So , um , I really try and , and take advantage of that opportunity , whether that's , you know , talking to them or like , you know , giving them a ball , signing , signing an autograph , like , Anything that I can do to kind of Make a mark on them and , uh , you know , foster them along their uh their way . Yeah , so what my , uh , what my experience has been in the NIL space , um , I would say it's been a neat opportunity so far . I think there's been things that I wouldn't have expected or , or guessed and kind of opportunities that have presented themselves I wouldn't have imagined .
Um , I know there's probably , you know , a handful , probably 10 or so , um , locations and businesses in Evanston that kinda really put themselves out there and support student athletes . So that's , that's pretty cool to see , just in this day and age that , um , they're able to do it now through NIL . Yeah , my advice for younger athletes inspiring to play at the next level would probably be the same advice that I got .
My name is Jackson Freeman . I play baseball at Northwestern , and you can check me out on Next Level Prep .
Um , and from there , they kind of set up , you know , some calls with potential schools , um , a lot of schools on the West Coast , uh , it's more accessible . And then , obviously , Northwestern and a couple of others . And from there , I kinda narrowed it down to about 3 or 4 schools that I was really interested in , Northwestern being one of them .
Yeah , so I definitely did face um some challenges , you know , in the recruiting process and making sure that I got my name out there . Um , I think , at least where I'm from in Orange County , there's a lot of talent there . And , uh , it's really hard to make sure that you stand out among all the talent .
