7616 Business Park Drive, Suite B
Greensboro, NC  27409
(336) 790-6400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Dr. Terry E. Moffitt
Tel. 336-790-6400
Fax:  336-217-8479

VERITAS SPORTS ACADEMY TO OPEN FIRST SCHOOL IN KERNERSVILLE

Beginning in August college-bound male athletes in the Triad will have a new school to help prepare them for their future academic and athletic endeavors.  Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks, the NFL’s 2005 MVP, was on hand today to announce that classes at Veritas Sports Academy will start on August 13, 2008, for student-athletes enrolled for the 2008-09 school year.  Though not affiliated with a specific church, the school will open on the campus of First Christian Church Kernersville before moving to its new state of the art classroom and training facility on Beeson Road in Kernersville for the 2009-2010 school year.

Veritas Sports Academy - Triad will be the first of 72 schools that are planned across the country and is unlike any school that has been developed to-date in the United States.  The mission of Veritas is to assist in the development of students who seek to play college athletics academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, and physically by providing an education in a traditional, college-preparatory setting.  The schools will provide private, non-denominational, Christian education for young men in grades 9-12 who appear to have the ability to continue to play their chosen sports in college and beyond.  The schools will be day schools with the students being taught character education, leadership and economic skills, in addition to a challenging college preparatory curriculum.  The teachers will only teach and the coaches will only coach, and both will be available to work with the students on a year-round basis. All students who are accepted for enrollment will receive a full scholarship.

VSA anticipates drawing students from approximately an hour travel radius from the inaugural school and has already received requests for nearly 300 applications for its first 100 enrollment slots.  Potential students will be evaluated academically, athletically and in such areas as behavior, character and teachability, both in terms of present ability and future potential.
 
All students must agree to mandatory drug testing, community service, and behavioral and academic standards that are designed to assist in the development of the character traits that each student will need to become a strong, positive community leader.  The school will initially offer four sports: basketball, baseball, golf and wrestling and will enroll approximately 100 young men.  Enrollment will include up to ten students who wish to go into sports medicine or athletic training who will work with the VSA training and strength and conditioning coaches.  An additional ten students who want to go into sports management, marketing or coaching will work side-by-side with the VSA coaching staff. Football will be added in 2009-2010 with an additional 40 students being enrolled for that sport.  Other sports teams may be added in the future.

Veritas National Superintendent Terry Moffitt underscored the need for such an academy by pointing out that “Sports competition is a basic environment for pursuing excellence and performance.  We want to train the student-athletes that attend VSA to understand that they are students first and athletes second.  Though VSA will provide world class training in each sport, we will also prepare students for the academic, social, spiritual and career challenges that they face in the years to come.  Veritas is about developing future community leaders as much as it is about assisting students who seek to obtain athletic scholarships.” CEO and Chairman of the Board Gary Newell added, “It is easier to build boys than to mend men.”

During the first season Veritas will play a schedule comprised mostly of regional powers and nationally ranked high school teams from around the country.  Nike has already agreed to sponsor the school’s basketball team for three years and other companies are offering sponsorship proposals for the baseball, wrestling and golf teams.
  
Veritas Sports Academy will also locate its national office in Kernersville. The organization has already been offered land in three additional locations but will wait to announce its plans for future expansion later in the year.