BALTIMORE — Tennessee club lacrosse player Jackson Zimmer began his summer stringing sticks for Baltimore-based lacrosse company East Coast Dyes, but he ended his summer as the first club lacrosse player to earn a NIL deal.
His pitch to ECD was simple: the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association, or MCLA, is a massive untapped market.
"I think the MCLA gets slept on a lot," Zimmer said. "Producing MCLA content would help [ECD] branch out a lot. There are like 300 MCLA teams."
Right away, Zimmer says club players across the country have reached out to him. Of course, there are some perks for Zimmer as well.
"They've given me access to some of their unreleased stuff, which is pretty cool," Zimmer said.
Zimmer, a Baltimore-area native, is getting ready to start his sophomore year at Tennessee, and he hopes this deal can be the start of the MCLA getting a little more respect in the lacrosse world.
"From the second I started playing games my freshman year, I was amazed with the talent that's on the field at MCLA games," Zimmer said. "The word has got to get out there that this is a big thing and people need to pay more attention."