We’ve spent a ton of time the past year working with HS school administrators, HS school districts and state associations as they begin the journey of helping there student-athletes, parents and fellow coaches to fully understand Name, Image and Likeness and College Sports Recruiting. The implications are far and wide, but gaining a foundational understanding of NIL and how its impacting recruiting is critical in our minds.
Bryan Bedford, CEO of Bedford Agency & Recruit Route at a recent NIL and Recruiting Coaches workshop
Many HS coaches and HS administrators are focused on providing a base level of training and professional development in both recruiting and NIL. Just read what Moore Public Schools in the state of Oklahoma is doing. The goal, as we see it, is to equip the coaches that walk the halls of these schools with an opportunity to inform there student-athletes and parents on the fundamentals of both of these topics to eliminate problematic situations that might come up, or impact a student-athletes eligibility. Additionally we are seeing these schools administrators take it to the next level by investing in on-demand tools, collectives/marketplaces, templates, best practices and more.
While some may not have NIL laws in there state (the majority of HS state associations have already passed NIL guidelines), they do have active recruiting happening and these two worlds have fully collided the past 2 years and now more than ever is the time to educate all parties involved in the process (coaches, parents and student-athletes) and start implementing beginner processes to protect all parties.
This is in part why we partnered with Eccker Sports to offer local and national solution to these complicated set of issues. If we can help you or your school with NIL and Recruiting Education, please reach out at recruitroute@gmail.com to secure details on our workshops, on-demand training and more.
Each year we try to gather feedback from the parents and families we work with. Gathering feedback and allowing folks to see what makes us unique is critical.
“Wow…!!! What a Ride…!!!
First of all, the Recruitment Process has been one of the most Fun, Frustrating, Exciting, Discouraging, Stimulating, Maddening ordeals we have ever been through, and we could not have navigated all of this without Bryan Bedford and Recruit Route Elite!!!
Bryan,
You have been very available and your guidance and advice were always super helpful.
You had a plan for Taylor, and we followed it!
Sometimes it was hard to defer to your wisdom as my tendency was to do something different.
I’m so glad we followed your plan instead of our own. Looking back, I see that you were spot on right every time.
I can’t count the number of potentially bad decisions we might have made without your counsel.
You knew exactly what to expect, how to position Taylor, the recruiting cycle, which events to attend and which to ignore.
Thank you for keeping us on course and all of your feedback/critique of our social media presence and season highlights.
Thank you especially for helping us be patient through the quiet times when we wanted to panic, as well as motivating us when the time was right!
Thank you for all of the introductions and recommendations you made on Taylor’s behalf.
Taylor is a great athlete on his own.
But you really excelled at helping us showcase his talents and abilities, and get the word out.
Most of all, Thank You for believing in Taylor!
Your encouragement and reassurance throughout this process made all the difference.
We are so very blessed and excited that Taylor has committed to the University of Oklahoma, and you were a big part of this journey!
Thank you and very best regards.”
Tommy & Charity Heim, parents of 2023 OU Signee, Taylor Heim
2023 University of Oklahoma Signee, Taylor Heim and his parents Tommy and Charity Heim
“We wanted to thank Bryan Bedford at Recruit Route. Our son, Jake was very late to the recruiting process. We were attempting to put all the puzzle pieces of this recruiting process together. Bryan gave our son an honest evaluation and an exact plan to evolve from recruit to recruited. It is a process and does take work, but knowing the process and taking the guesswork out of it was priceless given our time constraints.
Bryan is always very available to answer questions and provide advice and insight. It was very nice to be able to put our son in direct communication with Bryan and let him drive the ship and take mom and dad out of the equation a bit. The tools provided help keep things organized and made the process of reaching out to coaches simple. The bottom line is, we didn’t want to drop the ball in this process with our son, so we called Bryan at Recruit Route to ensure we were not missing anything. We are very blessed we did! Jake signed with the United States Naval Academy.” -Joel and Stacy Moore, parents of Jake More, Navy signee.
2023 United States Naval Academy Signee Jake Moore with his family and coaches.
Want to learn more about how we work with families in recruiting and NIL? Please reach out via email at recruitroute@gmail.com or call us at 405.503.9284.
The Recruit Route a Bedford Agency brand is a college sports recruiting company, is once again hiring interns! The Bedford Agency provides actionable insight and expertise for student-athletes and families navigating the College Sports Recruiting and Name, Image and Likeness process! We are uniquely positioned to offer expertise, educational content and technology to transform the college recruiting process like never before via our Recruit Route brands. Our rich foundation includes a history around college recruiting, camps, consulting and events. In 2021 we also launched our first set of brands Recruit Route, Recruit Route Elite, Transfer Route. In 2022, we launched Teams Route a turnkey offering to help high school and club coaches and their entire programs managed & become educated on recruiting and NIL. Our summer intern program is designed to take all of our products and services listed above to the next level!
What You’ll do as an Intern:
Our interns will be working on Business to Consumer and Business to Business projects in the world of Sports, Recruiting and NIL. You aren’t coming here to fetch Starbucks coffee. You will be doing real work. Each intern will work in a virtual group setting and have individual project responsibility in a variety of areas interest including Graphic Design, Social Media, Customer Success, Business Development, Product Design, Marketing and more. In previous years our interns have gone on to work at places like Walt Disney Inc, and Sinclair Broadcast to name a couple.
“My time working with the Bedford Agency taught me leadership qualities, independence, professionalism, and communication skills. Bryan helped me grow a network in the sports business industry, and was a great role model as both a boss, coworker and friend. He instilled in me a growth mindset for both work and everyday life. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to intern with the Bedford Agency in 2021.”
-Emma Hennessey, 2021 Bedford Agency Intern
Who You are and What Skills You Need?
You are self-motivated, highly ambitious and have the desire to challenge the status quo. You are excited both by the high-level strategic thinking, as well as in-the-trenches execution. You take comfort with structuring ambiguity, turning it into a strategy, a business case and an execution plan.
You have strong written and verbal communication, strong presence in front of senior executives, strong analytical capability (e.g., Excel skills), strong PowerPoint capability, the ability to collaborate across functional groups, including engineering, sales, services, marketing, HR, finance, operations.
The ability to manage and execute multiple tasks at the same time, prioritize them and manage time, teammates, peers effectively and are highly organized, strong project management and follow-through skills.
Strong desire to work in the Sports Business Industry a plus.
Application process:
Areas of internships: Graphic Design, Social Media, Customer Success, Business Development, Product Design, Marketing
Each Intern must submit a resume’, cover letter(include the area of interest per above) and letter of recommendation from an employer or professor. Application is due by is (EXTENDED)April 1 at 5pm central. Please send application to bryanpaulbedford@gmail.com C/o Bryan Bedford, CEO of the Bedford Agency.
Each prospective intern will then be scheduled for a screening interview following the submission of there application, with selection following shortly thereafter.
Should we select you:
Bedford Agency internships are unpaid and will begin on June 1, 2023 and run through August 12, 2023. Expectation is each Bedford Agency intern will work between 10-15 hours per week in a virtual setting with world class collaboration technology.
Need a guidebook to get started with NIL? We’ve created a “starter kit” to serve as a guide for athletes or parents navigate this new and evolving space and its implications to recruiting as well.
Before you start considering Name, Image and Likeness consider a few fundamental questions we encourage you to ask yourself:
What are my passions besides the sport I play?
Why this is so important is NIL is about showcasing yourself as a brand. Want do your do or what are you interested in beyond your sport that makes you unique and creates a following.
What is my career interest following graduating from college?
Several student-athletes we have spoke to have interest in using NIL as a way to get a head start on their business or marketing careers. Maybe this is what is driving you to consider this?
How comfortable am I on social media?
Did you know that 79% of NIL deals in the college space are executed on social media? We predict this to be closer to 90% or greater in the High School market.
Educating yourself:
The key for most all student-athletes and parents is to get educated on Name, Image and Likeness. Here are a handful of great resources for NIL Education.
State and National Rules:
In the High School space, each athletic and activities organization governs its NIL rules specifically. To find out more details about your state rules visit the State specific NIL legislation. In the college space the
NCAA NIL legislation is much more clear. Make sure to review the rules before you execute any agreement.
Leveraging Marketplaces & Agents:
Unless you are a very high profile athlete, you likely will NOT have an agent. However, if you are approached by an agent ask about number of clients, number of contracts negotiated, examples of previous work, references and more. That said, one way you CAN start with Name, Image and Likeness is via a marketplace. Read more about marketplaces and get a list of them here Marketplace Tracker
Managing your money:
We’ve all heard about taxes, savings and more, but as a student-athlete its critical to have a great Understanding Tax Implications. Make sure you have help on any agreement you sign but also make sure you put money back for tax purposes.
