WE USED TO ASK, “WHY WOULD A FAMILY DO THAT?”
For years, we worked around the professional side of sports and sometimes found ourselves looking at decisions families made and wondering how they got there.
Then we got closer to the grassroots level. We were in the gym, on college visits, sitting in recruiting conversations, and helping young athletes in our own family navigate decisions that looked much simpler from the outside than they felt from the inside.
THIS DIDN’T START WITH NIL.
Long before NIL became part of everyday sports conversation, education was already part of our work.
Through Stapling Success, we created Extra Credit, an educational initiative focused on helping athletes understand the financial and business side of sports.
That work grew beyond an idea. We worked with the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment (OCTFME) and DKN Sports to bring that education to broader audiences, including the production of the Extra Credit television and YouTube series.
We were already wrestling with the same question that still drives this platform today: What happens when athletes are expected to make business decisions before anyone has taught them the business?
THEN THE BUSINESS MOVED CLOSER TO THE ATHLETE.
When we launched Stapleton Sports Group and NIL entered college sports, the same education gap we had already seen showed up in a new form.
Athletes were no longer only trying to understand money and careers after sports. They were being asked to understand brands, content, contracts, compensation, taxes, and commercial opportunities while they were still playing.
Then our own work moved closer to the grassroots level.
We were no longer only talking about the business. We were in the gym, on visits, in recruiting conversations, and watching young athletes and families experience these decisions in real time.
FOR YEARS, WE HAD ASKED:
“WHY WOULD A FAMILY DO THAT?”
THEN WE REALIZED HOW DIFFERENT
THE DECISION LOOKS WHEN
YOU’RE THE FAMILY MAKING IT.
There were situations where we had professional experience, industry access, and information and still had to stop and ask: What exactly does this mean? Who should we ask? What actually matters here? What happens if we get this wrong?
That was the moment NWAM stopped being just an idea for a platform and became personal. If a family with sports-business knowledge, agency experience, and access could still find certain situations complicated or unclear, what was happening for the average parent with none of that background?
WE DON'T TEACH FROM “YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.”
We teach from the reality that the average parent, coach, school leader, or athlete has never had a reason to know these things before.
Some of the situations we talk about on NWAM are situations we have actually had to navigate ourselves.
Recruiting decisions. Program fit. Athlete visibility. Social media. Brand positioning. NIL opportunities. Contracts. The pressure that comes with trying to get it right when somebody you love is the athlete involved.
We bring what we know from professional sports, college sports, athlete representation, and sports-business education.
But we never forget what the conversation feels like from the family side of the table.
THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS, EXPLAINED.
Today, NWAM exists to help families and school communities make sense of the business around the athlete. We explain what the modern sports landscape actually means in practical language and connect people to the tools, products, and programming that help them move with more clarity.
Recruiting & College Decisions
Understanding what interest means, how offers evolve, how to evaluate fit, and how families can make smarter recruiting decisions.
Transfers & Athlete Movement
Helping families think more clearly about leaving, staying, fit, conflict, and the difference between a hard season and the wrong environment.
Brand, Visibility & Digital Safety
Teaching families how visibility changes responsibility, and how athlete branding, online presence, and digital safety now matter earlier than ever.
NIL, Money & Contracts
Breaking down how compensation, agreements, taxes, representation, and real athlete value show up long before the pro level.
WE BUILT THE RESOURCE WE WISHED MORE FAMILIES HAD BESIDE THEM.
We built NWAM to feel like the kind of resource we wanted beside us while making some of these decisions: informed enough to understand the business, practical enough to explain it plainly, and human enough to remember that there is a real kid and a real family behind the decision.
If you want to learn more about our broader professional work, agency perspective, and athlete representation background, visit Stapleton Sports Group. If you're here because your family or school is trying to better understand the changing business of sports, you're in the right place.
Dominique + Monique The Stapleton Sisters
