trains outdoors in January under the same conditions as July, while northern players move indoors for months — different courts, different light, fewer hours.
- Tournament density. Florida's junior calendar is the deepest in the country, so players compete more and travel less. From our Davie campus, professional Futures and tour-level events run within 30 minutes — juniors regularly watch what the next level actually looks like.
- The competition next door. Because serious academies concentrate here, practice partners exist at every level. Harder daily hitting develops a player faster than any single tournament result.
Keeping grades college-eligible
Whichever model you choose, the academic record has to hold up twice — for NCAA initial eligibility and for admissions. The NCAA's eligibility review is built around core courses completed at an accredited school, which makes accreditation the first question to ask any online or partner school, before curriculum, price, or flexibility. A transcript from an unaccredited program can cost a player eligibility no matter how good the grades look. This is also where a good academy earns its keep off court: our college placement record — every college-track player placed on a university team, D1 through D3 — exists because academics were managed as seriously as the forehand.
How to choose between the three
- Decide day academy vs. boarding first. It cuts the list in half, and it is a family question before it is a tennis question.
- Match the school model to the student, not the ranking. Self-directed learners thrive with online school; students who need a classroom should look hard at partnership models or stay in their current school longer.
- Ask to see a real weekly schedule — training hours, school hours, and what happens in a tournament week. Any serious academy will show you one.
- Compare all the paths side by side — including staying in your current school with after-school training — in our guide to tennis and academic programs in Florida.