Women’s college basketball has become one of the biggest attractions in the country, with an average of 18.9 million people tuning in to watch South Carolina beat Iowa to win the NCAA championship last Sunday.
It was the most watched women’s basketball game ever — the third time in a week that record was broken for a game involving Iowa and NCAA all-time scoring leader Caitlin Clark — and ESPN reported that it was the most watched basketball game since the 2019 men’s NCAA final.
That is due in large part to Clark — the projected No. 1 pick in Monday’s WNBA draft — and other marquee athletes, such as LSU All-American and fashion queen Angel Reese, who have become household names and millionaires off the court thanks to massive Name, Image and Likeness deals.
The changing landscape has led the nation’s top high school players to seek alternative means of preparing for the rigors of college athletics, which often means leaving behind dreams of chasing state championships with longtime friends in their hometowns.
Nontraditional local private schools, such as North Texas-based Legion Prep Academy, offer athletes the opportunity to fit self-paced, online classes around their rigorous training schedules. Legion Prep opened in 2018, started its girls basketball program this past season and is already assembling one of the premier rosters in the country for next year.
Five-star sophomore Jacy Abii, the No. 1 recruit in Texas in the Class of 2026, is transferring to Legion Prep after leading Frisco Liberty to back-to-back UIL Class 5A state titles. Four-star sophomore Kamora Pruitt from DeSoto and junior Brooklyn Terry from Mansfield Timberview are leaving nationally ranked public school programs to join a still mostly unknown program.
“We decided to make the move because the schedule allows me to be able to simulate what my college experience will be and I will be able to get more time in the gym to work on my game and be a better version of myself on the court,” Pruitt said.
Founders Donald and Nishia Walker said the school has no physical location. Classes are all online, with about 35 students in grades 6 through 12.
The cost is $4,500 per year. Nishia Walker, Legion Prep’s director of education and admission, said three teachers are available to assist with coursework and provide one-on-one tutoring, but they don’t teach the classes, as students work at their own pace.
“It simulates college, and it preps you for college. The benefits are flexibility and you are getting your time back,” said Donald Walker, Legion Prep’s director of operations. “You don’t have your teachers micromanaging you throughout the day. It is your responsibility to know what your assignments are and to get your assignments taken care of. If you need assistance, then your professors or teachers are there.”
Taking an unconventional route like this comes with risks for players and parents, and the reviews won’t be in until players start their college career. But area stars are already buying in.
An evolving game
What Legion Prep is trying to build is unprecedented in Texas for girls basketball. Irving-based Dynamic Prep, which six-time NBA All-Star Jermaine O’Neal founded in 2022, has a similar setup for its nationally ranked boys basketball team, but plans to start a girls program are on hold.
O’Neal did not respond to messages seeking comment, but Texas Monthly reported in February that more than half of Dynamic Prep’s schedule this past season was played against teams from outside Texas and that players report to the complex by 9 a.m. on weekdays for self-paced instruction that’s done primarily online.
“We want to create a model that is conducive to competing from an academic standpoint, which is literally number one on our agenda, and then allowing them to go compete on the playing surface, in the weight room, and then also being able to still be teenagers,” O’Neal told Texas Monthly.
“But we’re not here from a club perspective, and not even a high school perspective, to make anybody a pro. We give ‘em the tools and information to use that they can use at the next level. Worst-case scenario is being able to take basketball from a Dynamic Prep perspective and get a free education, which will then put them in a better situation to economically grow wherever they individually sit or where their families sit.”
Coaches of the best public school programs in Texas don’t agree that this is the best approach, but they have accepted that it could become the trend going forward.
“You take away from what is great about high school athletics. It’s the camaraderie. You’ve been through so much together and you’ve grown up together,” Timberview coach Kit Kyle Martin said. “If that’s the way the landscape changes, people are going to have to change with it or get out.”
Classes at Legion Prep are Monday through Thursday, with Fridays off. Oklahoma State signee Kennedy Evans said that each class took about 25 to 30 minutes and she was done by 11 a.m. She said her classes were English and other core subjects, health, keyboarding and logic.
“I’m very happy,” Evans said. “It takes me about three hours to do the work, and after that, I am done for the day and I can go work out or do whatever I need to get done.”
That type of academic setting might raise some questions, especially given that Legion Prep isn’t accredited by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, which reviews more than 1,000 private and preparatory schools in the state, including those in TAPPS and the Southwest Preparatory Conference. Also, some basic questions remain unanswered, as administrators wouldn’t say how Legion Prep is funded and coaches wouldn’t disclose where Legion Prep plays its home games.
Girls head coach Taylor Johnston said the team plans to practice at Willie B. Johnson Recreation Center in Dallas next season, but the recreation center said Tuesday that the school hasn’t signed a contract agreement to practice there. Still, parents don’t seem concerned.
“The day seemed very drawn out [at Liberty],” said Abii’s father, Haskell. “There are a lot of electives that you don’t need for college. When I started looking at the classes and what Legion offered, Legion gives you the nitty-gritty, just the stuff you need to get out of high school and be ready for college. There is not a lot of fluff.”
Mia Evans, a Legion Prep parent, posted on X (formerly Twitter), that “I’ve heard the rumblings [It’s not a real school, It’s not NCAA certified, etc.]. The education through Legion is legit, and NCAA certified.” To back that up, she posted a note from the NCAA Eligibility Center that said Kennedy Evans was certified as an early academic qualifier.
Legion Prep is accredited through the National Association of Private Schools, a nonprofit that provides educational assistance and accreditation for church schools, private Christian schools and Christian home school academies. Nishia Walker said her school offers NCAA-certified courses that use the Enlightium Academy hybrid learning curriculum.
Johnston said four seniors from the first-year program will play college basketball — Evans, Fresno State signee Rayna Williams, Northern Colorado signee Neenah George and Larkin Turner (going to Mary Hardin-Baylor).
On the move
Legion Prep doesn’t call itself a prep school, but in addition to competing in the Texas Christian Athletic League, it will play a national schedule next season for basketball — the only sport currently offered. The chance to compete against the country’s best players is a big draw.
Sixteen of the nation’s top 20 boys and 11 of the top 20 girls recruits in the Class of 2024 came from a prep school, private school or a basketball training center. Some of the biggest names in the Dallas area have left UIL schools for prep schools in recent years, including 2021 No. 1 NBA draft pick Cade Cunningham (went from Arlington Bowie to Florida’s Montverde Academy), Boston Celtics rookie Jordan Walsh (left Oak Cliff Faith Family for Link Academy in Missouri) and five-star Texas signee Tre Johnson (won a state title at Lake Highlands before going to Link Academy).
Longtime coach Andrea Robinson saw the high school game becoming nontraditional and decided to leave DeSoto, a Class 6A public school that won two state titles and had two state runner-up finishes from 2019 through 2023. She announced March 27 that she is the new girls basketball coach at Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy, a charter school in the UIL that will play a national schedule next season and that “is creative and cutting edge in offering individualized pathways for student-athletes to excel academically and athletically.”
“The game is changing,” Robinson said. “The preparatory stuff, kids are attracted to that. Maybe it’s the nontraditional education part of it. Maybe it’s not going to school every day. We were playing a national schedule [at DeSoto] so that would not be a reason [players left].”
Evans turned down an offer to attend Link Academy to stay home, but she left UIL Class 6A Denton Braswell after her junior year to attend Legion Prep for one year.
Jacy Abii said it was hard to leave Liberty because of its strong academics and the ability to take AP and gifted and talented classes. But she is interested in the medical field, and going to Legion Prep could allow her the time to do internships that could put her ahead going into college.
“From an off-the-court standpoint, I’d like to go ahead and learn how to manage my time well with a college-style schedule academically,” she said. “Both my parents played college ball and saw how Legion Prep’s schedule could be very beneficial at teaching me how to manage my time well.”
Haskell Abii said his daughter didn’t get home until 5:30 p.m. after a long day of classes and practices at Liberty, but at Legion, Abii can do her school work all at home and potentially be done by 1 p.m. The nation’s ninth-ranked sophomore recruit will be able to work more often with personal trainers, strength and conditioning coaches and chiropractors, and even though Legion Prep practices four times a week, her father said he thinks it will be easier to schedule college visits as Abii tries to decide between more than 40 offers.
Legion Prep is still in its infancy athletically, but for Abii it offered one big advantage over Florida’s Montverde Academy and California’s Sierra Canyon — national powerhouse college preparatory schools that her father said she might have ended up at otherwise. Abii didn’t have to leave home or move out of state to attend Legion Prep.
“I never wanted to do anything but public school. My mom worked as an educator her whole life, and education has always been extremely important to myself and my wife,” Haskell Abii said. “But I did a lot of research, and it looks like the academics are really sound. I see the tremendous benefits for my daughter. She can be well-rounded, and not just a basketball player.”
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