Q&A with USA Academy Chairman, Dustin DeVaughn

[CCBlackhatter]

8 hours ago, HooverOutlaw said:

Auburn people involved in this some way.

If it were Alabama people, you would be peter puffing the school. Lol

[The Guru]

10 hours ago, NYHSFAN33 said:

I think the intention to do something positive is there,  but from an execution standpoint, I would not be confident at all that this goes as designed. 

But even his explanation for starting the school is lame.

He wasn't happy with the athletic options for home school kids. I mean there are only 15,000+ high schools in this country. Public, private, charter, etc. There are plenty of options for reasonable and agreeable people.

But this guy is all about being the center of attention and doing things his way.

[Columbiafan]

9 minutes ago, The Guru said:

But even his explanation for starting the school is lame.

He wasn't happy with the athletic options for home school kids. I mean there are only 15,000+ high schools in this country. Public, private, charter, etc. There are plenty of options for reasonable and agreeable people.

But this guy is all about being the center of attention and doing things his way.

Redzone may be biggest clown on here but you are by far biggest hypocrite

[HooverOutlaw]

2 hours ago, CCBlackhatter said:

If it were Alabama people, you would be peter puffing the school. Lol

I still hope it does great. Just sounds impossible to have all this done by August.

[HawgGoneIt]

22 minutes ago, HooverOutlaw said:

I still hope it does great. Just sounds impossible to have all this done by August.

This is where I sit as well. I imagine they play ball. The bait and switch sales pitch is unsettling. The time frame was unrealistic.

We've seen the model work in Bradenton, so the model seems sound, except the tuition price point seems too far off of IMG's to be extremely profitable unless they get some government subsidies in order to keep the tutitions low that way. Idk about that part. 

 

[NYHSFAN33]

2 hours ago, The Guru said:

But even his explanation for starting the school is lame.

He wasn't happy with the athletic options for home school kids. I mean there are only 15,000+ high schools in this country. Public, private, charter, etc. There are plenty of options for reasonable and agreeable people.

But this guy is all about being the center of attention and doing things his way.

I tend to agree with you here....If I lived in that area, I would not consider this "school" for my child at this time.  I don't know the dynamics / demographics of that particular part of the country, but I have to assume there are better, more established options for kids around there than banking on this going smoothly. 

[badrouter]

Ah, we have some sensitive snowflakes here! Deleting posts containing facts which are available to the public further gives away the smokescreen being put in place here. Let's be clear: USA Academy is a variation of yet another attack on public education in this country. You can expect for "trouble" in the form of facts available to the public being shared.

[HawgGoneIt]

8 minutes ago, badrouter said:

Ah, we have some sensitive snowflakes here! Deleting posts containing facts which are available to the public further gives away the smokescreen being put in place here. Let's be clear: USA Academy is a variation of yet another attack on public education in this country. You can expect for "trouble" in the form of facts available to the public being shared.

We are taking down the politically based posts from the Varsity Board. I understand that there is some amount of politics involved, and that this DeVaughn character alludes to some political characters in some of his tweets and conferences. 

We are basically trying to keep that type of debate tactic on the OT section. It wasn't a big deal so I didn't alert you yet as to why they were being removed. A couple more and I'd have sent you a d.m. 

I do agree with this latest post though, as far as some level of degradation intended for public education in this country and the form of facts available to the public being shared. 

Bringing R's and D's and national politicians names into the thing just degrades the conversation more than it already has. 

[HooverOutlaw]

5 hours ago, CCBlackhatter said:

If it were Alabama people, you would be peter puffing the school. Lol

Might be UGA money backing it.

[badrouter]

More on the "coach" of "USA Academy"

[AztecPadre]

I caught part of your post on what he had on his facebook.  Really smart business sense to exclude the largest state in the union.  But then again, we already have seen his keen business sense to date. 

[HawgGoneIt]

I think it better to try to keep the gentleman's political views out of the equation on here. People can see from his stuff that's publicly available any of that they want. While it may be somewhat relevant, he didn't come on here going on about any of that, even though GSB has tried to connect it a couple of times. 

We could certainly pick it up on the OT section if you all wanted, but, to me, idc about his political affiliation at all really. I'm more concerned with whether or not he will manage to field a football team worth keeping up with this fall, and whether or not he's going to be able to meet the deadlines and all he's promised in his sales pitch. 

 

[badrouter]

25 minutes ago, AztecPadre said:

I caught part of your post on what he had on his facebook.  Really smart business sense to exclude the largest state in the union.  But then again, we already have seen his keen business sense to date. 

Glad you caught it before it was deleted. Here are links to Facebook pages promoting his run for Al. House and for the now defunct secretmarketingmastermind pages.

Public office campaign page

Belly-up secret marketing page . 

[badrouter]

6 minutes ago, HawgGoneIt said:

I think it better to try to keep the gentleman's political views out of the equation on here. People can see from his stuff that's publicly available any of that they want. While it may be somewhat relevant, he didn't come on here going on about any of that, even though GSB has tried to connect it a couple of times. 

We could certainly pick it up on the OT section if you all wanted, but, to me, idc about his political affiliation at all really. I'm more concerned with whether or not he will manage to field a football team worth keeping up with this fall, and whether or not he's going to be able to meet the deadlines and all he's promised in his sales pitch. 

 

Another necessarily associated issue is the quality and appropriateness of the academic "program". I think this is clearly ripe for fraud at USA. I hope that is thoroughly vetted by those responsible for that matter.

[HawgGoneIt]

17 minutes ago, badrouter said:

Another necessarily associated issue is the quality and appropriateness of the academic "program". I think this is clearly ripe for fraud at USA. I hope that is thoroughly vetted by those responsible for that matter.

Well, the more this thing has went on, and the more we find out about it all, the more we don't know, which is bad, right?

The premise of this school is a sports forward learning academy which will board kids grade 7-12, although, they seem to be trying to get started with what is roughly a good number for a varsity roster which would lean 10th through 12th I mostly imagine. At least the first year or so. 

So, now that we know he's having to punt on building the classrooms, even modulars apparently at this point, there will be their goal of around 75 kids doing class strictly from laptop or tablet. What's the goal now for boarding them? Or has this now morphed into the families need to move to the area or already be near enough to get to school? Is it a homeschool team for now? Why hasn't the pitch on twitter and the academy site changed yet, if so? 

 

[badrouter]

18 minutes ago, HawgGoneIt said:

Well, the more this thing has went on, and the more we find out about it all, the more we don't know, which is bad, right?

The premise of this school is a sports forward learning academy which will board kids grade 7-12, although, they seem to be trying to get started with what is roughly a good number for a varsity roster which would lean 10th through 12th I mostly imagine. At least the first year or so. 

So, now that we know he's having to punt on building the classrooms, even modulars apparently at this point, there will be their goal of around 75 kids doing class strictly from laptop or tablet. What's the goal now for boarding them? Or has this now morphed into the families need to move to the area or already be near enough to get to school? Is it a homeschool team for now? Why hasn't the pitch on twitter and the academy site changed yet, if so? 

 

All good points. 

A question we all should be asking now is, What kind of students would be interested in dropping out of whatever school they're in now to be students at an entirely online school with zero track record? The only kind I can think of are those who are failing or very close to failing in their current schools. They hear of this push to make everyone "successful" and some may think that really means "easy", or automatic, better grades. And USA Academy figures to be entirely "accommodating" to these types of students.

Who will be in charge of the actual school, meaning academic program? Edgenuity doesn't figure to actually run schools. It's just an online program which offers various courses. There is a need for administration and oversight at the individual schools, where grades are "Signed off" for students. Who will do that at USAA? It's plenty obvious Devaughn and Propst are utterly clueless about this stuff.

[HooverOutlaw]

6 hours ago, HawgGoneIt said:

We are taking down the politically based posts from the Varsity Board. I understand that there is some amount of politics involved, and that this DeVaughn character alludes to some political characters in some of his tweets and conferences. 

We are basically trying to keep that type of debate tactic on the OT section. It wasn't a big deal so I didn't alert you yet as to why they were being removed. A couple more and I'd have sent you a d.m. 

I do agree with this latest post though, as far as some level of degradation intended for public education in this country and the form of facts available to the public being shared. 

Bringing R's and D's and national politicians names into the thing just degrades the conversation more than it already has. 

Ric Flair for President is that ok.

[HooverOutlaw]

1 hour ago, badrouter said:

All good points. 

A question we all should be asking now is, What kind of students would be interested in dropping out of whatever school they're in now to be students at an entirely online school with zero track record? The only kind I can think of are those who are failing or very close to failing in their current schools. They hear of this push to make everyone "successful" and some may think that really means "easy", or automatic, better grades. And USA Academy figures to be entirely "accommodating" to these types of students.

Who will be in charge of the actual school, meaning academic program? Edgenuity doesn't figure to actually run schools. It's just an online program which offers various courses. There is a need for administration and oversight at the individual schools, where grades are "Signed off" for students. Who will do that at USAA? It's plenty obvious Devaughn and Propst are utterly clueless about this stuff.

If you are already a 4 or 5 star recruit how does going to IMG help you? All those kids have many offers. 

[AztecPadre]

1 hour ago, badrouter said:

All good points. 

A question we all should be asking now is, What kind of students would be interested in dropping out of whatever school they're in now to be students at an entirely online school with zero track record? The only kind I can think of are those who are failing or very close to failing in their current schools. They hear of this push to make everyone "successful" and some may think that really means "easy", or automatic, better grades. And USA Academy figures to be entirely "accommodating" to these types of students.

Who will be in charge of the actual school, meaning academic program? Edgenuity doesn't figure to actually run schools. It's just an online program which offers various courses. There is a need for administration and oversight at the individual schools, where grades are "Signed off" for students. Who will do that at USAA? It's plenty obvious Devaughn and Propst are utterly clueless about this stuff.

Even if the school passes them, they would still need to be able to get Clearinghouse cert. 

[AztecPadre]

16 minutes ago, HooverOutlaw said:

If you are already a 4 or 5 star recruit how does going to IMG help you? All those kids have many offers. 

It's the one year of pre college life prep is my guess. 

[badrouter]

1 hour ago, HooverOutlaw said:

If you are already a 4 or 5 star recruit how does going to IMG help you? All those kids have many offers. 

IMG's argument is that they can train them as college players. So, they'd theoretically be more prepared to step into a college program and succeed. I'm not sure why anyone would believe Rush and Dusty could match that.

[HawgGoneIt]

25 minutes ago, badrouter said:

IMG's argument is that they can train them as college players. So, they'd theoretically be more prepared to step into a college program and succeed. I'm not sure why anyone would believe Rush and Dusty could match that.

Rush was getting pretty close at Colquitt before his ouster. 

Daily nutrition, 3 balanced squares per day, with supplements and snacks provided throughout the day in an athlete's kitchen. Holding the kids over in hotel the night before the game to be sure proper hydration and nutrition was happening for sure on the night and day before the games. 

One of the biggest problems with the Rush program at Colquitt was that the sports somewhat overrode the classwork during a greuling season and some kids would fall behind on classwork. They tried different ways to try to keep the kids on target, but, the workout regimine and film homework etc., just seemed to take up too much time for some of the kids so they slipped in the grades dept. 

At the end of the day, quite a few athletes passing through Colquitt were able to go and make immediate impacts at colleges. As just one example that I can name today, we see Jay Ward contributing on special teams at LSU in his first year of college, and he could clearly move into his natural cover corner position if they needed. That's just one example of numerous across d1 and lesser colleges. 

Nobody should ever doubt Rush's ability to get kids college ready. Idk about how they're getting started here, but, given the right equipment and facilities, Rush can certainly do it.

You can question a lot of other stuff about him as far as personal issues and whatever, but the proof is in the numbers with the other. 

[badrouter]

14 minutes ago, HawgGoneIt said:

Rush was getting pretty close at Colquitt before his ouster. 

Daily nutrition, 3 balanced squares per day, with supplements and snacks provided throughout the day in an athlete's kitchen. Holding the kids over in hotel the night before the game to be sure proper hydration and nutrition was happening for sure on the night and day before the games. 

One of the biggest problems with the Rush program at Colquitt was that the sports somewhat overrode the classwork during a greuling season and some kids would fall behind on classwork. They tried different ways to try to keep the kids on target, but, the workout regimine and film homework etc., just seemed to take up too much time for some of the kids so they slipped in the grades dept. 

At the end of the day, quite a few athletes passing through Colquitt were able to go and make immediate impacts at colleges. As just one example that I can name today, we see Jay Ward contributing on special teams at LSU in his first year of college, and he could clearly move into his natural cover corner position if they needed. That's just one example of numerous across d1 and lesser colleges. 

Nobody should ever doubt Rush's ability to get kids college ready. Idk about how they're getting started here, but, given the right equipment and facilities, Rush can certainly do it.

You can question a lot of other stuff about him as far as personal issues and whatever, but the proof is in the numbers with the other. 

But it wasn't-couldn't be- Rush doing all of that on his own. He needed a quality support staff to make all of that go. Certainly in order to come close to matching IMG, or many other programs for that matter.

[BUFORDGAWOLVES]

6 minutes ago, badrouter said:

But it wasn't-couldn't be- Rush doing all of that on his own. He needed a quality support staff to make all of that go. Certainly in order to come close to matching IMG, or many other programs for that matter.

That’s what’s impressive about the grassroots efforts at Colquitt. Volunteers and Rush’s wife Stefenie were doing lotta hard work. There’s more Hawg will fill it in... he’s all in. 
BGW

[HawgGoneIt]

2 hours ago, badrouter said:

But it wasn't-couldn't be- Rush doing all of that on his own. He needed a quality support staff to make all of that go. Certainly in order to come close to matching IMG, or many other programs for that matter.

Definitely. That was one of Rush's strongest traits in Moultrie. The ability to get many many people besides the kids to buy in. It took quite a network of people outside of payed staff to make everything work. The nutrition program was/is mostly funded by civic groups, that also volunteer to prepare and serve the meals. 

The importance of that nutrition program to the strength/conditioning/hydration and overall well being of the players can't be stressed enough. The results of that program are really difficult to quantify. All Rush and Stefnie's idea and installed plan. It paid almost immediate dividends for the program. It did clearly need roughly 5 volunteers per meal to get it done. 

He is an expert at finding the right coaches to fit his needs as long as they are available. 

I have no doubt that they can install a similar program anywhere that the families or.community care about the kids. Not certain how it would go for a private academy like the one they are attempting, being that the local volunteer pool may not be all in on kids from everywhere else. I imagine it will almost have to be a paid staff there. Likely the coaches helping in the beginning. 

Again, I'm not sure what kind of money this thing will have to begin with, but, if the resources(including help) are available, they'll do well on that end.