ROCHESTER — Other kids Reese Lechner’s age fill their piggy banks with money earned from lemonade stands. But the 10-year-old athlete is doing something that felt reserved for elite high school and college athletes: monetizing her NIL.
She signed her first NIL — or name, image and likeness — deal on Feb. 27 with The Performance Center, a gym in Stewartville, where Lechner lives.
“She was going to be coming to us for training, and then brought up the concept of an NIL,” Zach Hodgson, co-owner of The Performance Center, said. “It was a really interesting learning experience for both of us because it was a brand new concept (for us). It was kind of a unique situation that allowed all of us to gain experience and gain something out of it.”
Youth athletes securing NIL deals wasn’t given much thought after the NCAA changed its rules and laid the groundwork for college athletes to monetize their NIL in June 2021. A year later, the Minnesota State High School League released guidance for high school athletes to follow. The MSHSL governs high school sports in Minnesota for student-athletes who are in seventh grade or beyond, so club sport athletes like Lechner, a fifth grader, aren’t subject to their guidance. But Lechner’s family opted to follow the MSHSL’s rules in order to not put her future varsity eligibility into jeopardy.
Lechner showed immediate interest in an NIL deal after her mom, former Minnesota basketball player Hannah Garry Lechner, started explaining the NCAA’s rule change to her.
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“I was on that Minnesota Final Four team (in 2003-04),” Hannah Lechner said. “We were doing autographs, we were speaking at different organizations, doing all sorts of things on behalf of the school and on behalf of the NCAA, yet we were prohibited from taking a penny from anybody.
“It’s just interesting, because I’ve been through it, and now my daughter is going to be going through it in a whole different way.”
Lechner, who plays basketball with Minnesota Fury and volleyball with Southern Minnesota Volleyball, may be the youngest girl to sign an NIL deal. (The youngest ever to make a deal is 6-year-old Patton Green, a southern California golfer.) The amount she’s paid couldn’t be disclosed, but the terms of her deal, in its simplest form, include referring people to The Performance Center through posting about it on social media and wearing gym-branded gear.
She’s responsible for reaching out to brands to secure future deals. It’s a big world for a 10-year-old to navigate. It does make her nervous, “but I just think the NIL gives me more college exposure and just gives me more opportunities in life,” she said.
Lechner’s venture into NIL wasn’t forced by her parents. She is, as her mom put it, super driven: Lechner has already been on informal college visits, and she has a list of eight to 10 colleges that she wants to play for.
“When I told her about what NIL is, she was like, ‘How do I start? Where do I start? How do I sign up?’” Hannah Lechner said.
Lechner’s early jump into NIL is seen as an investment: the earlier you start, the better. Hannah Lechner figures that it would be difficult for college athletes, who already have so much on their plates, to put in time and effort to make signing NIL deals worthwhile.
High schoolers will have more time learning this changing landscape, and youth athletes have even more time to build successful personal brands and execute deals — which will be an important recruiting tool.
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“I think NIL in general is going to become a big piece of the recruiting puzzle on both sides,” Hannah Lechner said. “I think about some of these athletes today. They're the ones selling out the stadiums, right? It's the players and the teams who are doing well, who put butts in the seats. And if you have a kid who is coming out of high school and has, I don't know, a million followers or even 10,000 followers, and they're good at their sport, they're likable, they're good at their academics. I think those schools will say, ‘Wow, if we get them, we also get her following.’ So I just think that's kind of an exciting twist that's going to be happening with this.”
Lechner has a running list of brands she’d love to work with. Pasquale’s Neighborhood Pizzeria in Rochester is one. Then there’s Curry Brand, Steph Curry’s athletic brand, Reese’s/The Hershey Company, and Jordan Brand, Michael Jordan’s iconic Nike-produced brand.
Ultimately, Lechner would love to help her peers navigate the NIL process. And, in the future, she’s interested in making the NIL space a full-time job. Until then, she’s looking forward to future deals while continuing to improve as an athlete.
She’s also excited about the money, though her plan for it doesn’t sound like one of a typical 10-year-old: “(I will) put it in my bank account, which allows me to spend my money responsibly.”
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