Key Takeaways
- More than 500 Keene State College student-athletes and staff will receive access to Elevate Essentials starting this academic year
- The deal is only the second higher education partnership for Elevate by IMG Academy, following its collegiate debut
- Programming combines an online platform with on-site and virtual workshops covering leadership, wellbeing, and personal growth
- Keene State’s athletic director framed the agreement as the start of a long-term relationship spanning the full athletics department
Elevate by IMG Academy announced a partnership with Keene State College on August 11, its second higher education agreement and a step deeper into collegiate athletics for the student-athlete development platform. The NCAA Division III institution will roll out Elevate Essentials to more than 500 student-athletes and staff, paired with on-site and virtual workshops focused on leadership, wellbeing, and personal development, according to the announcement.
What Keene State Is Implementing
The partnership covers three delivery formats. Elevate Essentials serves as the core online platform, while on-campus workshops bring programming directly to Bradenton-based IMG Academy’s newest collegiate client, and ongoing virtual sessions extend the work throughout the year.
Keene State plans to integrate the platform across its entire athletics department beginning this academic year, per the announcement. Marty Testo, Director of Athletics at Keene State College, said the combination of online resources, on-campus engagement, and virtual workshops gives student-athletes and coaches “a complete development experience,” adding that coaches intend to introduce the platform as athletes return to campus this fall.
Testo also signaled the school views the agreement as more than a one-year pilot. “We believe this is the beginning of a long-term partnership that will positively impact our entire athletics community,” he said in the release.
Why a Division III School Is a Notable Client
Keene State competes at the NCAA Division III level, where athletic scholarships do not exist and institutional budgets for athlete services typically run leaner than at Power Conference programs. A comprehensive development platform reaching 500-plus athletes at a D3 school suggests Elevate is building a collegiate client base beyond the highest-resourced departments.
Ashlee Lawson, Senior Vice President of Strategic Corporate Relations at IMG Academy, positioned the deal around a broader institutional shift. “The future of collegiate athletics will be defined by the institutions that invest as intentionally in personal development as they do athletic performance,” Lawson said in the announcement. “Leadership, wellbeing, and life skills aren’t separate from competitive success, but they’re part of it.”
Where Elevate Fits in IMG Academy’s Portfolio
Elevate is one arm of IMG Academy’s expanding off-campus business. The Bradenton, Florida company operates a boarding school and camps, online coaching through IMG Academy+, and college recruiting services via NCSA and SportsRecruits, which connect athletes to a network of 40,000 college coaches, according to the company.
The collegiate partnership track gives IMG Academy a B2B revenue channel aimed at athletic departments themselves, distinct from its consumer-facing recruiting and coaching products. The company said the Keene State deal reflects growing momentum as more institutions invest in holistic development experiences.
Two Campuses In, With Coaches as the Adoption Engine
The Keene State agreement doubles Elevate’s collegiate client count and hands the platform a full-department implementation to point to in future sales conversations. Testo’s comments make clear the rollout strategy runs through coaches first, who will introduce the platform to their rosters as the fall semester begins. The first test of the partnership arrives immediately: more than 500 student-athletes and staff come online with Elevate Essentials this academic year.
Source: IMG Academy, August 11, 2026, https://www.imgacademy.com/news/elevate-by-img-academy-continues-collegiate-growth-with-keene-state-college-partnership
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American families spend approximately $54 billion annually on kids’ sports and recreation, according to the YSBR and Kinetica Group Youth Sports TAM & Parent Spending Report, with organized sports alone representing a $40 billion-plus market. The average family spent $1,016 on a child’s primary sport in 2024, up 46 percent since 2019, per the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and market research projects the global youth sports market will reach approximately $114 billion by 2032 (Business Research Insights).
How many kids play youth sports in the United States?
Approximately 27.3 million children ages 6 to 17, or about 54.6 percent, played organized sports in 2022-2023, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health as reported by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play. High school sports participation reached a record 8.26 million athletes in 2024-25, per the NFHS.
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Youth Sports Marketing Questions, Answered
Where can brands sponsor youth sports? Brands can sponsor youth sports through local leagues and clubs, tournaments and events, facilities and complexes, governing bodies, and national platform programs. Sponsoring a child’s own program is the most powerful entry point: 81 percent of parents say it captures their attention, outperforming TV, social media, and pro sports sponsorship, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study conducted by YouGov Sport.
How much does youth sports sponsorship cost? Youth sports sponsorship costs range from a few thousand dollars for a local league or team sponsorship to six and seven figures for regional facility naming rights and national platform programs. The environment is welcoming at every level: 84 percent of parents hold net positive sentiment toward brands sponsoring youth sports, with negative sentiment under 5 percent, per YouGov Sport research. Most brands start with a pilot activation, measure engagement, then scale.
What is the ROI of youth sports marketing? The data is striking: 80 percent of parents say they would choose the brand that sponsors their child’s youth sports program when comparing two similar products, per a 2026 Priority Partnerships study by YouGov Sport. A 2026 EMARKETER and DICK’S Media survey found 84 percent of sports parents say that role influences their purchase decisions, and 60 percent spend more on game and practice days, driving loyalty across categories from dining to travel to automotive.
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