Tennessee's Volunteer Club launches captain program to grow membership

Amidst fundraising calls and events, NIL collectives are trying to find ways to remain sustainable for the long term.

The Tennessee-focused NIL collective The Volunteer Club thinks it has made notable progress in that space. Run by the Knoxville-based sports marketing agency Spyre Sports, the collective has built out a roster of full-time staff members.

That includes Kenny Clayton. A lifetime Volunteer and season ticket holder, he helps his wife run a dental group in Columbia, Tennessee. Spyre co-founders Hunter Baddour and James Clawson recently brought him on as Spyre’s director of member development, something Clayton jokes he was previously doing in an unofficial capacity.

Earlier this week, The Volunteer Club surpassed 2,500 members. The collective offers a tiered subscription program for fans, ranging from $5 to $500 a month which comes with a different suite of perks. Clayton is overseeing the recent launch of the captain’s program for the NIL collective. So far, the collective is seeing an increase of roughly 20 new members daily because of the new initiative.

“We want to create sustainable NIL opportunities for the student-athletes,” Clayton said. “We want to ensure Tennessee can attract and retain the best talent in the country. For the fan side, really the two words that jump out to me are really impact and experiences. We feel like there’s never been a better way to have an impact on the outcome of the games than by supporting the players through NIL.”

The basic premise of the captain’s program is to create a way for the collective to have a direct impact on communities throughout the Southeast. Clayton described a captain as someone who, “wants to establish and build relationships with community leaders, businesses, and fans in order to achieve our goals.”

As of earlier this week, the Vol Club has nine captains with hopes to continue building an infrastructure. Each leader is in direct contact with Clayton, who holds a weekly call to talk about membership growth and any new plans and campaigns with the group. It is a grassroots marketing effort mixed in with some guerilla strategies.

“It’s really about trying to find a person that is passionate,” Clayton said. “They will give generously of their time. You look for a great attitude, someone that’s fun and happy — gets what being part of a team and can get on board with the vision.

“I really want to give a lot of autonomy to the captains just to be themselves. Just like coaches, you have to be true to who you are, you have to be authentic. Good things happen when you’re just authentically yourself, and it’s an organic process.”

Duties of the Volunteer Club’s captain program

Each captain is expected to reach out to their family and friends and discuss the importance of NIL, as well as speaking at community events. Programs will also be hosted by captains at the community level to discuss memberships and ways to provide support.

Clayton said it does not stop there, though. There’s an emphasis on creating a welcoming environment where prospective Volunteer Club members use watch parties and tailgates to continue the conversation. captains are not paid for their work, but the collective is in the works of establishing experiences the leaders can participate in, such as watching a football practice.

So far, the Volunteer Club has captains in Atlanta, Charleston (S.C.), Jackson, Knoxville, Kingston, Memphis, Murfreesboro and Nashville. The hope is to expand into Charlotte, Chattanooga and the Tri-Cities region.

Here’s the current list of captains:

• Martin Penny – Nashville
• Jonathan Haun – Nashville
• Jordon Haun – Kingston
• Trey Vaughn – Murfreesboro
• Jason Bloomfield – Atlanta
• Tanner Strange – Knoxville
• Edward Francis – Memphis
• R.E. Butts – Jackson
• Eric Quisenberry – Charleston, South Carolina

Importance of education for Tennessee’s NIL efforts

On Wednesday afternoon, the Volunteer Club announced its latest group of signings. Filled with recruits from the 2023 recruiting class and the transfer portal, it resembled how Tennessee has been associated with success in NIL. Included in the announcement were four-star tight end Ethan Davis and former Florida offensive tackle Gerald Mincey.

If the Volunteers still want that title, the number of dollars put into the collective will have to continue to grow. Clayton believes the way to do it is through education. With captains out in the community, that can happen significantly quicker compared to Baddour or Clawson traveling around.

“So many people don’t know who we are, right?” Clayton said “We’ve got to get the word out. They’ve got to be able to articulate what we do, and how we do that enough to gain trust and credibility with the people in our community.”