Secure The Bag With Maryland Made

On the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 5, many Maryland student-athletes attended the Secure the Bag event at Gossett Hall, a professional exposure meet-up where students were able to network and engage with industry professionals and NIL companies. The event was hosted by Maryland Made in collaboration with Momentum, Maryland’s NIL program.

According to Maryland Athletics’, NIL allows student-athletes at Maryland to earn profit off of their name, image, and likeness through social media, endorsements, appearances, meet and greets, merchandise, and other opportunities. 

The excitement was in the atmosphere as student-athletes began arriving at Gossett Hall, preparing to walk among future employers and potential NIL deals using skills learned in the Maryland Made Career Readiness programs throughout the academic semester, which involved branding and storytelling, networking, identity development, and more.

“The Maryland Made team has done a great job of running this event in the past, so I was excited when they wanted to incorporate companies with NIL-focused opportunities as well,” said Grayson Wagner, Maryland’s Director of Name, Image & Likeness Services. “There are a lot of similarities in the way student-athletes can pitch themselves to companies, regardless of whether they are speaking to career opportunities or NIL opportunities. The goal of this event is to provide an environment where student-athletes can do both.”

Wagner also talked about the student-athletes making sure they are putting themselves out there, being vulnerable, and learning from their conversations with companies. 

“It can be tough sometimes to have conversations in the NIL industry when most companies are still learning how they want to pursue working with athletes, but it is important for student-athletes to know building genuine relationships with companies is one of the best ways to have success in this area,” Wagner said. 

This program allowed student-athletes to show up in their everyday attire. This was a decision made by the Maryland Made staff to ensure that every student-athlete felt comfortable attending, networking, and interacting with employers in this event regardless of their dress attire. 

“When doing outreach to both professionals and our student-athletes we were very intentional with telling them to ‘come as they are’, with the hopes of not only allowing them to show up as their authentic selves but also removing some of the pressures and anxieties that can be placed around networking in its entirety. By doing this we were able to create a relaxed environment that prompted organic conversation to build genuine relationships.” said Sydney Anderson, Coordinator of Student-Athlete Development.

Maryland Made hosted the inaugural Career Meet-Up during the Fall 2022 semester with one goal in mind: making it better the next year. Incorporating NIL into the program was the next step in enhancing the event. NIL is growing at a rapid pace in college athletics and an area of interest for a lot of our student-athletes. This collaboration is one that we hope to continue building upon to provide our student-athletes career readiness skill sets to utilize when securing NIL opportunities.

“I hope that we continue to host programs like this that get our students to understand that we’re here to develop them holistically. They arrive as young bright-eyed student-athletes ready to seize every opportunity. Hosting programs like this allows them to explore their opportunities and expand their potential as they grow and adapt into young professionals,” Resa Lovelace, Associate AD for Student-Athlete Development & Inclusive Excellence, said.

The networking event was open to all student-athletes to attend and meet with 20 different employers, including the U.S. Secret Service, NBC Sports, CVS Health, DC United, SECU, and more. Student-athletes came into this event with an open mind as they networked and engaged with employers from various backgrounds. 

“I’m really open to everyone,” said sophomore women’s basketball guard Bri McDaniel. “I feel like a lot of these companies have a lot of things to offer.” 

Networking and interaction were not the only things on these student-athletes' minds. Some student-athletes were looking forward to gaining career advice and connections along with opportunities that were presented to them. 

“I hope to honestly just gain more connections and more insight into any sort of career exploration,” sophomore softball infielder Sammi Woods said. “I love just getting any knowledge about any sort of way that will help me be more successful in a career sense.”

Others looked forward to furthering their connections. 

“Life is all about connecting and having the right people in your corner. So, I'm looking forward to doing that tonight,” senior linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II said. 

Others were grateful to see their teammates also attend and take advantage of the same opportunities. 

“It’s nice seeing other wrestlers here,” junior wrestler Dominic Solis said. “They’re all coming to this event because there are multiple programs here. So it’s nice seeing Mason Stein, Anthony Bradley, and Larry Vola having them all here doing the same thing I'm trying to do…We all just want to learn.”