BRADENTON, Fla. – Pairing 30-plus years of athletic training experience with the expertise of a longtime professional player and coach, IMG Academies will offer boys’ and girls’ lacrosse players a select opportunity for total improvement with the launching of the IMG Lacrosse Academy.
Led by Kevin Finneran, an eight-time world champion with 20-plus years of playing and coaching experience at every level from youth to professional, the IMG Lacrosse Academy will begin with a Spring Break camp (March 28-April 3) and continue with weekly, multi-week and summer-long camps during various dates in the rest of the year. IMG Academies plans to establish the nation’s first full-time lacrosse residency program for the 2010-2011 school year.
“With lacrosse’s explosive growth as a youth sport, we felt that it deserves the same concentrated focus on athletic development that our other academy sports receive,” said Sam Zussman, managing director of IMG Academies and senior vice president of IMG Worldwide. “By combining our proven on- and off-field training methodology and world-class facilities with Kevin’s experience, athletes will leave as better, faster, stronger and more confident lacrosse players.”
According to multiple studies, lacrosse represents the fastest-growing youth sport over the last 10 years, increasing by more than 500 percent to nearly 250,000 participants since 1999. The IMG Lacrosse Academy will incorporate individual drills into training (shooting, passing, stick protection and goaltending, for example), but also teach facets of the game that will help translate to team success, like match strategy, correct positioning, effective communication, and offensive and defensive formations.
For more on the new IMG Lacrosse Academy click
here.
