New playbook? Some parents are holding students back to give competitive edge

Holding kids back in school is not a new concept, and it is usually done for academic or behavior reasons.

But one Orange County private middle school is taking a different approach. It is built around the idea that an extra year before high school can help young athletes grow stronger, more confident, and more competitive both in the classroom and on the field.

The school is The Togethership, a holistic sports academy in San Clemente. That's where fifth grader Curren Lincoln hopes to enroll when he enters the sixth grade.

"It's another chance for him to just get more of academic skills, social skills, time management skills, athletic skills," his mother Nicole Lincoln said. "I really am just excited, selfishly too, for the extra time with him before high school."

She made the same choice for his older brother, Austin, who's entering seventh grade at The Togethership and focused on football and basketball.

"Actually I used to be a teacher," Nicole said. "I've been in education forever on both sides of it. So to me, when I heard about the program, there was nothing negative about it for me. I only saw the upside."

Founder Devin Quinn saw the upside as well to this unique schooling model after coaching and tutoring athletes for years. He decided to launch the $ 20,000-a-year private school in 2019 that blended academics with sports training and offered a high school prep year.

"So we have our eighth grade regular curriculum, and then the HSP is more of a ninth grade, freshman level high school curriculum," Quinn said.

The school's 185 students spend part of their day in the classroom and part of it developing skills in sports.

Quinn says about 65% of the students choose to stay back a year, no doubt giving many a competitive edge.

"Some of these kids are growing like five inches, putting on 30, 40 pounds of muscle, and just coming in as a freshman ready to compete on varsity," Quinn says.

High school senior Kiley Husbands took the high school prep year and is now going on to play basketball at University of California at Berkeley.

"It's kind of like, seems like cheating, but it's not," Husbands says. "It's just like setting you up for success more."

Student-athletes looking to take their game to the next level no longer have to turn to private schools.

This fall, Capistrano Unified School District is launching a public school performance academy, complete with a high school prep year designed to give current eighth graders more time to develop in their sport before entering high school.

"And Saddleback Unified too. Both the two biggest public school districts down here," Quinn said. "I think it's amazing that the public schools are trying to kind of get with the times."