The Sagemont Prep Lions middle school boys basketball team passed their biggest test of the season on Friday, grinding out a hard-fought 39-33 victory over Potential Christian Academy to move to a perfect 5-0 on the year under head coach Steve.

It was not the prettiest win, but it did not need to be. Against a Potential Christian Academy squad that came ready to play and pushed the Lions from start to finish, Sagemont showed exactly what separates good teams from unbeaten ones: the ability to find a way when the game gets uncomfortable.

The Lions Were Tested and Responded

Potential Christian Academy brought the fight, keeping the game close throughout and making Sagemont earn every bucket down the stretch. At 39-33, the final margin was respectable, but it does not fully capture how physical and competitive this one was. This was the kind of game that builds character, the kind Coach Steve will be able to point back to when the season gets even tougher down the road.

Credit the Lions for not flinching.

Key Performers

Adrian Rodriguez & Maddox Clermont were problems all night. Their ability to create on offense and impose their will on the game set the tone early and gave Sagemont consistent threats that Potential Christian Academy could not fully contain. When the Lions needed a bucket, these young men found a way to get one.

Dominik Schuessler & Kannan Clayborne brought toughness and energy on both ends of the floor. Their contributions did not always show up in the highlight moments, but anyone watching closely could see how much they impacted the game. These are the types of players that make winning possible.

Dominic Diaz rounded out the Lions' core and continued to show why he is one of the key pieces of this unbeaten squad. His performance against a quality opponent reinforced that Sagemont's success is not a fluke. This is a team with multiple weapons and the depth to compete at a high level night after night.

Off the bench and throughout the rotation, Jalen Osceola and Daniel Sokolik made their presence felt as key contributors. Both players brought energy and gave Coach Steve options when the Lions needed fresh legs and a spark. Teams that go 5-0 do not do it with just three players and Osceola and Diaz are a big reason why this group stays dangerous from top to bottom.

The Bigger Picture at Sagemont Prep

What makes this 5-0 start even more impressive is the culture surrounding the entire Sagemont Prep basketball program right now. While the middle school boys are building something special, the varsity boys program is chasing history, currently pursuing what would be four consecutive state championships. That standard of excellence does not exist in a vacuum. It trickles down. It sets expectations. It tells every player in the building, from the youngest to the oldest, what it looks like to compete the right way every single day.

These middle school Lions are not just playing for wins. They are playing in the shadow of a program that knows what championships feel like, and they are rising to meet that standard. A 5-0 record against increasingly tough competition is a statement that the pipeline at Sagemont Prep is as strong as ever.

Coach Steve has his group focused, competing, and finding ways to win when it matters most. The schedule will keep getting harder. The tests will keep coming. But if Friday night against Potential Christian Academy proved anything, it is that this Sagemont Prep middle school squad is not backing down from anyone.

5-0. And just getting started.

MILAN, ITALY — With 58 minutes of frustration behind them, two minutes of ice time ahead of them, and an entire nation holding its breath, the United States Women's Hockey Team refused to go quietly. On Thursday night inside the stunning Santagiulia Arena, in what may be the greatest gold medal game in the history of the sport, Team USA pulled off a stunning comeback to defeat arch-rival Canada 2-1 in overtime and bring Olympic gold back to the red, white, and blue for the first time since 2018.

It was the kind of game that freezes time. The kind that reminds you why sport exists: why we watch, why we compete, why we teach our daughters to lace up their skates and get back on the ice when everything in them wants to quit. This wasn't just a gold medal. This was a statement.

How It Went Down: A Game for the Ages

For the first six games of these Winter Olympics, Team USA had been absolutely dominant, a freight train on skates that outscored its opponents 31-1 and went period after period without surrendering a single goal. They were being called the greatest women's hockey team the United States had ever produced. Then came Canada.

Canada, battered and bruised from a 5-0 group-stage demolition at the hands of these same Americans just nine days prior, walked into that gold medal game with a chip on their shoulder the size of Lake Ontario. Coach Troy Ryan had a plan: be physical, be disciplined, be frustrating. And for most of 60 minutes, it worked to perfection.

The Canadians clamped down on every American rush. They bottled up Caroline Harvey. They neutralized Hannah Bilka. They smothered Megan Keller, until they couldn't anymore. Kristin O'Neill gave Canada the lead after a picture-perfect feed set up a beautiful finish, and for the next 40 minutes, Ann-Renée Desbiens and Canada's defensive unit turned away everything the Americans threw at them. With two minutes left, the U.S. still trailed 1-0. The gold medal was slipping away.

Then Hilary Knight happened.

With the goalie pulled and Team USA in full desperation mode, 22-year-old phenom Laila Edwards launched a rocket toward the net. The 36-year-old captain, the living legend, the woman who has carried this program on her back through five Olympic Games, was exactly where she needed to be. Knight deflected it past Desbiens. Tie game. The arena erupted. The red-white-and-blue contingent in the stands became unhinged. You could feel it through the screen: that electric, primal surge of belief when something impossible suddenly becomes real.

Knight's goal was her 15th career Olympic goal, an all-time American record, breaking the tie she had held with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King. With time expiring in regulation. In a gold medal game. Against Canada. If you write that in a script, people call it too dramatic.

Overtime arrived in 3-on-3 format, wide open ice, heart-attack hockey at its finest. The Americans, riding the wave of Knight's miracle, caught Canada in an ill-timed line change. Taylor Heise threaded a length-of-the-ice pass to Megan Keller, the same Keller who had been smothered all game, and Keller did what champions do. She juked a defender, she found the angle, and she slid the puck past Desbiens to send Team USA into Olympic history.

Final score: USA 2, Canada 1. Golden.

Megan Keller the golden goal

USA women’s hockey run the table 7-0
& make it 8 straight wins over Canada

Canada was 2 minutes away from a dominant shutout win… instead heartbreak #olympics pic.twitter.com/Y2aoCTIx2t

— Kevin Thang (@Skip2MyJays) February 19, 2026

What This Means for U.S. Women's Hockey

Let's be real: this gold medal isn't just a trophy. It's validation of a decade-long shift in the balance of power between these two programs and a declaration that U.S. women's hockey is in a golden era that shows no signs of slowing down.

Consider what this team has done in the last 12 months alone. In April 2025, they won the IIHF Women's World Championship over Canada in overtime. Tessa Janecke's golden goal after a feed from Taylor Heise in 3-on-3 OT will live forever in the highlight reel. Then, in the fall, they swept Canada 4-0 in the Rivalry Series, outscoring them 24-7 across four games including a jaw-dropping 10-4 blowout. Then a 5-0 dismantling in Olympic group play. And now this. The Americans have beaten Canada nine of the last ten times they've met. That's not a hot streak. That's a power shift.

For decades, Canada was the gold standard: five of seven Olympic golds before Milan, the home of hockey royalty like Marie-Philip Poulin, the woman whose name alone struck fear into American hearts. Poulin scored the game-winning goals in 2010, 2014, and 2022. She's that generational. But even Poulin's return from injury for the gold medal game wasn't enough to stop this version of Team USA.

What's driving this shift? The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) has changed the game. It's the most stable and financially successful professional women's hockey league in history, now with eight teams and expansion plans underway. Players are no longer forced to give up the sport after college or at their athletic peak. They can develop professionally, play meaningful games year-round, and continue sharpening the edge that turns good players into great ones. The proof is in this roster: a blend of young phenoms like Laila Edwards and seasoned veterans like Knight and Keller who have refined their games through professional competition.

This matters enormously for every young girl who has ever dreamed of playing at the highest level. When little girls see Hilary Knight, 36 years old, in her fifth Olympics, scoring the goal that saves the gold medal game, they understand something profound: there is a path. There is a professional league. There is a next level. The ceiling just got raised, again.

The Legend of Hilary Knight

We would be doing this editorial a disservice if we didn't stop and properly honor what Hilary Knight did on that ice in Milan. Five Olympic Games. Two gold medals. Fifteen career Olympic goals, the most in U.S. women's history. A key architect in the founding of the PWHL. And a final act so cinematic it belongs in a movie.

Her teammates said it best. Taylor Heise summed it up before the puck even dropped: "We are not here without her." And she was right. Knight didn't just score a goal on Thursday night. She scored a legacy. She scored a future. Every girl who straps on skates because of what she witnessed in Milan is part of Hilary Knight's legacy.

Knight's response when asked how she found herself in that position with two minutes left? Simple. Iconic. Pure competitor: "There was no way we were losing this game. That's all. Simple as that."

That mentality, that refusal to accept defeat, is exactly what we at BallerTube want every young athlete to carry into practice tomorrow. Into tryouts. Into the big game. Into the moments when everything feels like it's slipping away.

What Young Athletes and Families Should Take Away

At BallerTube, we cover recruiting, athletic development, and the stories that shape the next generation of competitors. And the story of this USA Women's Hockey team is one of the most instructive we've ever had the privilege of covering, not just because of the gold medal, but because of how they won it.

They won it when they were outplayed. They won it when the plan wasn't working. They won it when the clock was almost out. They won it with their best player making the most important play of her career at age 36, proof that preparation, consistency, and heart compound over time in ways that pure talent alone cannot. They won it because a 22-year-old rookie, Laila Edwards, wasn't afraid to let it rip in an Olympic gold medal game.

For parents raising young female athletes, in hockey, in basketball, in any sport, let this be the fuel. The professional infrastructure is growing. The visibility is growing. The opportunities are growing. Your daughter's path to the highest level of competition is more real today than it has ever been. What happened in Milan is proof.

And for the young athletes themselves: watch the replay. Watch Knight tip that puck. Watch Keller juke that defender. Watch the bench erupt. Then go to practice. Do the work. Trust the process. Believe you belong, because you do.

ESPN to launch 'Women’s Sports Sundays'

Debuting this summer, it's a first of its kind weekly primetime franchise showcasing the best of women’s sports in premium windows

More: https://t.co/hIH7v4QSzg pic.twitter.com/VnfboFdOGT

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) February 19, 2026

What "Women's Sports Sundays" Actually Looks Like

Starting mid-June (after NBA and NHL playoff coverage wraps), ESPN will broadcast 12 primetime games across nine consecutive Sundays — a mix of WNBA basketball and NWSL soccer. The games won't air alone. They'll be surrounded by dedicated studio programming, featuring a roster of talent ESPN has been quietly building for years: Malika Andrews, Chiney Ogwumike, Monica McNutt, and Andraya Carter, among others.

ESPN VP of Women's Sports Programming Susie Piotrkowski described it plainly: "This was an opportunity to be intentional and make sure our most premium women's sports properties were presented in a regular showcase."

A 60-person internal team has been meeting regularly to develop the concept. This wasn't thrown together. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro directed this shift, and the network is treating it like a major franchise launch — not a filler block.

Down the road, the window could expand to include women's college basketball, softball, and other properties. ESPN's EVP of Programming Rosalyn Durant called it "a flag in the ground and a continuing commitment."

The Numbers Tell the Real Story

Critics screaming about the end of Sunday Night Baseball need to look at the scoreboard.

Sunday Night Baseball averaged 1.8 million viewers in 2025 — its best mark since 2017. Respectable. But here's what's getting overlooked: ESPN averaged 1.3 million viewers per WNBA game in 2025, a 6% increase year-over-year. And that was largely without Caitlin Clark, who missed significant time with injury.

Let that sink in. The WNBA — without its biggest star — was already pulling numbers in the same ballpark as baseball. The NWSL championship cracked 1 million viewers for the first time in 2025. NWSL TV ratings were up 22% from 2024 to 2025.

Put Clark back on the court healthy. Add Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, and a full WNBA expansion roster. Put those matchups in a Sunday primetime slot with full studio programming and marketing muscle behind them. The math gets very interesting, very fast.

Yahoo Sports made a point worth repeating: a Caitlin Clark vs. Paige Bueckers primetime matchup on ESPN might actually out-rate Sunday Night Baseball on Peacock. That's not a reach. That's a realistic scenario based on existing data.

Why This Matters Beyond TV Ratings

At BallerTube, we spend every day working with young athletes — girls who are grinding in gyms, lacing up at 5 a.m., committing to this sport before the world tells them it's worth their time.

For too long, women's sports existed in the margins of the sports media landscape. Great games buried on secondary channels. Historic performances treated as afterthoughts. Players who deserved national stages getting regional coverage at best.

What ESPN is doing isn't just a programming decision. It's a signal.

When the biggest sports media company in the world gives women's basketball and soccer the same Sunday night real estate that baseball held for 36 years, it changes something. It tells sponsors that women's sports is premium inventory. It tells young athletes that their sport belongs in primetime. It tells girls watching at home that players who look like them are the main event — not the warm-up act.

The WNBA is expanding aggressively. The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire join the league this season, bringing the total to 15 teams. Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are on the way. This is a league building infrastructure for the next two decades. Giving it a Sunday night home on ESPN is rocket fuel.

The Controversy Is Telling

Let's be honest about the backlash. Social media lit up with predictable outrage. "I promise you we will NOT be watching." "Terrible idea." "I'd rather watch paint dry."

Some of that is genuine grief over a beloved tradition. That's fair. Sunday Night Baseball meant something to a lot of people, and change is hard.

But some of it is something else. And ESPN addressed it directly — this isn't a "woke" move, as some framed it. ESPN already had the WNBA and NWSL on its networks. They already had these rights. When Sunday Night Baseball moved to NBC, they needed to fill that slot with the best content they owned. Women's basketball and women's soccer were the answer — and they were the right answer.

ESPN is a for-profit business. They didn't make this call out of charity. They made it because they believe the business case is there.

What to Watch For

There's one significant wildcard: the WNBA and its players' union are still in CBA negotiations. The union is seeking roughly a 27.5% share of total league revenue. The league called the proposal unsustainable. Speculation about a potential delay to the season has circulated, though sources suggest free agency and the expansion draft can proceed on schedule, with the standard collegiate draft set for April 13 and training camp on April 19.

If negotiations stall, it complicates ESPN's launch timeline. "Women's Sports Sundays" is expected to begin after mid-June regardless — but a smooth WNBA season start matters for building momentum.

The Bottom Line

Women's sports just claimed one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in American sports television. Not because someone did them a favor. Because the audience is there, the athletes are delivering, and the business case finally caught up with the on-court reality.

For everyone who has watched women's basketball fight for visibility — in youth programs, in recruiting, in media coverage — this is a moment worth acknowledging.

The game has always been there. The stage is finally catching up.

Sunday nights just got a lot more interesting.

BallerTube covers women's basketball recruiting, college athletics, and the business of the game. Follow us for recruiting tips, player spotlights, and the stories shaping the next generation of hoops.

Two Florida Nation Basketball athletes made their presence known at last weekend's She Hoops South Beach Showcase, a one-day girls event hosted at the SLAM Penthouse Gym.

Brooklyn Deal (Class of 2031) and Shaheena Keita (Class of 2030) were voted top performers on the day, earning recognition from an evaluator panel that included national evaluator Justin Turner of Dallas, Texas, and collegiate coach/evaluator Stephanie Cooper — an associate coach at Florida Memorial University during their 2023 Sun Conference Championship run.

Throughout the showcase, athletes were put through a series of drills and competitive game situations designed to test skill, IQ, and performance under pressure. Top performers from the event earn an opportunity to compete at Unrivaled's 1-on-1 Tournament Championships, giving standout players a platform to continue building their recruiting profiles.

While Brooklyn and Shaheena weren't the only ones turning heads, they represented Florida Nation Basketball with pride and competed at a high level from start to finish. Their performances serve as a reminder of the talent developing within our program and the work being put in every time they step on the floor.

We're proud of both young ladies and look forward to watching them continue to grow. Stay tuned for more updates as Florida Nation Basketball heads into the spring season.

Florida Nation Basketball | P32 League | #RepTheNation

DRUG CARTEL TIES 💸IMG's conduct allowed children of two of the drug cartel's leaders to get elite academic and athletic training in the U.S., the Treasury Department says. DETAILS: https://t.co/EbXdR75pK3 pic.twitter.com/bf0ByjdHNL

— 10 Tampa Bay News (@10TampaBay) February 16, 2026

How It Happened: Zero Sanctions Screening For Four Years

Here's what OFAC found: between 2018 and 2022, IMG Academy entered into six separate annual tuition enrollment agreements with two students whose parents were sanctioned individuals. The parents were designated as Specially Designated Nationals for supporting a Mexican drug trafficking organization and its principal leader.

IMG invoiced these parents directly. Communicated with them. Processed tuition payments totaling over $800,000 across four years. The payments came through wire transfers from third party individuals in Mexico and credit cards registered to the sanctioned parents.

And IMG never once checked if these people were on the sanctions list.

OFAC's enforcement release was blunt: "Although IMG may have lacked actual knowledge that the individuals with whom it dealt with were sanctioned, IMG Academy did have actual knowledge of the underlying transactions giving rise to the apparent violations."

Translation: you might not have known they were cartel connected, but you knew you were taking money from people whose names matched the federal sanctions list. You just didn't bother to check.

The violations weren't sophisticated. The parents' names matched entries on the SDN List. Basic sanctions screening would have flagged them immediately. But IMG didn't have any sanctions screening. At all.

In its statement, IMG admitted: "Between 2018 and 2022, IMG Academy did not have an OFAC sanctions compliance program in place."

For four years, an institution processing hundreds of international tuition payments annually, many from high risk jurisdictions, operated with zero compliance infrastructure to screen for sanctioned individuals.

That's not an oversight. That's negligence.

The Federal Response: $1.72 Million And A Warning

OFAC hit IMG with 89 violations across six enrollment agreements and 83 payment transactions. The settlement amount of $1,720,000 reflects what OFAC calls "nonegregious" violations, meaning IMG wasn't actively conspiring with cartels or deliberately evading sanctions.

But OFAC made clear this wasn't voluntary disclosure either. IMG reported the violations when it became aware of them, but federal investigators had already opened an investigation. The academy was already under scrutiny.

OFAC's penalty analysis highlighted both aggravating and mitigating factors.

Aggravating: IMG demonstrated "reckless disregard for U.S. sanctions requirements" by accepting payments and failing to conduct sanctions screening on counterparties. The conduct allowed designated individuals who provided financial support to a sanctioned Mexican drug cartel to conduct commerce with U.S. persons and gain access to the U.S. financial system. The children of two DTO leaders obtained elite academic and athletic training services in the United States as a direct result.

Mitigating: IMG had no prior OFAC penalties in the five years before this incident. The academy took immediate remedial steps after discovering the violations. After an ownership change in June 2023, when BPEA EQT purchased IMG Academy from Endeavor for $1.26 billion, new management hired a Chief Legal Officer who conducted a comprehensive compliance review and implemented a risk based sanctions program.

The message from OFAC was clear: we're letting you off relatively easy because you cooperated and fixed the problem. But this should never have happened in the first place.

The Bigger Problem: Cartels Operating In The Open Economy

Here's what makes this case terrifying: transnational criminal organizations don't just operate in the shadows. They participate in the ordinary economy. They send their kids to elite boarding schools. They buy real estate. They invest in businesses. They live openly among us.

The IMG Academy case exposes how easily cartel money flows through American institutions when those institutions don't implement basic compliance measures.

Think about the mechanics here. Two cartel connected families wanted their kids to get world class athletic training. They had the money. IMG had the spots. The transaction was straightforward: enroll the kids, pay the tuition, receive the services.

At no point did anyone at IMG ask: where is this money coming from? Are these individuals on any sanctions lists? Should we be doing business with people wiring payments from third parties in Mexico?

Because IMG operates in the youth sports world, not the financial services world. They're not a bank. They're not a money transfer business. They're a boarding school. Why would they need sanctions compliance?

Except they absolutely did need it. And now they know.

OFAC's enforcement release specifically emphasized: "Liability does not depend on intent and routing payments through nonsanctioned parties does not mitigate sanctions exposure."

In other words, it doesn't matter that you didn't know. It doesn't matter that the money came through third parties. If you're doing business with sanctioned individuals, you're violating federal law. Full stop.

The New Enforcement Environment: Whistleblowers And Expanded Scrutiny

The IMG Academy settlement dropped on February 12, 2026. The very next day, February 13, the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced the launch of a dedicated whistleblower portal to receive confidential tips relating to fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations.

That timing wasn't coincidental. The federal government is signaling a coordinated enforcement strategy: broaden the universe of regulated actors subject to sanctions risk, and simultaneously expand the government's ability to learn about violations through insider tips.

The new FinCEN whistleblower portal incentivizes employees, contractors, and anyone with inside knowledge of compliance failures to report violations. Financial rewards. Confidentiality protections. A direct pipeline to federal investigators.

For institutions like IMG Academy, this creates a new risk: you're not just worried about federal audits anymore. You're worried about your own employees turning you in.

And the enforcement net is widening. OFAC made clear that sanctions violations "extend beyond traditional high risk industries" and "can arise from unexpected sectors and routine business relationships, especially when payments are routed through higher risk jurisdictions or structured through third party intermediaries."

Schools. Healthcare providers. Real estate developers. Professional services firms. Luxury goods retailers. Hospitality businesses. Any organization that does business with international clients from high risk jurisdictions is now on notice: implement sanctions screening or risk massive penalties.

The Cartel Designation Escalation: From Narcotics To Terrorism

The enforcement environment around Mexican cartels just got exponentially more severe. On February 20, 2025, the State Department designated eight organizations as both Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

The list included:

Cartel de Sinaloa (Sinaloa Cartel)

Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (Jalisco New Generation Cartel)

Cartel del Noreste (Northeast Cartel)

La Nueva Familia Michoacana

Carteles Unidos

Cartel del Golfo

Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)

MS-13 (founded by Salvadoran immigrants in the United States)

This wasn't just a narcotics designation. This was a terrorism designation. The legal implications are massive.

Transactions with Foreign Terrorist Organizations carry significant criminal and civil penalties under U.S. law that go beyond normal penalties for dealings with Specially Designated Nationals. This includes extraterritorial U.S. criminal jurisdiction over the provision of material support to FTOs and potential civil liability to U.S. victims of international terrorism.

In plain English: if you do business with these organizations or their leaders, you're not just violating sanctions law. You're potentially providing material support to terrorism. That's a federal crime with serious prison time.

For businesses operating in jurisdictions where these cartels are active, the risk just exploded. Companies need to assess exposure, implement controls, and make difficult decisions about whether they can safely operate in these regions at all.

What IMG Should Have Done (And What Every Institution Needs To Do Now)

The fix here wasn't complicated. IMG didn't need sophisticated artificial intelligence or blockchain analytics. They needed basic compliance hygiene.

Screen every student enrollment against the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals List. It's publicly available. It's searchable. It takes minutes.

Implement enhanced due diligence for international students, especially from high risk jurisdictions like Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and other regions with known cartel activity.

Flag third party payment arrangements for additional scrutiny. If parents are paying tuition through wire transfers from non family members in foreign countries, that deserves a second look.

Conduct periodic audits of existing student enrollment to ensure no sanctioned individuals slipped through.

Train staff on sanctions compliance obligations and red flags.

Establish clear escalation procedures when potential violations are identified.

None of this is rocket science. This is Compliance 101. And IMG didn't do it for four years.

After the ownership change in 2023, new management implemented exactly these measures. They hired a Chief Legal Officer. Conducted a comprehensive lookback. Built a risk based sanctions compliance program.

In other words, they did what they should have been doing all along.

The Uncomfortable Questions Nobody's Asking

Here's what the Treasury Department didn't address in its enforcement release:

Who were these students? What sports did they play? Did they go on to play college athletics? Are they still in the United States?

Who were the parents? Which cartel were they connected to? Are they still sanctioned? Have they been prosecuted?

Did other students, parents, or staff know about the cartel connections? Were there rumors? Concerns that were ignored?

How many other elite institutions, schools, universities, and youth sports programs are unknowingly (or knowingly) taking money from cartel families?

That last question is the one that should keep every admissions officer, athletic director, and compliance professional up at night.

If IMG Academy, one of the most high profile youth sports institutions in America, spent four years enrolling and educating the children of Mexican drug cartel leaders without noticing, how many other organizations are doing the same thing right now?

The Lesson: Compliance Isn't Optional Anymore

The IMG Academy settlement sends a clear message: ignorance is not a defense. Lack of sophistication is not a defense. Being in a "non traditional" industry is not a defense.

If you're doing business with international clients, you need sanctions compliance. Period.

The federal government is expanding enforcement beyond banks and defense contractors. They're coming after schools, hospitals, real estate firms, luxury retailers, and any other business that might be facilitating cartel access to the U.S. economy.

And they're arming whistleblowers with financial incentives to report violations.

The cost of noncompliance just went up. $1.72 million for IMG Academy. But the reputational damage might be worse. Every parent who sends their kid to IMG now knows the school was educating cartel children. Every college coach recruiting IMG athletes has to wonder if the kid they're looking at has narco money financing their training.

That's the real penalty. Not the settlement. The brand damage.

IMG Academy will survive this. They're too big, too established, too deeply embedded in the youth sports ecosystem to collapse over a sanctions violation. But their reputation took a hit. And every competitor is going to use this against them in recruiting battles for years.

The broader lesson is this: cartels are everywhere. They're not just in the drug trade. They're in the real economy. Sending their kids to your schools. Buying property in your developments. Investing in your businesses.

And if you're not screening for them, you're the next case study in an OFAC enforcement release.

Team USA🇺🇸 head coach Mike Sullivan opens his availability with some words about the tragic shooting at a high school hockey game in Pawtucket, RI:

“Our hearts and prayers go to the people that were affected…That certainly is close to home for me, growing up in Massachusetts.… pic.twitter.com/SwitMvnjVu

— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) February 17, 2026

The Backstory: A Family Torn Apart By Identity and Mental Illness

This wasn't a random act of violence. This was the endpoint of years of family disintegration, court battles, and unresolved trauma that exploded in the worst possible place at the worst possible time.

Court records paint a picture of escalating tension. In early 2020, Dorgan reported to North Providence police that he had recently undergone gender reassignment surgery. He claimed his father in law wanted him out of their shared home, allegedly using derogatory language and threatening retaliation if Dorgan didn't leave.

The father in law was charged with intimidation and obstruction, but prosecutors later dismissed the case.

Around the same time, Dorgan's wife Rhonda filed for divorce. The initial paperwork cited "gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits" as grounds for divorce before those reasons were crossed out and replaced with the more neutral "irreconcilable differences which have caused the immediate breakdown of the marriage."

The divorce was finalized in June 2021. Dorgan, who had been living in Jacksonville, Florida working as a truck driver, moved back to Rhode Island.

But the fractures never healed. The resentments never resolved. And on Monday afternoon, four and a half years after the divorce filing, whatever remained of that family came undone in a hail of gunfire.

The Shooter's Daughter: "He Was Very Sick"

Outside Pawtucket Police headquarters on Monday evening, Ava Dorgan, 20, spoke to reporters about her father.

"He shot my family and he's dead now," she said, her voice steady but shaken. "He had mental health issues. He was very sick."

On Tuesday, she spoke to The Boston Globe and NBC 10 News, confirming that her mother Rhonda and older brother Aidan were killed in the shooting. Her grandparents, Linda and Jerry Dorgan, along with a family friend, remained in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital.

Ava added something critical: "I think his gender identity issues are a symptom of a deeper issue." She told NBC 10 that her father had six children and struggled with mental health his entire adulthood.

That statement cuts through all the noise. This wasn't about transgender identity. This was about untreated mental illness, unresolved family trauma, and a man who never got the help he needed.

The son who was on the ice playing in the game left that rink without a mother, father, and brother. That's the reality nobody talks about when they politicize these tragedies.

The Scene: Terror Captured On Livestream

The game was being livestreamed so families could watch from home. That footage is now evidence in a murder investigation.

On the video, you can hear the pops. At first, players thought they were balloons. Then the sound kept going. Pop. Pop. Pop. Twelve rounds in total, according to Chief Goncalves.

Players on the bench jumped to their feet, scrambling across the ice without their skates, diving for the locker rooms. Spectators in the stands ran for exits, ducking for cover, trying to shield their children.

Olin Lawrence, a player from Coventry, described the chaos: "I was on the ice, and I thought it was balloons at first. It was like, bop, bop. And I thought it was balloons, but it just kept going. And it was actually gunshots. And after the gunshots, me and my teammates ran right to the locker room, and we just bunkered up and we pressed against the door and just tried to stay safe down in there. But, no, it was very scary."

A Walgreens employee nearby told WPRI that panicked people came into the pharmacy saying there had been a shooting. The store closed and evacuated. People hid inside until police arrived.

This wasn't a back alley at 2 a.m. This was a community ice rink full of families on a Monday afternoon.

The Good Samaritan Who Stopped It From Getting Worse

Chief Goncalves credited an unnamed Good Samaritan with stopping the massacre from escalating further. The individual confronted Dorgan, attempted to subdue him, and helped bring the shooting to an end.

That person likely saved lives. In a situation where most people freeze, run, or hide, someone made the decision to engage an active shooter to protect others.

Pawtucket police responded in less than two minutes. By the time they arrived, the Good Samaritan had already intervened. That's the difference between five dead and three dead. That's the margin in mass casualty events.

Rhode Island's Second Mass Shooting In Two Months

This tragedy comes just two months after Brown University in Providence experienced its own mass shooting. In December 2025, a gunman opened fire on campus, killing two students and injuring nine others before also killing an MIT professor. The shooter, Claudio Neves Valente, 48, was later found dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

Rhode Island is reeling. Governor Dan McKee released a video statement Monday night: "Our state is grieving again. As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket."

Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien called the shooting "traumatic" and a "total tragedy," emphasizing that it happened during what should have been a celebration. "These are high school kids. They were doing an event. They were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this, so it's got to be traumatic."

The state set up a 211 hotline for counseling and referral services. Mental health resources are being deployed to affected schools. But the damage is done. The trauma is real. And the questions remain.

The Security Gap Nobody Talks About: Why Youth Sports Are Sitting Ducks

Here's what nobody wants to address: youth sporting events have virtually zero security.

Think about it. High school football games, basketball tournaments, hockey games, youth soccer leagues. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of people packed into facilities with wide open entry points, minimal staff, and zero security screening.

The Dennis M. Lynch Arena had no metal detectors. No security checkpoints. No bag searches. Robert Dorgan walked in with a firearm, climbed to the top row of the bleachers, and opened fire. Nobody stopped him. Nobody checked him. Nobody had any idea what was about to happen.

And this isn't unique to Pawtucket. This is the reality at youth sporting events across America.

Professional sports? You can't bring a bottle of water into an NBA arena without it being confiscated. College football? Metal detectors, bag checks, pat downs. High school sports? Walk right in. Bring whatever you want. Nobody's checking.

The calculation is simple: these venues assume goodwill. They operate on the belief that parents, families, and community members attending youth sports are there for the right reasons. And 99.9% of the time, that's true.

But it only takes one. One person with a grudge. One family dispute that turns violent. One mentally ill individual who decides a crowded arena full of children is the place to settle a score.

Why Youth Sports Venues Resist Security Measures

The resistance to implementing security at youth sporting events comes down to three factors: cost, logistics, and optics.

Cost: Metal detectors aren't cheap. Hiring security personnel isn't cheap. Implementing bag check protocols requires staff, equipment, and training. Most youth sports programs operate on tight budgets. Adding security feels like an unnecessary expense until tragedy strikes.

Logistics: Youth sports events happen constantly. Multiple games per day, different age groups, overlapping schedules. Implementing security checkpoints creates bottlenecks, delays, and frustrated parents who just want to watch their kid play.

Optics: There's a psychological resistance to turning youth sporting events into high security zones. Parents don't want their kids growing up thinking they need TSA style screening to attend a hockey game. It feels dystopian. It feels like admitting we've lost something fundamental about community and trust.

But here's the reality: we have lost it. We've lost the assumption of safety. We've lost the luxury of assuming everyone at a youth sporting event is there with good intentions.

Robert Dorgan proved that. And he's not the first.

The False Choice Between Safety and Community

The argument against implementing security at youth sports venues always comes down to the same talking point: "We don't want to turn our kids' games into police states."

But that's a false choice. Security doesn't mean armed guards with assault rifles patrolling bleachers. It doesn't mean strip searches and interrogations.

Basic security at youth sporting events could include:

Single point of entry with basic bag checks.

Visible security personnel trained in de-escalation and threat recognition.

Anonymous tip lines for reporting concerning behavior.

Emergency response protocols that staff and coaches are trained on.

Communication systems that allow for rapid lockdown or evacuation.

None of that is dystopian. All of it is common sense.

The Dennis M. Lynch Arena had none of these measures. When Robert Dorgan opened fire, there was no security to respond. There was no plan. There was chaos, panic, and a Good Samaritan who risked his own life to stop the carnage.

That Good Samaritan is a hero. But we shouldn't be relying on random acts of heroism to protect children at sporting events.

The Uncomfortable Conversation Nobody Wants To Have

There's going to be a rush to politicize this. Some will focus on Dorgan's transgender identity. Others will focus on gun control. Both are missing the point.

This was a domestic violence incident. A family dispute that escalated to murder suicide. The fact that it happened in public, at a hockey rink, in front of children, doesn't change the core dynamic: a mentally ill individual with access to a firearm decided to destroy his family and himself.

Dorgan's daughter said it best: "I think his gender identity issues are a symptom of a deeper issue." Mental illness doesn't get addressed by culture war debates. It gets addressed through intervention, treatment, support systems, and family members who recognize when someone is spiraling.

Court records show the warning signs were there. Conflicts with in laws. Divorce citing personality disorders. Years of unresolved trauma. And yet, nothing stopped Monday's massacre.

But the larger systemic failure is this: even if every warning sign had been flagged, even if Dorgan's mental health had been addressed, even if family intervention had occurred, he still would have been able to walk into that arena unchecked because youth sporting events have no security infrastructure.

That needs to change.

The Players Who Will Never Forget

Over 100 witnesses were interviewed by Monday night. Players, parents, coaches, arena staff. Everyone saw something. Everyone heard something. Everyone will carry this with them forever.

The players who scrambled off the ice. The spectators who dove for cover. The families who came to watch their kids play hockey and instead watched people die.

Coventry Public Schools confirmed all their players were safe. Johnston Public Schools confirmed their student athletes were safe. North Smithfield, North Providence, and Providence Country Day School all confirmed their students were safe.

But "safe" is relative. Those kids are alive, but they're not okay. Nobody who witnessed that is okay.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Pawtucket police are still investigating. Over 100 witness interviews. Livestream footage. Arena security cameras. ATF and FBI agents assisting. They're building a timeline, reconstructing the events, trying to understand how this happened.

But understanding why doesn't bring back Rhonda Dorgan. It doesn't bring back Aidan Dorgan. It doesn't heal Linda and Jerry Dorgan or the family friend fighting for their lives in the hospital. And it doesn't erase the trauma inflicted on hundreds of people who came to watch a hockey game.

This was preventable. Not just through mental health intervention. Not just through better family support systems. But through basic security measures that recognize the reality of the world we live in.

Youth sporting events are soft targets. They're crowded, unsecured, and full of vulnerable people. Until we stop pretending that won't be exploited, more families will be destroyed.

Robert Dorgan was sick. His daughter said it. The court records showed it. The family knew it. And on Monday, February 16, 2026, that sickness manifested in the worst possible way in a venue that had zero ability to stop it.

Three people are dead. Three more are clinging to life. A community is traumatized. And a high school hockey player lost his mother, father, and brother in one afternoon.

That's the real story. Not the politics. Not the identity debates. Just grief, trauma, and the question we need to answer: When will we finally admit that hoping for the best isn't a security plan?