The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) board of directors passed an amendment to the rulebook last month, permitting high school athletes to make name, image, and likeness deals.

Student-athletes are now allowed to reap commercial endorsements and earn compensation for promotional activities. So, what do coaches in the Butler County area think of the chance for their players to profit?

“It’s so new”

The point that coaches most agree on is that they aren’t fully versed on the guidelines.

“It’s so new,” Butler football coach Eric Christy said. “I don’t think a lot of us know exactly what it all means and what’s it going to look like. I guess, where I’m first at, is I’m not sure if there’s really going to be deals. I’m not sure who’s going to really invest in a high school kid … It’s one thing if they’re proven at the college or professional level, it’s another thing when they’re just a high school kid.”

“I don’t know all the ins and outs of what the rules are and all that,” Mars boys basketball coach Rob Carmody said. “It’s so new. But having two boys in college playing sports and seeing how the NIL is used on that level, I definitely see that there’s a benefit to it … If you can profit off of it, I don’t really see any downside to that.

“If you took a kid who was really talented as a guitar player or a singer — and they’re 15 or 16 years old — they can go wherever they wanted, use their skill, and get paid for it. For me, a kid who’s talented in basketball or football and only has a small window to capitalize on that, they should be able to as well.”

North Catholic girls basketball coach Molly Rottmann has made a point to learn what she can about the system and has pondered educating her players on the matter, as well.

“I’ve read articles on it,” she said. “So that is the extent (of what I know). We’ve talked about, you know, should we bring someone in to talk to our girls about it? I don’t know how prevalent it will be for most high school girls basketball players right now … I’m not 100% familiar with it.”

John Gaillot, the longtime football coach at Freeport, has also taken notice of the shifting climate around sports — at all levels.

“Everything is changing,” Gaillot said. “Like the NFL, the whole way down, it’s almost like a job. Everything is margining instead of for the love of the game … I can see both sides of it, honestly. Just me being old-school, you earn your way the whole way through. But, looking at it, you might be very talented and you blow your knee out and you just lost everything.”

Who will benefit?

From understudies to starters to star players, coaches had their opinions on who would command attention.

“Obviously, if someone’s deserving, the freakish athlete type of player,” Christy said. “The kids who separate themselves … (Former Golden Tornado standout hooper) Ethan Morton stood out to me right away. Even the track kids. I don’t know how much they would draw. They were state champs. Drew Griffith is one of the best runners in the country.

“If a local business was looking for a local face, you’d probably pull the kid with the biggest numbers.”

Gaillot feels that it will be more of the blue-chip sort of talents to pull in any deals and that he’s not sure any businesses in Freeport would offer any. Carmody agreed with the former sentiment.

“You’ll also realize pretty quickly that the guys that are going to make the big money and kind of be able to be profitable, for real, it’s going to be few and far between,” Carmody said. “There’s not going to be a whole lot of local high school athletes that are going to make big money off of this … I think there’s also some fool’s gold there.

“The vast majority of kids, it’s going to be little to nothing. It’ll almost be like a trade-off — ‘Hey, I’m going to get on social media and post something and get a pair of shorts or a free meal or something.’”

Those who have a better hold on how to use social media to their advantage — even if not a standout player on their squad — might be able to squeeze something out of it, too, he then said. Social following will be a big factor.

“People who are willing to give them money want them to be able to reach a greater audience,” Carmody said. “If you’re a kid and you’re not on TikTok and you’re not on Twitter and you’re not on Instagram, then a lot of these places aren’t going to be really interested because who are you going to influence?”

The popularity of different sports will go into a decision, too.

“Unfortunately, with the tier of the way sports are — (girls hoops) are probably not as high exposure,” Rottmann said. “That being said, Dacia Lewandowski is hosting shows on KDKA online, so I think there are certainly also opportunities.”

She added that she thinks there are girls that are currently on her squad that could receive NIL attention.

What might be the drawbacks?

Some said it takes away from the trueness of the sport they coach. Christy is worried it would put a target on his players’ backs.

“I always talk to the players and the guys about not giving other teams bulletin board material,” Christy said. “If you go get a NIL deal, what do you think is going to get talked about for the entire season from every team you play? They’re going after you for whatever you do, whatever you say.”

Carmody wants to make sure kids are fully aware of any agreements they’re entering into. There’s no such thing as free money, he explained.

“How do we go about protecting the kids that they’re not signing something or giving away something that later on is going to cost them even more than the few dollars they’ll make now?” he asked. “You hope that someone advising those kids is smart enough to say, ‘Hey, you don’t want to give away anything in your future.’”

Christy pointed to private schools and how they could potentially use NIL to their advantage.

“That would be my initial concern,” he said. “(There’s) already an advantage where some schools have boundaries and some schools don’t. If all of a sudden schools without boundaries can start pulling kids from the schools with boundaries and offer them some money and some sponsorships, that could really destroy things.”

Locker room impact

These aren’t professional — or even college — athletes that are the topic at hand.

“They’re high school kids,” Christy said. “Sometimes (collegians) and professionals can’t handle it … Yeah, I think that could be a major issue with how they’re approached. You put a guy in the huddle who’s got a deal and (he’s on) his Twitter and Snapchat and TikTok talking about their deals and then the other guys didn’t, there could be some harsh feelings.

“I think it would really be left to the family and the players to really be mature about it and handle it the right way. It’s kind of taking it out of the coach’s hands … It just worries me, I guess.”

Gaillot doesn’t put too much weight into that.

“We’re such a small squad — 40 if we’re lucky,” he said. “These kids, they’re really close. I would think that it wouldn’t be a big deal at all … It’s different.”

A school’s location is also something to consider, being that it would likely determine how many student-athletes are given deals. Take the difference between the size of Cranberry Township and Karns City, for example.

“I think Cranberry is big, so yes, there’s more businesses and opportunities, but you also have more schools and more athletes,” Rottmann said. “There’s a big population for (businesses) to pull from versus the smaller towns. I think they are a whole community, so I almost think the opportunities for high school kids in a smaller town might be better. You have a little more notoriety in the small towns.”

With that, Christy offered what might be the first hypothetical high school NIL sponsorship pitch on record in the Butler County area — Hire so and so plumbing company and stop all your leaks with the Butler offensive line.

“You try to find the good in anything,” he said. “I’m the eternal optimist with everything … For our situation, I’d love to have some kind of NIL deal for offensive linemen. They never get any glory, so how great would it be?”