In the two years since the NCAA lifted its longtime ban on endorsements and similar forms of compensation for student-athletes, plenty of attention has been given to the benefits that name, image and likeness opportunities offer those who play the games.
North Carolina State’s Madison Hayes, a 2020 graduate of East Hamilton who starred for the Lady Hurricanes before beginning her college basketball career at Mississippi State, has shown that NIL deals can be good for those athletes’ communities back home as well.
Hayes gave away nearly 250 backpacks Sunday during the inaugural Back to School Bash at the Chris Ramsey Community Center in Brainerd. She was able to pay for all of the backpacks by using money made through her NIL deals with Bojangles and Taco Bell, along with her partnership with Pack of Wolves, a fan-driven and alumni-led NIL collective for N.C. State student-athletes, alumni and fans.
“I have four siblings who are going back to grade school this week, so I wanted to find a way to give back and help kids in Chattanooga get ready for school,” Hayes said. “I work here at the Brainerd Center when I come back home in the summer. I grew up in this facility and started playing basketball here. To be able to come back and give backpacks and school supplies away to the kids meant everything to my family and I.”
Madison and her younger sister McKenna, a standout sophomore volleyball player for Chattanooga State, partnered with local published author, CEO and entrepreneur Shanteria Jackson to lead the Back to School Bash, which had more than 350 people in attendance. Volunteers came together to provide food, informational booths, free haircuts and school supplies, such as rulers, pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, erasers, pencil sharpeners and notebook paper.