A unique school inside the BluHawk Sports Park in Overland Park is giving student athletes a different path to success — one where elite training and academics happen in the same school day.
I first came to BluHawk to learn about TPH Academy while the development was still under construction. Coming back gave me a better sense of how students are combining sports and school — and for many of them, it means giving up the traditional high school experience to chase a bigger dream.
"We work in the morning for, like, about an hour. Then we go to warm up… skate... and then we do school again," TPH hockey student Henrik Schulte said.
Director and Head of Academics Christy Rutherford said the model is designed to bring everything together in one place.
The school is NCAA-accredited and built around the idea that students shouldn't have to choose between pursuing athletic goals and getting a quality education.
"Parents are no longer having to haul their student around in the morning, before school or after school," Rutherford said.
Teachers and coaches work together to keep students on track not just athletically, but for college and life beyond sports.
"We're working together as a team to help support the athlete and make them a better person," Rutherford said.
For baseball player Sam Porterfield, he can see the change in the extra training on the field.
"My 60 times gone down by over half a second, which is really good," Porterfield said.
But the path hasn't been without tradeoffs.
"Yeah honestly, it's kind of a sacrifice of the high school experience," Porterfield said. “Walking in the hallways, seeing all your friends.”
Still, Porterfield said the opportunity to chase his dream of playing college baseball makes it worth it.
"This is the place to be if you want to play at the next level, 100 percent," Porterfield said.
Leaders at TPH Academy say they can work with athletes in any sport, though hockey players make up most of the student roster.
