Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | July 27, 2026 | wbjournal.com BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor D rawing on their expe- riences playing minor league hockey, Chris and Peter Masters have spent the past three de- cades turning Boston Junior Bruins into one of the most prominent youth programs in New England. But when at- tempting to con- vince parents to enroll their young athletes with the Junior Bruins, the two brothers kept encountering the same problem. "We'd win a lot of those conversa- tions, but we'd lose some of those as well; and when we lost, it was never about hockey," said Chris Masters. "It was always family prioritizing academics." Realizing parents wanted a balance between athletics and academics, they spent the last decade developing an elite sports academy. Now, Masters Academy Inter- national is set to welcome its first students in September, operating on an 82-acre campus in Stow formerly used by Framing- ham-based Bose. e $83.8-million academy reflects the rapidly expanding business of elite youth sports, combining college-pre- paratory academics with intensive athletic training in hopes of attracting families willing to invest in both. e academy will offer nine sports — baseball, basketball, Esports, fencing, figure skating, golf, hockey, lacrosse, and soccer — with students dedicating roughly five hours each day to academics and four hours to sport-specific training. e site will serve as a national performance cen- ter for U.S. Fencing. Annual tuition runs $55,500 for middle-school students, $65,500 for upper-school day students, and $79,500 for boarding students in grades 9 through 12, with some finan- cial aid available. Opening with about 300 students in the first year, MAI has set the ambitious goal of becoming the New England version of IMG Academy, a Florida school that has sent a number of athletes to the professional ranks. For Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester specializing in sports, the rise of an academy like MAI reflects the continued profes- sionalization of youth sports. "We have certainly seen gigantic profes- sionalization of youth sports over the last several decades, and … a real move away from rec sports to orga- nized youth sports, clubs, and travel academies," he said. Site selection e Masters brothers considered different sites, including a long-vacant parcel adjacent to Marlborough's New England Sports Center, before decid- ing on the former Bose campus. "As we kind of drove down off the main road to the property, it just felt to us like a traditional New England prep school," Chris Masters said. "It was kind of isolated, kind of set back off the road and private, and had a lot of room for us to grow and build out fields and potentially rinks in the fu- ture. We just felt it was kind of perfect." e campus already had much of the needed infrastructure, including a cafeteria, commercial kitchen and three floors of office space. "If we didn't have that infrastruc- ture in place and just the great bones of the building, we could obviously never open if we had to build that from scratch in 12 months," he said. Expected to create at least 190 jobs, the project received a $2.85-million tax credit from the state, with debt fi- nancing provided by Needham Bank. Cognita Schools, a global private schools group based in London, is serving as a founding partner of MAI, providing equity funding and educa- tional frameworks. Fluid intelligence Andy Williams, MAI's head of school, brings more than 35 years of experience in public and private ed- ucation across the U.S., England, and PHOTO | COURTESY OF MASTERS ACADEMY INTERNATIONAL Full-court press Construction crews are racing to complete the Masters Academy International campus in Stow, prior to classes beginning this fall. New $84M Stow academy taps into the expanding business of elite youth sports Chris Masters, MAI co-founder F O C U S EDUCATION Peter Masters, MAI co-founder Victor Matheson, Holy Cross professor

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