Frank Ryder leaves home state Colorado for IMG Academy in search of basketball future

Frank Ryder of Boulder, Colo. was formerly a two-sport athlete focused on hockey and football. But once he hit 6-foot-4 at age 14, he realized that he may have physically out-grown those sports and took up basketball. Size 18 ice skates and football cleats can be difficult to find. Now 16, and standing 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-3 wing-span, Ryder knows he made the right call, and his coaches are seething with excitement over his potential.

Ryder’s journey to IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) began more than a year ago during a fateful online browsing session for basketball camps:

“My dad offered to buy me a car for my 16th birthday, but I showed him the camp at IMG and asked him if I could do that instead,” Ryder explained. “So I came here for camp. Coach John Mahoney was my summer coach, and the way he coached us was so intense, it was unlike anything I had experienced.”

Less than halfway through the camp experience, Ryder began to realize that he had real potential in the sport and wanted to take it to the next level. After learning more about IMG Academy’s college-style schedule that accommodates an intense focus on athletics and academics, Ryder decided he wanted to enroll full-time.

“I love the game. Ever since I started, I’ve only wanted to get better, better and better because anything I do, I want to be the best,” Ryder said of his passion for basketball. “The facilities are great, the academics are great, and I could picture myself succeeding here.”



As a full-time student-athlete, Ryder made sure that the picture in his head became a reality. Ryder has made major strides on playing in the paint and has refined his jump shot considerably.

“Coach Dan [Barto] and Coach [Segado] “Cookie” Belcher have all worked with me and helped me, working in the post and reading where I’m at and getting in the right position and learning how to play in a zone and creating better shots,” described Ryder.

He added: “Here the teachers care about you, the coaches care about you, and they work together to make sure you’re keeping good grades and that you’re succeeding in your sport.  I can honestly say I’ve gotten better every single day that I’ve been here.”

Ryder began the year with the junior varsity team, but his dedication and rapid improvement quickly earned him a spot on the varsity squad.

“At the start, while I was on the JV team, I was working on figuring out how to get better, but once I was given a chance on the Varsity team, I actually did much better and learned how to become more of a threat and become more dominant,” described Ryder, who never let go of his spot on the varsity squad.
 
One area that Ryder has particularly excelled in is the weight room. Now, with his increased explosiveness, dunking has become one of his greatest areas of pride, in addition to packing on 30pounds of lean muscle mass to reach 215 pounds at his last weigh-in.

“Coach Elliot [Walters] is a great coach, and he really teaches us all the right techniques so we don’t get hurt, and makes sure we’re using the right weight,” Ryder said of the weight training.  “At the start of the year, if no one was around me, I would never dunk the ball, but after Christmas, I definitely could dunk the ball because of the improvements I had made in the weight room.”

Another resource Ryder has taken advantage of is the frequency of top professional and collegiate athletes that choose IMG Academy as their training off-season training home base. Ryder watches their work habits and makes an effort to learn from them every opportunity he gets:

“You can’t get anything like this anywhere else,” Ryder exclaimed. “Right now with the NBA Draft guys training here, every day after practice I get to rebound with them and I learn from them - what you do, how you become better, what things they struggled with in high school and how they became the dominant player they became to be.”



Although basketball is Ryder’s passion, he keeps an equally intense focus on academics. His main priority is to earn a place with an NCAA Division I basketball program.

“I want to get my education first. I don’t want to look too far ahead though, because everything depends on how I physically improve, skill-wise,” Ryder explained. “I’ve really enjoyed my classes with Ms. [Patricia] Close and Mr. [Keith] Russo. Mr. Russo pushes me all the time to be a good writer and I’m always focused on it. So many people here speak another language, so I’m working with Ms. Close and trying hard to learn Spanish.”

IMG Academy is home to nearly 950 student-athletes from more than 80 of the world’s nations. Ryder has been making an effort to learn Spanish to be more culturally savvy, but with a mother and father of Greek and British descent, respectively, it has been a welcomed change for the Rocky Mountain denizen:

“It’s been interesting to come here and be around so many different types of people from around the world. You can all learn from each other, other cultures - you could travel the world and try and meet all these people, or you could just be here at IMG.”

Ryder is putting the finishing touches on a successful sophomore year, and is looking forward to getting back to work during his junior year when classes resume in August.