Drew Shelton on his transfer to IMG Academy: 'It's been a dream of mine'

Future Penn State offensive lineman Drew Shelton announced Saturday evening that he’ll finish his high school career down in Florida at IMG Academy in Bradenton.

A Rivals250 prospect and the top overall commitment in Penn State’s Class of 2022, Shelton said that he always had interest in playing at IMG, and that it was his relationship with another Penn State recruit, offensive lineman Tyler Booker, that helped sparked this move.

"It really started with me becoming friends with Tyler Booker and Aliou Bah,” Shelton said. “They've just been telling me for awhile now that I should come down there and team up with them. It really just went from there, and then the coaches got involved. We started talking about it in late-November."

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Shelton said that he was accepted into the boarding school back on Dec. 10. He added that there was a little bit of back and forth on whether he wanted to make the move, but in the end, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

"It's been a dream of mine to come down here,” Shelton said, adding that he’s already in Florida and will begin taking classes today, Jan. 4. “You see the guys that play there and you see their facilities and hear about the structure there all the time. It's all over the place."

Like nearly all of the Division I prospects that make this move, Shelton said it was centered around improving his chances of contributing early once he gets to Penn State.

"I want to get bigger, faster, stronger and be able to compete early at Penn State,” Shelton said. “That's the main goal of mine. But also, just the maturity and growing up that comes out of this and living away from my parents. I think that'll help me be ready to take that leap next January, when I go off [to Penn State]."

He went on to add, “They also have in person school right now, which I like, so that's really nice. Back at Downingtown, they're not sure when, if ever, we'll get back in person, so that played a part in this."

Shelton said that both James Franklin and Phil Trautwein were fine with whatever he decided to do.

"They weren't really pushing me either way,” he said. “Coach Trautwein thought that this will help me become a better football player, just based off the competition level. But they were cool with whatever I decided.”

Shelton is set to room with Ethan Lang, a former Bergen Catholic prospect from New Jersey. Getting to know his future teammates is his top priority in the weeks ahead. Once he feels comfortable with the group, he’s interested in recruiting for Penn State.

"I just want to get to know the guys first, see where they stand, and then kind of take it from there,” Shelton said. “If they're not real serious [about Penn State], I'm not gonna push it on them, but if they're serious, obviously, I'm gonna try and bring them along."

Booker is one player this could have a real impact on. A native of Connecticut, Booker already had Penn State very high on his list. He announced just last week that the Nittany Lions were part of his top 10, and it’s believed that PSU is really top five, potentially even better. That’s a major reason why Shelton began speaking with Booker in the first place.

"I think we're still high on his list,” Shelton said, referring to Booker. “Obviously, he dropped a top 10 and we're still in it. I haven't talked too much about it recently. [Our talks have] been a little bit more about other stuff lately. I do like that I'll be really getting to know, potentially, one of my future teammates. So, hopefully that'll help out with this move a little bit, but I'm just looking forward to getting to know him more and the guys down here that like Penn State.”

Shelton added that a few schools haven’t stopped pursuing him, most notably Rutgers. More recently, a few other programs have started reaching out following the move to IMG.

"There's a couple of schools reaching out,” he said. “The Florida schools are coming now a little bit, now that I'm down here. Rutgers has also reached out some to try and talk, and a couple other schools that haven't offered me or anything like that. They just send some graphics and stuff like that. There's nothing too serious."

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