Montverde Academy, a private, college-preparatory school near Orlando, Florida. Montverde Academy It was March, 2023, and inside the TRACK at New Balance, among the thousands of spectators inside the brand new facility in Boston, Massachusetts, all you could hear was a hush before the start of the boys 200 meter championship. The young athletes on the track were a who’s who of high school stars, a group meant for track powerhouses like Texas A&M University, the University of Georgia and Ohio State University. Standing confidently among them was Issam Asinga, a senior from the Florida prep school Montverde Academy who, only the year prior, had run 22.30 seconds for 200 meters indoors. But now he was closing in on history, and as the gun blew and the field ran, Asinga crossed the line in 20.48 seconds, claiming a new high school national record. Five months later, days after Asinga secured an even bigger record outdoors at 100 meters, winning a South American Championship and netting a new World U20 record, he was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the anti-doping organization formed by World Athletics in 2017, for testing positive for cardarine, a hormone and metabolic modulator. What’s Going On Now With This High School Track Program? Now, less than a year after Asinga’s suspension was upheld by AIU, more trouble has found its way to Montverde Academy, only this time its directed at its track and field coach Gerald Phiri. On Tuesday, the AIU provisionally suspended Phiri for possession of GW1516, the pharmaceutical name for cardarine or endurobol, for failure to comply with the anti-doping rules as part of a joint investigation with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after three high school athletes at Montverde Academy were all found to have “adverse analytical findings for the same prohibited substance.” MORE FOR YOU FBI Warns Chrome, Safari And Edge Users—Do Not Use These Websites ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Has Turned Out To Be Bad Tesla Stock Slides Another 5% As More Firms Warn Of Musk-Led Company’s ‘Sales Woes’ More On Montverde Academy’s High School Track Program Besides Asinga, who was officially placed on a 4-year competition ban starting in August, 2024 – he claimed he ingested GW1516 through Gatorade chews he obtained at an awards program after the high school season in 2023 -- the other athletes named in the provisional suspension of Phiri were not named. Phiri, 36, only began coaching Montverde Academy, a private, college-preparatory school based near Orlando, Florida, in 2018. Known more as a producer of top-end future-NBA talent like Ben Simmons, Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and current Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, you’d be forgiven for thinking the prep school even cared about track and field. But starting in 2023, it did. When Asinga transferred into the program, along with a few other certified stars, Montverde Academy’s profile exploded. Asinga went on to become the first high school boys athlete to run a wind-legal time under 10 seconds for 100 meters. He was also the first to go under 20 seconds for 200 meters the same year. A number of former high school stars of Phiri have been good enough to run at the World U20 Championship level, with one even reaching the World Championships and Olympics. The program was so good, in fact, that several of the team’s top stars did not run at the Florida State Outdoor Championships in 2023. Phiri, a former athlete at Texas A&M, was an accomplished sprinter from the youth level to his professional career. In his 20s, he had competed for Zambia, reaching two Olympic games. On Tuesday, the story of Montverde Academy track continued, with the AIU handing down a major allegation against Phiri, the head coach of one of the leading high school track programs in the country. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades