Harvard-Westlake’s Thompson sisters are first prep athletes to sign with Nike for NIL
The Thompson sisters from Studio City Harvard-Westlake, Alyssa and Gisele, are two of the best soccer players in America. Now they’ve become the first high school athletes to be signed by Nike for name, image and likeness representation.
The announcement was made Monday night at a dinner in Los Angeles.
Evan Sroka, managing partner of Everest Talent Management, is representing the sisters along with A&V Sports. He said Nike had signed them with a “multiyear” commitment involving monetary compensation.
Alyssa, a junior, and Gisele, a sophomore, helped their respective USA national soccer teams win competitions this year. Gisele started for the team that won the U-17 CONCACAF championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in May. Alyssa started for the U-20 team that won the CONCACAF gold medal in March in Santo Domingo. Alyssa also won the Division 3 100 meters on Saturday at the Southern Section track and field championships.
If the NCAA won’t properly handle situations where pay for play is dressed up as NIL, conferences will have to take the matter into their own hands.
They traveled to Nike’s headquarters in Oregon several weeks ago for a video to start their representation. Under CIF NIL rules, they are not allowed to appear in Harvard-Westlake uniforms or gear. Both are committed to Stanford and have worked with Stanford officials to maintain their NCAA eligibility, Sroka said.
Nike might be getting more than two Thompson sisters. There’s a third sister, 10-year-old Zoe, who is also a top soccer player.
“We’ll give it a few years,” Sroka said.
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