Written by MATTHEW SEKERES, published December 14, 2007 in the Globe and Mail

The next Maria Sharapova or Sidney Crosby could soon be training at an elite sports academy on Vancouver Island. A British Columbia developer has teamed with sports-business giant IMG World to construct the latter’s second full-service sports academy, and its first in Canada, on land formerly owned by a timber company about 10 kilometres south of Courtenay. This morning, Ted Meekma, IMG Academies senior vice-president and director, will join politicians and officials from Sage Hills Developments for a news conference announcing the proposed creation of an academy that, based on IMG’s track record, should produce professional athletes and, for students, scholarship opportunities to U.S. universities.

“They’re the best in the world,” Shannon Price, director of marketing for Sage Hills, said about IMG. “They have the best methodology, the longest history and they have the experience to do it. There is nothing like this in Canada and the Pacific Northwest.”

The Sage Hills project calls for an 825-hectare community on mostly deforested land in the Comox Valley centred on private schools and the sports academy. The project would include residential enclaves and a commercial village. Sage Hills is a fully owned subsidiary of Independent Academies Canada Inc., which is trying to increase its foothold in the lucrative private-education market by attracting students from across the globe and offering them elite education and athletic training.

“IMG doesn’t just pump out pro athletes, it also pumps out phenomenal leaders and kids who understand dedication and commitment,” Ms. Price said.

IMG’s flagship academy in Bradenton, Fla., offers tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, basketball, and fishing programs and its website says that 85 per cent of students go on to postsecondary education, many of them on scholarship.

IMG has affiliations with other sports schools, but Mr. Meekma sees the Canadian academy as a bookend to its Florida operation, offering cold-weather sports and the opportunity for even more students and programs because of the large space, purchased from Comox Timber Ltd. for an undisclosed amount last year.

“We get approached fairly often, but most of the time, for many different reasons, the particular opportunities don’t make sense for us,” Mr. Meekma said when reached yesterday. “[Sage Hills'] vision was instantly something that mirrored ours: meld sports and education.

“There is a broader opportunity to do more than in Bradenton just because of land restrictions [in Florida].”

Yesterday, officials did not want to reveal the entire list of sports planned for the B.C. academy, but hockey, tennis and Winter Olympic sports such as speed and figure skating are planned. Sage Hills has already said it intends to build two 18-hole golf courses.

The hockey component would be unique for IMG, which had to disband a program in Florida after three years because it did not own an ice surface.