How Nick Bollettieri’s tennis school turned into a powerhouse for sports stars
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The death of Nick Bollettieri, tennis coach to the stars
Tennis legend Nick Bollettieri died at age 91 at his Bradenton, Florida, home on Sunday. How he molded players to land at the top of their game.
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Tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, who made champion after champion in Florida, dies at 91
See photos of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri through the years, and watch what he says
Famed coach Nick Bollettieri left lasting imprint on tennis and all youth sports | Opinion
How Nick Bollettieri’s tennis school turned into a powerhouse for sports stars
Nick Bollettieri guided tennis stars to the top of the world. Here are 10 ranked No. 1
It started on tomato fields in West Bradenton more than 40 years ago.
Today, it’s a sprawling sports academy with a boarding school, on-campus hotel and a long list of alumni that have played professional or college sports.
Athletes from all over the world have attended IMG Academy, and it’s impact on Manatee County and the national sports landscape is evident.
And at the heart of how it began is Nick Bollettieri, who died at age 91 at his Bradenton home on Sunday.
Bollettieri came to the area for a job at The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key in 1976. But in 1978, Bollettieri founded the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. He received a $1 million loan from Louis Marx to make it happen.
The location is where IMG Academy currently sits.
“Anyone who knew Nick knows how much he loved developing the potential in young people, coaching tennis and this Academy,” Tim Pernetti, president of IMG Academy Bradenton, a division of IMG Academy, said in a statement. “Even in his last days, you could often find him on campus, coaching and mentoring young student-athletes and staff with the same passion and enthusiasm as he did in his 20s.
“Our heart goes out to his wife, Cindi, and his children. He has made a permanent and lasting impact on all of us.”
Tennis, though, was how it started, and Bollettieri was at the forefront. The former paratrooper, who played high school football and basketball in Pelham, New York, was a tennis coach in 1978, beginning what would turn into a career developing 10 players who became No. 1 in the world: Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Jelena Jankovic, Marcelo Rios, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Venus Williams.
“He definitely changed the game,” said Steve Shulla, Bollettieri’s manager.
Courier attended Bradenton’s Saint Stephen’s Episcopal school, where he won a state championship in 1986 before winning four Grand Slam titles — two French Opens and two Australian Opens — on his ascent to No. 1 in men’s tennis with the help of Bollettieri.
“Tennis wouldn’t be where it is today without Nick’s influence,” said Jimmy Arias, IMG Academy director of tennis and one of Bollettieri’s original students. “His tennis academy, which I had the privilege of growing up within, not only served as a launching pad for many tennis greats but evolved into an institution that has had a profound impact on the development of athletes across many sports at all levels.”
By 1987, the wheels turned for what was to eventually become the sports destination for top recruits in multiple sports.
That’s the year IMG founder Mark McCormack bought the tennis academy from Bollettieri. The tennis guru stayed on and continued teaching, while IMG expanded through the years.
“The academy is one of the biggest businesses in Bradenton and everybody in the tennis world knows Bradenton, Florida,” Shulla said. “The state of Florida honored Nick a couple years ago, the state Senate gave him a life achievement award for his contributions.”
The academy now offers baseball, basketball, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer and track and field to pair with tennis. Next year, it’s adding volleyball.
There’s a litany of star athletes who have come through IMG Academy over the decades. Since 2010, that’s included a slew of football players now in the NFL.
Last April, the 2022 NFL Draft saw IMG Academy alum Evan Neal selected with the seventh overall pick, marking the first time in the program’s young history that it produced a top 10 draft pick. More than a dozen former Ascenders were taken in the NFL Draft, starting with running back Bo Scarbrough in 2018.
A 5,000-seat stadium is home to the football team, and it’s also hosted several track athletes prepping for the Olympics as well as other track meets.
IMG’s affiliation with U.S. Soccer meant the U-17 men’s national team had a residency program at the sports academy from 1999 to 2017.
That, in turn, is showcased in this year’s FIFA World Cup, where Christian Pulisic — who scored the winning goal to propel the U.S. past Iran and into the knockout phase of this year’s tournament in Qatar — was a member of the U-17 residency team.
There’s also PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players who trained at IMG Academy. The sports academy has produced NBA players, too.
But the impact is traced to the blueprint Bollettieri put together back in 1978 when the area was just a bunch of tomato fields.
Even the road leading into IMG Academy is named after him: Bollettieri Boulevard.
“It was all built off his training model,” Shulla said. “The tennis academy was doing well and we were looking for ways to kind of insulate against the ups and downs of the tennis market. So we could maybe do golf. So we did golf, soccer, baseball, basketball, football. But in the beginning, we kind of had to do everything ourselves funding-wise. But then IMG got really heavily involved and supported, and it’s one of the big reasons it’s become as large as it has. Because they got behind it.”
Shulla came to the academy as a 16-year-old student, later working 25 years there and becoming Bollettieri’s manager the last 10 years. Bollettieri meant a lot to him.
“Nick had a lot of close friends that stayed with him for a long, long time and for me, he was like a second father,” Shulla said. “He was a loyal, loyal friend to a fault. And believed in a lot of people and really supported them, and really changed their lives.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2022 at 12:47 PM with the headline "How Nick Bollettieri’s tennis school turned into a powerhouse for sports stars."