At SAI Academy, Soccer Is the Dream. The Mission Is the Person Each Student Becomes.

The school day of an elite youth soccer player doesn’t always fit neatly between morning announcements and afternoon dismissal. Training sessions, travel, tournaments, and recovery time can all conflict with the routines traditional schools were built around, leaving students with a difficult choice between pursuing the sport at the highest level and achieving their academic goals. SAI Academy is making both possible. 

Based in Orlando, Florida with microschools scattered across the country, SAI serves about 300 young athletes through a model designed around the logistics of high-level youth sports, and among its alumni are Ervin Torres, who has signed with Austin FC, Gustavo Caraballo, on the first team at Orlando City, and Hugo Berg, a student at Stanford University. Its students may be chasing Division I college opportunities and professional contracts, but founder and CEO Shamani Ghay’s goal has never wavered from her commitment to making sure students don’t have to sacrifice their education to pursue their dreams. 

Before founding SAI, Ghay was a pediatric nurse and nurse practitioner. Friends who were connected to Orlando City approached her with a problem: how could young players get the training time they needed without being pulled away from a meaningful academic experience? That’s how the idea for the school emerged. 

“I always say it chose me,” Ghay said. “I didn’t really choose it; SAI was just built out of need.” 

SAI now works with an array of soccer organizations, including Orlando City, San Jose Earthquakes, Austin FC, and Columbus Crew, and has gained popularity largely through word of mouth.  It’s now known throughout the elite youth soccer community as a school that understands the demands of elite athletics and still holds students to high expectations. 

Building School Around Athletes’ Real Lives 

For young athletes training at a high level, flexibility is often the only way school can work. SAI students need time to train, travel, compete, and recover. They also need guidance as they make decisions about things like college athletics, professional sports, or careers beyond soccer. A loose homeschool arrangement would not be enough, nor would a traditional school schedule in which every student’s day looks the same. 

Students need flexibility, but they also need structure. Through EdOptions Academy, SAI gives students access to virtual teachers, flexible coursework, and accredited diploma options, serving students across locations while ensuring that the learning is rigorous. Ghay says finding the right partner was especially important because SAI serves such a specific population. “I will definitely fight for what my kids need,” she said.  

Ghay had tried multiple curriculum options while building the model, looking for robust course access, but also a partner that would understand the school’s structure and solve problems alongside her team. Edmentum fit the bill, and that partnership has become more important as SAI has grown. Ghay says Edmentum’s courses, support resources, tutoring options, and willingness to adapt have helped her give families clearer answers when students need different kinds of academic support. 

The Profile of an SAI Academy Graduate 

SAI’s students are deeply committed to sports, but the school’s mission goes far beyond athletic performance. The profile of an SAI graduate includes strong academic and athletic foundations, but it also includes humility, honesty, leadership, and the resilience it takes to achieve their dream along with academic excellence. 

“It’s using soccer, which is their passion, to make them into a really well-rounded person,” Ghay explained. 

That shows up in SAI’s leadership program and community service efforts. Each quarter, students research local charities, organize donation efforts, involve their teams and families, and deliver the donations themselves. “I want them to feel how good it feels to give back,” Ghay said, adding that the goal is to help students experience service not as a requirement, but as part of the kind of person they are becoming.  

SAI Academy is also working to strengthen the elementary experience so younger students can receive the same kind of academic structure available to middle and high school students. “Kids really do start a lot younger,” Ghay says. “That 9- to 12-year-old time period is where they’re getting a lot of their foundational skills, and there’s a lot of travel involved.” 

Helping Athletes See the Full Range of Possibilities 

Elite athletes often have clear short-term goals. They know the team they want to make, the tournament they want to win, the college program they hope to pursue… but long-term planning can be more complicated. And as SAI has expanded, Ghay and her team have also had to refine how they support students beyond day-to-day coursework. 

They have students pursuing Division I athletics and professional opportunities, but many also need help deciding what they might want to do if soccer doesn’t become their career. Some students are interested in connecting their experience as athletes to fields like sports medicine, coaching, health sciences, or even entrepreneurship. 

MajorClarity is giving SAI students tools to explore those possibilities as they identify their interests and consider academic pathways that may or may not lead to a career in soccer. That gives them room to think about who they are beyond the field without asking them to step away from the dream they are working so hard to pursue. 

Scaling a Model Built From Need 

As SAI continues to grow, Ghay says the strength of the partnership with Edmentum lies in knowing that her team doesn’t have to solve every challenge alone. “I have so much confidence that as we grow, if there is anything that comes up, you guys will be on board in helping me figure it out together,” she said. 

This partnership is a great example of how schools can be designed around students’ actual needs. Elite soccer players at SAI Academy don’t have to choose between ambition and academics. In fact, it’s possible to create an environment where they can do it all, becoming better athletes, students, and people.