Tilton girls basketball coach Tara Brisson knows high school athletes can carry star power. She’s seen it with her own players, most notably 2024 graduate Ahnay Adams (New Bedford, Mass.).
At first, fans sometimes came up to Adams while she watched a Tilton softball game and asked for pictures of the Miami-bound star point guard. But Adams soon started receiving messages on social media from people who wanted to use her name to help promote their products. Right before Tilton competed in the National Prep School Championship, someone sent Adams a pair of shoes and asked if she would wear them as a marketing tool. Adams did not.
“She'll have a lot of people that message her and say, ‘Hey, can you wear our clothing, or can you do this, or do you want to be part of our brand?’ And from my experience anyway, with that, she and I have always just said no,” Brisson said.
Adams is just one example of name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities reaching the high school levels. The space doesn’t grab headlines like the collegiate NIL battleground, but teenagers across the country are signing deals. According to Business of College Sports, 39 state athletic associations have laid out policies allowing high school students to profit off of their NIL, including all six New England states.
