Athlete CEO

Maryland’s preseason training camp is a grueling grind of blood, sweat, and tears… at least, on the field. 

Outside of practice, Maryland Football is supplying its players with guest speakers, events and treatments that will help them recover and prepare for college life outside of football while also having a bit of fun and building chemistry. 

“Being a professional isn’t just being a good football player or being good at your one thing,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “It’s being able to manage a bunch of different things while keeping the main thing the main thing.”

The main thing, make no mistake, is preparing the roster for the upcoming season and the Big Ten schedule that comes with it. But Locksley and his staff value preparing their players for life after football and after college and making sure they’re ready for whatever lies ahead. 

Maryland’s off-the-field efforts and opportunities break down into two primary categories: guest speakers and events. To help the athletes understand the responsibilities of wealth management and having their own brands, Director of Football Operations Annie Peppard and Locksley set up a guest speaker series around the theme of being an Athlete CEO.

“They’re their own CEO,” Peppard said. “As they get older and start earning more money, they need to be prepared to make the right decisions about finances, taxes and wealth management.”

In the era of NIL, it’s more important than ever that college athletes be set up for financial success, but the ever-changing landscape of collegiate revenue keeps Peppard and her staff on their toes. 

“No year has been the same, copy and paste from the year before,” Peppard said. “So we’ve been trying to not just keep up with it, but get ahead of it.”

This year’s focus centered around the knowledge that they might be receiving sums of money that they haven’t had before in their lives and preparing them to use it to set them up for life after college. 

“We saw that there was a lack of educational programs out there for college athletes, so I wanted to find the best path to give them the right tools to make the best decisions,” Peppard said. “We know we can’t be responsible for helping them make every single decision. It’s their choice what they want to do with their money and time, but I want to make sure that they’re looking in the right places and asking the right questions to make those decisions.”

This year’s guest speaker class included sports content creator Justin Su'a, media and branding expert Ashely Blackwood, NFL Hall of Famer Ozzie Newsome, and a panel of financial planning experts. 

“Coach Locksley likes building programs to develop our players off the field,” Peppard said. “Developing them for life after football, developing them for preparedness for going to the next level if they have that opportunity and giving them all the necessary tools to be ready for whatever’s next for them.”

The speakers helped answer important questions like what it means to build their brands, what preparation is needed to speak to the media, what steps do they need to take to take their ideas to the next level? 

“The other two pieces I really wanted to hone in are branding and media,” Peppard said. “With NIL, they’re in this unique situation where they can start building their own brand and they might not have anyone to turn to or don’t know where to start.”

But the underlying piece, Peppard said, has always been financial literacy and wealth management. Locksley agreed and was happy to make finances a key component of camp this season.

“As head coach it’s my role to prepare the team not just for the football field, but for life,” Locksley said. “These are the life skill programs that we typically do during training camp, where we have their full, undivided attention. What we’ve tried to do is educate first and prepare, and then give them tools and resources that they can utilize.”

There are bigger goals to training camp than knowing the playbook. Maryland Football provided several events to build chemistry, help guys recover from practices and give back to donors and the community. 

After their first scrimmage, the Terps hosted their annual crab feast with donors. After a day of preparation in SECU Stadium — which donors were invited to attend — the athletes got to spend time with the donors and crush a Maryland delicacy. The crab feast has been a staple of camp for several years and it’s one that can bring players closer to each other and the community. 

“I think the team bonding’s been great,” defensive lineman Cam Rice said. “We do all types of stuff together, whether it’s with position groups or a full-team type deal. We get along great and we’re building good chemistry.”

The entire team went up to M&T Bank Stadium on Aug. 7, as the Baltimore Ravens took on the Indianapolis Colts in a preseason game. The Terps were welcomed on the sideline for warm ups and got to stay and watch four former Terrapins compete at a professional level. 

“We’ve made that trek up to Baltimore each of the seven seasons I’ve been back here and it’s almost a pilgrimage or right of passage for how we do training,” Locksley said. “Any time kids can see it done at the highest level and what it looks like (it’s beneficial). The Ravens have been great hosts for us, allowing us to be on the field pregame to see how professionals warm up. I think if you see it, it makes it a little easier for us as coaches to reinforce ‘Hey, this is what we’re telling you’.”

Aside from team dinners and position group events, Maryland put together several chemistry-building events for the 2025 rendition of Terrapin football. A cookout with the players' families, etiquette dinners and church services made the guys not only look like a team, but feel like one. There was even a “Terps Masked Singer” karaoke night and another game night earlier in camp.

“He’s really into building strong family bonds,” Peppard said of Locksley. “And he knows the most important thing to do is have these guys have each other’s backs and trust one another. So a lot of what we do in camp also has to do with giving them more opportunities to bond and hang out.”

Weeks of continuous practice takes its expected toll, but Maryland Football has its guys covered there, too. In an effort to look out for the health of the team, “Recovery Sundays” became a chance for the players to be pampered and looked after. 

Guys were treated to massages, pedicures and even yoga on different renditions of Recovery Sundays. Several sleep pods, more than the program’s ever had before, are set up around the facility for players to utilize to re-energize for long training days. 

“It’s crazy the opportunities we have here,” offensive lineman Michael Hershey said. “You’ve just got to take advantage of it. We have the support. We have the coaches. We have the players. If you take advantage of it, you will be successful.”

But just as important as physical health is the mental health of the team. Maryland partnered with Wags for Wellness to bring dogs in for players’ emotional well-being. The guys were able to spend time with their new furry friends and remove some of the stress from camp. Wags for Wellness is a service offered by the UMD Health Center and makes frequent appearances on campus.

“I love tapping into resources that we already have on campus,” Peppard said. “We have so many great resources. The health center has some great programs. They’re the ones that got me connected with Wags for Wellness.”

Having the dogs around was a component from past years that’s become a players’ request to return and a staple of camp, a stretch of weeks jam-packed with events, speakers and, of course, practices. 

“I know all the days and times do seem kind of crazy because we pack our days, but I pack it purposefully for balance,” Peppard said. The balance of work, play and learning has made the past three weeks immeasurably valuable to the Terps.

Camp has come to an end, but the resources won’t stop flowing for the athletes. But as the season goes on, finding ways to tap back into the community becomes a focus for Locksley’s program. 

“Any time we have different community events going on, we encourage everyone to attend,” Peppard said. “We try to focus more on community-type events and school events. There are so many things going on here at the University of Maryland. We’ll partner with different groups. If they’ve got something coming up, we’ll do our best to get some guys there to build the College Park community.”

So, as grueling as training camp and the season can be on the body, Maryland Football makes sure its athletes are set up in every aspect of life, including the stages to come.