Impact Of A Scholarship: Sean Starner

As Coach Michael Locksley sat and had a tub of mayonnaise poured on him in celebration of being the victorious coach in the 2022 Duke’s Mayo Bowl, he sported a giant red hat, also known as a Noggin. 

The popular big hat was, of course, partly used to protect his head from the mayonnaise bath. However, it was also done in support of a former Terp he coached from 1996-2000—-Sean Starner—the founder of NOGGIN Boss.

Starner, who grew up in Mechanicsburg, PA, can clearly recall being about 7 years old and watching football with his dad one day, having little to no clue what was happening. Still, the game piqued his interest, and he asked his father if he could start playing.

“I started playing from there and I absolutely fell in love with it,” Starner said. “You couldn't get me off the field.” 

As he got older and older, Starner turned himself into an outstanding punter who was garnering interest from several different colleges. A self-proclaimed mamma’s boy, Starner knew he didn’t want to go too far from home. 

Fortunately, Maryland was one of the schools recruiting him. He attended a camp there and received an offer with a full scholarship from head coach Mark Duffner when the camp finished.

In the summer of 1996, Starner officially became a Terp—a feat that still means a great deal to him to this day. 

“I couldn’t have asked for a better time at Maryland,” he said. “You find out real quick that your teammates and your coaches become family because you’re away from the family you grew up with for 18 years. It becomes time to start becoming a man and there’s no better place to do it at a university like Maryland.”

Locksley joined the program in 1997 as the running backs coach and was there for the remainder of Starner’s time on the team. 

When reflecting on his playing days as a punter in College Park, the thing that sticks with Starner the most is the camaraderie of his teams.

“It wasn’t about one individual or their stats,” Starner said. “It was always about coming together as a team to win, to help each other improve, and to become better on and off the field…The camaraderie, the locker room, the practices, the time spent together on and off the field, that’s what I took away from Maryland. It’s truly a family.”

Those relationships didn’t just exist for the four years; some of Starner’s closest friends today are people he met in College Park.

“I still have a lot of those friendships to this day,” he said. “They’re very, very deep-rooted. We all stay connected and cheer each other on whether that’s becoming a husband or a father or starting a new business. Whatever aspect of your life you’re in, you know you always have that support and that those guys always have your back.”

Starner graduated from Maryland in 2000 with a family studies degree. He always envisioned himself getting into family counseling or therapy, but he wanted to work right out of college and found a job with Enterprise. He worked himself up to a management role before eventually switching to a company in the advertising space.

After a little bit of time there, Starner knew he loved advertising but also knew he wanted to work for himself and run his own company. As a result, he found an advertising agency at just 24-years-old, a company he still owns and runs today alongside a software management company called Instant Media LLC.

The experience founding and running those two companies allowed Starner to jump in full force to Noggin Boss. However, the company’s concept wasn’t something Starner was sold on from the start. 

He estimates his business partner, Gabe Cooper, spent five or six years bringing up the idea over and over again before he finally wore Starner down and he stopped saying no. Together, the two of them founded Noggin Boss in 2019 and it quickly took off.

“I had forgotten how hard it was to start a business but it really rejuvenated a passion for me,” Starner said. 

“Noggin Boss is for everyone,” Starner said. “It’s for everyone with a passion, a business, a logo, anything they love that they want to promote. And sports is a big part of that. These are really popular in the sports world and put me back into a world that I love, but haven’t been a part of for many years. And that was really cool.”

Starner remembers watching the seconds wind down on Maryland’s 16-12 win over NC State in the 2022 Duke’s Mayo Bowl. However, he had no clue what was about to come after; no clue that Locksley was about to wear a red noggin on national television as he got doused in mayonnaise. 

“I still get emotional talking about it because I had no idea he was going to do it,” Starner said. “For him, to promote Noggin Boss on national television and to talk about myself and how I played for him at Maryland, It was incredible. I truly can't put it into words. I can’t thank Coach Locks enough for what he did.”

“And that’s what I mean when I say Maryland football is truly a family,” he added. “It’s been over 20 years since I graduated and I just got so much support from the program, from Coach Locks, and from the university with this. It’s truly a full-circle moment.”

Starner has experienced that full-circle moment in more ways than one. 

Now, a highly-successful businessman that resides in Arizona with a loving family, his entrepreneur career may not have been possible without receiving a scholarship to the University of Maryland.

“It meant the world,” Starner said of his scholarship. “My mentality back in high school was that if I didn’t get a full scholarship, I wasn’t going to college. I was the first person on both sides of my family to attend college—that includes parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. To have the ability to go to a college like the University of Maryland and to come out of school without a giant amount of student debt, it’s a blessing.”

“It truly helped me start off my business career on the right foot—just not having to worry about paying any debt back. I’m forever thankful for it.”