Washington – Brittany Coleman’s son Kaden had just turned 10 when juvenile football coaches began delivering envelopes with thousands of dollars to their hands. They wanted Kaden to play for their club teams in Maryland, New Jersey and the whole atlantic.
Coleman always refused. Payments for the best players, a secret not well kept in youth sports, were not allowed, and she did not want to stain her son’s reputation.
But as Kaden grew and has become one of the best eighth -series soccer players in the country, now there is a legal way, and potentially much more profitable, for him to profit from his talent.
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Just as university athletes can now be paid for their athletic talent through so -called names of name, image and likeness, or Nil, who compensate for players by using their image in commercials and other promotional materials, students as young as those in elementary school can.
Last summer in the US, Coleman allowed Kaden to sign sponsorship contracts with a local fashion brand, Second N Six, and a sports equipment company. Kaden also has an agent to help him with future contracts.
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Coleman did not want to reveal how much money your son has received so far, but it is clear about his aspirations for him. “I will tell you what is the goal,” said Coleman, a counselor in the public system of schools in the district of Columbia. “The goal is that it reaches a million dollars in its first year of high school.”
Since the National University Athletic Association (NCAA) has begun to allow Nil agreements in 2021, after years of growing legal and political pressure, money has been fluid for university athletics, turning young stars into multimillionaires and further raising bets on athlete students and their families.
Now, at least 41 states and the district of Columbia have policies through their athletic associations allowing levels for high school students, and many allows agreements for elementary school students, according to OpenDORSE, a platform for Nil agreements. About two years ago, a sports marketing agency signed a Nil agreement with a youth soccer player in Los Angeles who was only 9 years old.
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Big brands such as Reebok, Gatorade and Leaf Trading Cards have offered profitable contracts for a few stars of football and high school basketball, and local companies such as real estate and restaurants also participate. Agreements can vary from modest – free clothing and food – at seven -digit values of major brands.
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“In compensation of minors, you only expect them to have someone responsible acting on their behalf,” said David Ridpath, professor of sports business at Ohio University.
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Seeking the best way to his son, Coleman found an ally in Mike Sharrieff, Kaden coach at John Hayden Johnson Middle School. He anticipated that the Nil Gold Race would reach youth sports and was prepared for it.
One day in April, coach Mike, as he is known, sat at the head of a lunch table monitoring the study room after his players’ school, as he does every day. Coach Mike is of wide shoulders, resounding voice and lighthouse smile. His football team, the panthers, was dressed for training that would follow, with shorts and black t -shirts, both printed with the Panther logo. When a stranger entered, elementary school students rose, performing one by one and offering a handshake.
In over 22 years, the coach has built a power in football and became a pillar of the Ward 8 neighborhood of Washington, making Johnson school more like a club. The days start with morning training and end with study rooms that keep Sharrieff’s boys (and girls) on site until 20h during the summer months so they can maintain the average 3.0 needed to play on your team.
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For good reasons. Despite the cranes and pastel -tone apartments and apartments that give Ward 8 a gentrification appearance, it remains a difficult neighborhood. The rate of armed violence is the second highest in the city, while the poverty rate is more than double the US average.
For all the criteria, Johnson’s soccer program is a success.
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Under Sharrieff, the panthers have a 192-25 record, won nine city championships and are always among the top five in the country. Seven alumni of Johnson played in the National Football League (NFL).
“People belong somewhere, but not everywhere,” he said. “I found my place.”
Sharrieff is not a fan of the Nil system. He wonders how healthy it can be to pay children. How harmful is this for the locker room hierarchy?
But Sharrieff knew that these agreements were inevitable in youth sports and felt that if he ignored them, he would be neglecting his duties as an educator. He had half a dozen players with agreements last season, he said, and expects that number to double in the next fall.
“College has already become professional football, high school is finding its market, and there were already some foxes trying to enter my chicken coop,” said Sharrieff.
He taught each player to open a savings account and brought a bank representative to talk to his parents. Students should pass a financial competence test and take classes on how to deal with social networks and the media. Those who get Nil agreements should maintain an average of 3.5.
“I’m here to make sure they are dealing with respectable people and they won’t disturb what we are trying to do here,” said Sharrieff.
Kaden Coleman-Bennett, 14, has been famous in youth football circles since he was 9 years old. He played more than 140 games for club teams that traveled to Pennsylvania, Nova Jersey and Florida, where his team won the Battle Youth National Championship.
In summers, he goes to football camps, where his performance generated verbal offerings of scholarships from both Syracuse and Virginia Tech. He is also a student of honor and is taking advanced classes.
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In autumn, Kaden will attend Dematha Catholic High School, a national power in football, with an academic bag.
Kaden is used to uncomfortable adult approaches wanting him to play for his teams. He was recruited for all kinds of imaginable team-travel teams, high school, All-Star teams. When he was 9 years old, a coach ordered his cash app user.
“I had to tell him I had no phone,” Kaden said.
Coleman admits that he has difficulty understanding his son’s celebrity. Kaden never wanted to play soccer. He likes to draw and science. I was not eager to take strokes. Still, it was a natural talent since the moment it stepped on the field. Now, with 1.73 m tall and 75 kg, Kaden is a fast and relentless Running back with excellent balance and high football Qi.
Last season, Sharrieff helped Kaden’s mother to evaluate possible sponsors, including a supply of the Second N Six clothing brand.
Keith Hardy, founder of Second N Six, had already closed agreements with high school players before, but Kaden was her first elementary school player. Kaden has over 9,400 Instagram followers, but the highlights of their performances reach tens of thousands more on social networks. Using and posting about Second N Six, Kaden gets free clothes to wear and a commission on sales of certain items.
In a world where social networks produce content creators at a dizzying rhythm, it is true for marketers to associate with athletes, regardless of age.
“It’s a bet on Kaden’s future, which he will explode even more in high school and wherever he goes to college,” Hardy said.
Kaden knows that the $ 1 million goal may be aspirational, but promised her mother that she will continue to keep her notes, doing her workouts and, well, being a good son.
“The only people who reach one million dollars are from NFL or college,” he said. “With a lot of help, I’ve achieved all my goals so far. I know how to keep my focus.”
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