Adolfo Camarillo's Tommy Goodin signs with Wraith Sports Group

Adolfo Camarillo (Calif.) High School first baseman and Cal State Northridge commit Tommy Goodin signed this month with the sports and marketing agency Wraith Sports Group. Wraith Sports Group’s Josh Escovedo and Andrew Rogers will provide NIL representation for Goodin, who’s a junior in high school.

In a joint announcement, Wraith Sports Group not only announced the signing of Goodin but also an NIL deal with The GLD Shop, an online jewelry retailer.

“We had a call and it just struck me that Tommy had an idea of what he wanted to do and essentially a business plan of how he wanted to utilize his NIL and to exploit that for economic gain, which was honestly beyond his years,” Escovedo said in a video interview On3 had with Wraith Sports Group. “I thought, ‘Hey, this is a good opportunity and the kid is well-spoken and has that “it” factor.'”

Adolfo Camarillo High School competes in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which is one of 24 high school athletic associations across the country that allows high school athletes to engage in NIL opportunities. Some of the most well-known high school athletes in the country, such as LeBron James‘ sons Bronny and Bryce James, as well as USC quarterback commit Malachi Nelson, compete in the CIF.

Goodin’s best grade on Perfect Game, a company that provides scouting and events for amateur baseball players, is a nine out of 10. That grade is given to players who are a “potential top-10 round pick and/or highest level college prospect.”

Perfect Game ranks Goodin as the second-best first baseman in California, according to Escovedo.

NIL representation for a high school baseball player is ‘particularly unique’

The NIL marketplace and technology company Opendorse recently released data that said 5.1 percent of all NIL deals completed or disclosed through the company since July 1, 2021, through November 2022 involved baseball players. Baseball ranked fifth among all sports, behind football, men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s basketball.

“I found the opportunity to be particularly unique,” Escovedo said. “There aren’t a ton of guys doing in the baseball space. I mean in football, you have Malachi Nelson over here in California that’s doing well for himself and you’re gonna have quarterbacks that are doing that sort of thing.

“But I mean even with college, baseball doesn’t get the credit that it deserves until the College World Series.”

The high school NIL landscape is still in its relative infancy with high school athletic associations in just less than half of the states in the U.S. granting athletes their NIL rights. Baseball players represent a smaller subcategory.

“I wanted to be different from everyone else and if I could be different, that would help me stand out and maybe create new paths for people,” Goodin said.

Given the niche that is high school baseball players relative to the overall NIL landscape, Escovedo credited Goodin for his maturity as he explained the potential market.

“‘I want to make this happen. We’re going to. But I need you to understand that there are hurdles that we have to overcome,'” Escovedo said, recalling a conversation he had with Goodin. “‘One, NIL was significantly more prevalent this year in college, but it still wasn’t overwhelming in high school. That’s one hurdle. The next hurdle is we’re looking at baseball. We’re not looking at football or basketball. So that’s another hurdle that we have to overcome.’

“And Tommy just kind of shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘OK, yeah. Let’s do it then. Let’s be the ones who get that done.'”

Wraith Sports Group’s strategy for Tommy Goodin

Escovedo said Wraith Sports Group’s strategy is to try to promote Goodin’s on-field ability along with his following on TikTok, where he has more than 86,000 followers. Escovedo said in the NIL landscape, there are often athletes who have a lot of talent or a lot of social media followers, but not both.

The plan is to pitch Goodin as someone who has both.

“We plan to play off of his increased stock as a prospect as well as his fairly significant following on TikTok to build his brand and continue to build relationships with the other brands that fit what it is that is Tommy Goodin,” Escovedo said.

Wraith Sports Group is marketing Goodin as someone who will probably play in Major League Baseball in the next five to seven years. Escovedo is aware some companies won’t be interested in partnering with a high school athlete.

“With good reason, I think a lot of companies would say, ‘Hey, well, you know the kid’s in high school. Him doing things for us and putting it on his social, it may not necessarily hit our target audience,'” Escovedo said. “So you’re going to get that out of some companies and other companies, you’re doing to get this idea of ‘How many people are tracking high school baseball?’ I mean, how many people are tracking high school sports, period? … But that’s where we come back with the TikTok following and we say, ‘Hey, look. As he continues to grow, it’s going to spread even further.'”

Escovedo thinks e-commerce retailers could be good brand partners for a high school athlete like Goodin. Many of Goodin’s social media followers are also in high school. They could represent potential target consumers for those companies.

Goodin wears a chain link during games, so Escovedo said the pitch to The GLD Shop was a relatively straightforward one.

“Sold. Done deal and that was that,” Escovedo said. “That’s sort of what we’re doing and who we’re going to be targeting initially. Obviously as his stock grows, we’ll continue to go after bigger fish.”