Editor's note: This story is Part 4 of a four-part series offering an in-depth examination of Grind Prep, a new prep school in Oklahoma looking to change the high school basketball game. From the inception to the players to the viability of such a school, The Oklahoman explored every aspect. You can read Part 1 here , Part 2 here and Part 3 here .
Shell Dailey presented a hypothetical scenario.
Imagine you’re a college basketball coach looking to fill a roster spot. One recruit is an incoming freshman who hasn’t competed beyond high school. The other is a 24-year-old – a grizzled elder, in NCAA terms – who played many games before hitting the transfer portal.
“Who would you choose?” said Dailey, who has coached at levels ranging from IMG Academy to the WNBA.
Dailey knows coaches often face this decision, and they often choose experience over youth.
Does it change anything if the incoming freshman has already honed her skills in a college-like environment with out-of-state travel, intense workouts and fast-paced play?
Maybe.
For years, this prep-school model has attracted many highly touted boys basketball prospects. Now, it’s catching on with superstars on the girls side, too. It’s happening in Oklahoma City, where girls basketball coach Carlos Adamson has established Grind Prep Academy. Grind – a standalone title and an acronym for Greatness Resides in Determination – is a new tuition-based school with boys and girls basketball programs.
On the boys side, Grind Prep is localizing a nationwide trend, trying to keep in-state prospects from leaving for other prep schools.
On the girls side, Grind Prep is a trailblazer contributing to a large-scale mission.
Dailey and women’s basketball scout Tenishia Benson preside as co-commissioners over the National Athletic Association for Independent Schools, nicknamed “The League.” Founded in February, The League focuses solely on girls basketball. Six members, including Grind, participated in the inaugural season.
“We want to take women’s basketball by storm and really create a space and a platform for these independent schools,” Benson said.
The perfect storm of factors is allowing The League and Grind Prep to flourish. First, women’s basketball is gaining popularity across the country with increased visibility and accessibility. NCAA Tournament games are broadcast on major networks, and star players are household names.
But the women’s game doesn’t reflect the men’s game in every way. The WNBA is a smaller league with fewer roster spots than the NBA, and men can declare for the NBA Draft at a younger age. This means women’s college teams typically skew older, Benson said, creating a “polished” style of play. Add in the transfer portal and COVID years, and there’s an expectation for teams to boast experience.
“As you’re older on the women’s side collegiately,” Benson said, “on the grassroots side, high school division, you really got to be ready to play. It puts a lot of pressure on the high school side to be ready to play, and I think that’s what really forced and squeezed a lot of players to think about going the prep (school) route.”
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What makes a successful prep school?
With this reality arising, Dailey said prep schools have shed the stigma that once surrounded them. Dailey and Benson said skeptics often doubted the academic side, comparing prep schools to homeschool or travel ball.
Critiques of prep schools gained national attention during the 2021 Bishop Sycamore scandal, when the Ohio-based football team lost in brutal fashion to IMG Academy on ESPN and the fittingly nicknamed “BS High” turned out to be a scam disguised as a prep school.
Operating independently, prep schools don’t have to follow the rules of their state high school activities associations, so there is more leniency. But Dailey, who served as assistant director of basketball for 17 years at powerhouse IMG, recognizes a prep school can’t go rogue and succeed.
The League provides a unifying framework for its six schools. The NCAA has academic requirements for incoming athletes, so Dailey and Benson monitor these standards throughout The League to make sure players are on track. Benson said they maintain communication not only with coaches, but also with heads of schools and school boards.
Dailey provided a list of criteria for a prep school to succeed:
- Adequate on-campus housing and/or commuter system
- Academic accreditation and tutoring resources, including accommodations for international students who might experience language barriers
- Food
- Safety
- Social outlets and community involvement
- Trainers and experts (weight trainers, nutritionists, etc.)
“If you’re prepping them for the next level, then all of those components need to be present,” said Dailey, whose son, Eric Dailey Jr. , attended IMG Academy before playing last season at Oklahoma State and opting to transfer to UCLA.
Although it’s new, Grind Prep used several of Dailey’s criteria as building blocks. Chef Kalise Carter prepares chicken teriyaki, spaghetti and hamburgers in the academy’s kitchen. Students aren’t living on a campus, but vans transport them to practices. They socialize, gathering for school dances and creating TikToks in Grind Prep’s open ballroom.
Latesha Woods, whose daughter, Justice, has attended Grind Prep as an eighth grader, praised Adamson for following through with his plans. Latesha Woods said she doesn’t know of any other sustained effort to have a prep school girls basketball team in the state.
“This is the first prep school (in Oklahoma) that I have heard of and got to experience that was active and did exactly what they said they were going to do,” Woods said.
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What is the cost?
A cozy, stylish classroom space for Grind Prep didn’t just suddenly pop up in downtown Oklahoma City above Joey’s Pizzeria. Prep schools need money to operate. Adamson said Grind Prep relies on “believers” who fund the academy, and students pay tuition, essentially making it a private school with a basketball emphasis.
The initial cost to attend Grind Prep is $15,000 per student. For comparison, Oklahoma City private school Heritage Hall requires an annual tuition of $25,075 for seventh-12th graders, while Oklahoma Christian School costs $13,255 per high school student with fees included.
IMG Academy’s tuition? For 10th-12th graders, it’s $27,000 for day school and $51,800 for boarding school.
Dailey said some of these academies, including IMG and Grind Prep, offer scholarships, but in many cases, parents are paying their kids’ tuition. It’s a steep price, leading to polarizing opinions about whether these academies are boosting the game or creating a model that financially limits access to top-notch training and treats high school sports as a business.
It’s not always fair, but it is reality.
Basketball is turning into a business at every level, particularly with the introduction of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.
And there’s earning potential for a student who is prepared to succeed as a high-profile recruit and bring in the NIL dough.
El Reno High School girls basketball coach Jennifer Douglas sees the nuances of the prep-school debate.
“I think it just goes to whatever is best for that family and whatever is best for that player,” Douglas said.
In Oklahoma, many girls basketball standouts are making names for themselves outside the prep school realm, particularly in the talent-packed class of 2025. Marcayla Johnson of Tulsa Booker T. Washington has committed to Baylor. Janiyah Williams of Edmond Memorial has chosen Oregon. Keeley Parks of Norman and Avery Hjelmstad of Edmond Memorial are uncommitted with numerous offers.
It’s difficult to reach that level of recognition, and those players have expanded their spotlights through travel ball. The prep school path provides a different boost – or, as Benson put it, a bridge.
“We want to be a bridge to prepare these young ladies for what’s next and also enjoy what’s now,” Benson said.
This is why Dailey didn’t stop working when she retired from IMG Academy. Instead, she and Benson joined forces to lead The League.
How does The League work?
The teams are in different states: Life Prep in Kansas, Link Academy in Missouri, Legacy Early College in South Carolina, DME Academy in Florida and Example Academy in Illinois.
Another member joined before the inaugural season started.
College coaches told Benson she needed to connect with Adamson, a former Putnam West and Eastern Michigan coach.
“We just clicked on all cylinders just about the intentions and him wanting what’s best for his girls, and everything,” Benson said. “He was extremely interested in The League, and we were very, extremely interested in him. So we said, ‘Let’s make this thing happen.’”
With Grind Prep on board, The League was off and running. Teams had flexibility to fill out their schedules with random games – for example, Grind Prep faced Putnam City West High School – but league members met for three “stops” with the final one serving as the national championship.
Fourth-seeded Legacy won the championship, and Grind Prep junior Sania Richardson received the season MVP award.
Throughout the season, Benson and Dailey were flooded with requests from other schools. Dailey said 20 additional schools wanted to join The League when it launched, and there are plans to expand for next season.
Currently, Grind Prep’s boys and girls teams compete in different leagues. The boys team is a member of the Southwest Athletic Interscholastic Conference, a league made up of eight teams from three states.
If the girls program had launched earlier, it might have had trouble finding an organized league. But with Dailey and Benson leading the way, the rapidly booming college prep scene has expanded to girls basketball.
It’s a response to evolving recruitment patterns, and regardless of varying outside opinions, Adamson is keeping Oklahoma up on the trends.
“We want to make sure that we are promoting our sport, but most of all, we’re putting these young ladies in the position to be recruited and reach their end goals,” Dailey said. “All along the way, we’re teaching them about the sport that they love and how to be appreciative and understand the history before it, but also for them to be able to carry it on.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Big picture: Grind Prep joins league-wide mission to ‘take women’s basketball by storm’
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