This is the soundtrack
of Cassandra Smith's life.
A rhythm that for her son Mickey Mathis,
means hope he wants to
continue playing basketball.
But she says with college
students getting another year to
play due to COVID teams don't
have as many slots to fill.
While Matt has ended high school without
an offer, he did get
recruited for something else
and I was at Walmart and he
called me and he said, Mom.
I got an offer from the
school Fairmont and he said it
just the room was spinning.
It just seemed so unreal.
Postgrad is one more chance for student
athletes to improve their grades,
train, and play as the program networks
would colleges to get them noticed.
But the more Smith and her son
researched Fairmont Sports Academy,
the more questions they had about the school.
And he said at first he
didn't think it was real.
I hadn't even had to open my mouth yet.
It was just kind of like.
That's heartbreaking
11. Alive investigates.
Did some digging and
found the school is real.
There are social media posts
thanking the head coach Rod
Willmont for helping them advance,
but the name of the school is new.
Brand new the Instagram
page was pretty much new.
All the pictures were from March
8 and the web page is a hodgepodge
of images from other schools where
the coaches have worked in the past.
Smith says none of that
was explained to her. No,
he just kept saying this is,
you know, we this Fairmont we
won this championship last year.
We beat IMG, that's our school.
That's our competition and
Smith asked for a game schedule,
hoping that would clear up the confusion.
It didn't. We cross referenced it
with schools listed and couldn't find
Fairmont on any of their schedules.
And most schools didn't even have a game
on the day's Fairmont said they played.
So you did not necessarily run that one by.
We spoke with Ben Fair, the
Dean of Fairmont Sports Academy
schedule is that those are the teams
that we play, but I think he was
doing some guesswork on the date.
He means all the different schools his
coaching staff worked in the past.
Neither of them were happy
with the the management,
so that's that's where I come in.
How long has Fairmont been around?
This is going to be our
first season as farewell.
There is no National Association or
certification for postgrad sports programs.
Tim Pernetti, the CEO for IMG Academy,
says it is up to prospective
parents to do their homework.
Get to know the people,
get to know the program.
He knows. Many students hold out waiting
for that college offer so postgrad is
often a decision made over the summer,
just weeks before a full season might start,
and when it gets made late,
sometimes the opportunity to
really dive in and learn you don't
have as much time to do that.
Pernetti tells parents to visit
the campus and talk with staff
before making a decision fair.
Invites those with questions
about Fairmont to do the same,
but says he's not worried his
coaching staff sells the program
when they're two of the top names
in the prep school coaching
arena in Florida right now.
So we've been pretty successful getting
kids signed up for next season.
Smith says for her each
dribble now means uncertainty.
Postgrad isn't cheap.
Tuition can easily cost $25,000
because it's a big commitment.
Yeah, it's huge commitment.
Our guards are up and
she's now playing defense.
We're doing a lot of research
before we find anything.
What do you guys usually play?