Original Research by School Decision on Springfield Sports Academy
Springfield Sports Academy is a tuition-free public charter school founded in August 2023, making it brand new in the landscape of Clark County school options. It is operated by ACCEL Schools with backing from Springfield native Braxton Miller, a former Ohio State quarterback, and serves grades K through 7 to students from both Springfield and Yellow Springs.
The school is built around a single defining pedagogical model: daily physical education integrated into the core school day. Students receive extensive daily PE where team sports and games form the framework of instruction. The curriculum combines this physical education with reading and math taught through both whole-group and small-group instruction, alongside electives and recess, under a system the school calls the Blitz model. The goal is to complete both academics and athletics within the school day so families are done by day's end. Starting in 4th grade, students move into competitive intramural and league sports. For middle school students entering the 6th and 7th grade expansion, the school offers seasonal or year-round team sports.
This is not a traditional school, and the academic model is the central reason a family would choose it, or would not. Families looking for a school where athletics are deeply embedded into daily instruction, where kids finish academics and sports in one day, and where team-based learning shapes the educational experience are the natural fit. Families seeking a conventional curriculum track or a separation between school academics and after-school sports should look elsewhere.
The school opened with just grades K through 5 and has expanded by adding one grade each year, reaching K through 7 as of the current school year. This means families enrolling today are not enrolling in an established K-12 system but rather in a growing one. The school has stated its intention to eventually serve K-12, so early enrollees are boarding a ship still under construction. Enrollment has grown modestly from its first year opening to the present.
No state testing data is available for this entity. The school is at grades too early for most state assessment to occur; kindergarten through second grade are not tested under Ohio's state system. Third through 5th grade results exist in Ohio's testing framework, but whether those results have been reported for this school was not available. As a very new charter school, publicly reported proficiency data may not yet be part of the public record, or may take time to appear.
The enrollment is small. The kindergarten class is larger than the upper grades, which is typical for a young school still finding its footing; older grades have notably fewer students. The student body is predominantly Black, with a meaningful white minority and representation of Pacific Islander students. No Hispanic students or Asian students are currently enrolled, and no American Indian or Alaska Native students.
The free or reduced-price lunch rate, special education identification rate, and English learner rate are not available from this school's publicly reported data. Similarly, per-pupil spending and chronic absenteeism figures are not part of what has been released. For a new charter school, these metrics may be in the process of collection or reporting, or may not yet be compiled in the same way that established districts report them.
A parent considering Springfield Sports Academy should visit, ask about the school's proficiency trajectory as more grades become testable, understand the daily schedule and how athletics integration works in practice, and feel clear about whether the sports-intensive model matches their family's priorities. The school is an option built around a specific vision; it is worth evaluating on that vision's own terms rather than comparing it to traditional school structures.
See more original research from School Decision →