PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — University of Maryland star senior forward Donta Scott spent much of last summer talking to youth across the Mid-Atlantic region and promoting his book, “Wired Diffrently: MySchool Journey.” While growing up in Philadelphia, Scott’s athletic career was nearly sidetracked. Throughout elementary and middle school, Scott was consumed with frustration while trying to keeping up with his peers. “It was hard for me to just deal with school,” said the 4 year Big 10 starter. “Those emotions—I just locked them up.” With the help of HYPE U CEO, Delgreco Wilson, Scott took advantage of recent NIL legislation to share the lessons he learned throughout his educational journey in a children’s book.

More recently, Hysier Miller (Temple), AJ Hoggard (Michigan State), Eric Dixon (Villanova) and Derek Simpson (Rutgers) have each inked four figure NIL deals with the assistance of HYPE U. With Pennsylvania and Maryland just becoming the 23rd and 24th states to allow NIL at the high school level, HYPE U has helped Ahmad Nowell (Imhotep CHS) identify an opportunity and is working closely with St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, Maryland to identify opportunities for boys and girls basketball players as well as football athletes.

Unlike in the south, student-athletes in the Mid-Atlantic region have been slow to leverage NIL opportunities and get paid for their name, image and likeness. For the past decade, Wilson’s firm Black Cager Sports Media has worked to increase the visibility and marketability of elite basketball student-athletes. The aforementioned players whose on the court exploits were covered by Black Cager Sports Media are now taking advantage of the NIL era and they’re doing it by building their own brand with assistance from HYPE U Philadelphia-Camden based company.

“When NIL legislation became inevitable, we positioned ourselves to take this on but really take it on in a different manner really focusing on high character individuals,” said Wilson. “Young men like Hysier, Eric, AJ and Hoggard are outstanding citizens making significant contributions to their respective learning communities. We are able to strongly recommend them to companies and organizations without even the slightest hesitation. We know their families, we’ve been in their homes.”

With advent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) legislation and policy changes, student-athletes are in position to earn levels of compensation their predecessors could only dream about. Black Cager Sports recognized the need to help high school participants better understand the NIL marketplace. Black Cager Sports wanted to help high school athletes navigate “the new normal.” Toward that end, Black Cager Sports sponsored an NIL Cyber-Symposium in October 2022.

In addition to identifying local opportunities for college and high school student-athletes, HYPE U provides a secure one-stop-shop for fans to buy and sell authenticated NFTs, autographed trading cards and sports memorabilia among a global fan-investor community.

HYPE U is an opportunity marketplace that connects high character student-athletes to brand partnerships and capital resources during and after their high school and collegiate playing career. The mission is to create branding, charitable, and non-playing opportunities for student-athletes that will maximize the value of their name, image, and likeness for current and future career benefits. 

“We are witnessing the unleashing of competitive market forces that will allow student-athletes and businesses to create mutually profitable partnerships,” said Wilson. “HYPE U is a platform designed help high character mid-Atlantic based student-athletes take full advantage of their name, image, and likeness with hopes to bring athlete diversity, and compensation balance to the NIL space.”

About HYPE U

HYPE U is a full service management and consulting company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Specializing in Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) & brand identity for high character athletes at the collegiate and high school levels.

Media Contact

Delgreco Wilson