PHOENIX — In the world of sports, kids as young as high school can be paid money by using their “name, image and likeness” or NIL. Athletes can be paid by companies or brands by using their own name and image for marketing. It’s a growing trend in the college world for the last few years, and now among younger student-athletes in high school, too.
Organizations overseeing high school sports are looking at rules while private schools are also trying to help educate students about this.
Sixteen-year-old Lucas Toukam told ABC15 he has been approached by people for either a deal or representation. Toukam has dreams of playing in the NBA and hopes to get there by playing at Bella Vista Prep, a private high school in Phoenix as they try to help student-athletes get to D1 colleges.
Bella Vista Prep Director Matt Gordon said they have about 100 students at their school that has specialties.
“We specialize in basketball, out of our 100 kids, about 65% play basketball,” Gordon said.
Gordon said that there’s a business side to the game, at least for the high schoolers now, too.
As these are just high school students, with many being minors, Gordon agrees that it could be a lot for the student-athletes.
“When they don't know what's going on. One of the things we try to do, like I said, is to educate them on how it works, how they can receive them,” Gordon said.
As its own private school, Bella Vista Prep has its own rules and curriculum for its students, trying to help prepare students to go to college and play basketball if that’s what they want to go for.
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On the other hand, the Arizona Interscholastic Association oversees sports for several hundred public high schools, charter and some private schools. The AIA recently had its handbook updated and changed the wording for NIL deals.
The AIA bylaw says students cannot use their school logos, school name or the AIA in any part of its NIL deal. However, the student-athlete can still profit off their own name and image. If they do sign a deal, however, the student must let their athletic director know as they document it all.
David Hines, the executive director of the AIA, said that if a student were to violate its NIL bylaw, they’d be ineligible to play for a year. Hines said their rules are similar to several dozen other states across the country.
These rules come as Hines said they have seen an increase in students being approached.
“Typically they’re not the traditional NIL agents or people. A lot of these are third-party people who are looking to profit off our kids,” Hines said.
He says as more of this continues to happen, he hopes that students and their families know what they’re getting into as contracts are involved.
“A lot of it, is it sounds good. People are looking at, ‘Hey, can I get some money, can I get some notoriety?’ and because it’s still so new, a lot of our parents are not understanding the rules of NIL, and they’re not understanding what NIL is and what it can and can’t do,” Hines said.
In Bella Vista Prep’s case being a smaller school, Gordon said they try to follow and know what their students are doing.
While Toukam goes through the private school with big dreams, he doesn’t feel the pressures, even with the business side of basketball.
“I’m just focused on basketball. I’m just focused on playing,” he said. “Just keep having fun, that's the main goal for me.”
