Meet Sophie Denker.

Sophie supports NIL initiatives at Texas A&M through Playfly Sports, a leading collegiate marketing and media company, playing an instrumental role in helping the university's athletes land, execute, and deliver on NIL opportunities. Spend five minutes with Sophie, and you will find she is exactly where she was meant to be, which is funny, because not even Sophie knew this was where her career was heading - at least not at first.

Like many of us, Sophie’s interest in sports started with playing soccer. While in high school, she started exploring what working in sports might look like, participating in both DECA and her school’s Athletic Training Academy. She quickly figured out that the business side of sports fit her strengths best, so she headed to Nebraska to study marketing with a minor in management.

On campus, Sophie was enjoying the typical college experience (as best she could during COVID) - taking her first classes, joining a sorority, and making new friends. It wasn’t until her sophomore year that the itch to find her way into the world of sports returned. When she got an email from the athletic department advertising their athletics marketing internship, it felt like a sign.

Sophie started working on her application, tapped her dad to help write her first cover letter, and finally hit submit. She landed her interview, walked into the stadium, and killed it. She left on cloud nine, confident that it wouldn’t be long before she was walking back in for her first day. The first week went by - nothing. Another week, and the rejection letter hit her inbox.

It was a shock and a disappointment, but instead of giving up, Sophie dug her heels in and started looking for another way to get her start. She tapped into a family connection to land a meeting with another member of the athletic department to see how she might be able to get involved. That conversation led to a meeting with Jason Rathe, the GM at Huskers Athletic Partners, Nebraska’s sports properties group, who has since been acquired by Playfly.

Sophie was hired as an intern, splitting time between the ticketing and partnership departments for a semester, before transitioning fully into the new, post-acquisition, Playfly partnerships team. Up until her graduation, Sophie supported the team, providing administrative support, hosting partners on gamedays, and learning the fundamentals of sponsorship assets, promotion, and execution. Her career in sports had begun.

While her responsibilities at Playfly were growing, so were her opportunities elsewhere. In addition to her role at Playfly, Sophie was also modeling for and working at local boutiques across Lincoln and Omaha, running social media for Nebraska’s College of Business, and even serving as an on-campus ambassador for Adidas. At first, these were simply opportunities that were helping her develop her resume and skill set. She was having fun with it.

But as NIL began to fully emerge, Sophie started to connect the dots - what she was doing with Adidas, the local boutiques, and the school's social media pages had a direct correlation to the NIL space. She was essentially managing her own NIL portfolio, and in the process, giving herself a crash course on how to land, review, and execute a brand deal, both on social media and through experiential campaigns. At that point, it clicked. NIL was the path for her.

She was diving into the networking process throughout her senior year, exploring how she could break into the space, when her manager at Playfly came to her with a question: How do you feel about Penn State?

The role was within partnerships, not NIL, which made her hesitant to apply, but she ultimately took the referral and went through the interview process. A few weeks later, she accepted the position on the Monday after graduation and headed across the country to launch her career in sports.

NIL solutions staff support college athletes and brands as they navigate name, image, and likeness partnerships. While many people think NIL is simply about athletes posting on social media, the work is much broader. NIL teams coordinate with brands, manage communication, oversee content shoots, organize deliverables, and ensure that both the athlete and the partner receive value from the partnership. They also work closely with athletic departments to stay compliant and aligned.

There are opportunities for employees to work across content production, partnership management, athlete support, strategy, and operations. The pace is fast, the work is hands on, and the space continues to evolve every season. NIL solutions may be for you if you value working directly with athletes and wants to build skills across marketing, client services, and sports business.

Sophie landed in Happy Valley and was thrown headfirst into the fire, working with big-name clients and managing hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship agreements and multimedia rights assets. It was fast-paced, fun, and most importantly, an incredible learning opportunity for someone so early in her career.

Things were going well, but Sophie still knew that she eventually wanted to work in NIL, and she wasn’t shy about making sure people knew it - her manager, her boss, her teammates, everyone knew her goal. Being vocal paid off in two ways. First, anytime a partnership agreement included an NIL asset, Sophie was quick to raise her hand, and leadership was supportive of including her in the work.

Second, and perhaps even more importantly, when an NIL opportunity came up in the organization, Sophie came to everyone’s mind. So, when it was announced that Playfly was partnering with Texas A&M and would be building out an NIL team, Sophie was one of the first people to get a call. Leaving Penn State was bittersweet, but it was an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up, and so after almost a year and a half, Sophie made another cross-country move, this time to Texas.

Sophie has been in her new role for a little over four months now. Starting in the middle of football season, she has once again dove headfirst into the fire, but she’s making sure to find the time to look around, take it all in, and enjoy it. She made it.

Q. You’ve progressed quickly through the Playfly Sports ecosystem since starting as an intern at Nebraska. Looking back, what do you think truly moved the needle for you inside the organization and allowed you to advance so quickly?

A. I think what moved the needle for me and helped me get where I am in a short amount of time really comes down to hard work and communication. I earned the trust of the full-time staff at Nebraska early on during my internship, which made them want to support me as I figured out my next steps after graduation.

I always knew I wanted to end up in NIL, and I made sure my mentors knew that too. When I got to Penn State, it happened to line up with Playfly leaning further into NIL and launching Playfly Max. I kept my interest clear with my supervisors, so when the Texas A&M Playfly Max NIL role opened up, they already knew I was the person to reach out to.

Q. Your own social media experience has been instrumental in building your expertise in this space. What lessons from that journey have you carried into your work with athletes at Texas A&M?

A. I talked about some of the experiences I had in college, like being an Adidas ambassador/influencer and managing the Nebraska College of Business social media accounts. Those roles gave me a great foundation for what I’m doing now.

I started my TikTok from zero back in February while I was at Penn State (now up to almost 10k followers) because I felt there was a gap in the space for someone like me to show what working in college sports and NIL actually looks like. It’s been a creative outlet where I get to own something that’s mine, but it’s also become a great way to highlight partnerships and grow my network. It has even led to speaking with multiple women-in-sports clubs on different campuses and being invited to sports business conferences to connect with students.

It’s also great for our athletes to know that when they want advice on growing their own social media, they have someone who can help from real, hands-on experience.

Q. If you were to hire an intern to support your NIL team, what qualities or experiences would you prioritize in a candidate?

A. I would look for someone who is genuinely coachable. Growing up as an athlete taught me early on how to take constructive criticism and actually use it to get better. Because of that, coachability, trust, and intentions are the biggest things I value.

What are their goals? Can I trust them to take on tasks I might not have time for and execute them the way I need? Those are the questions I always come back to.

1. Your personal brand can unlock your professional one

Sophie’s own content experience and brand partnerships became the foundation for the work she does with athletes today. Building your skills early, even outside of sports, can directly support your long-term goals.

2. Be vocal and raise your hand

Sophie told everyone she worked with that she wanted to move into NIL, but she also backed it up by volunteering for every NIL adjacent partnership at Penn State. Speaking up puts you on the radar, but raising your hand shows you are ready when opportunities appear.

3. Rejection is often a redirect

Not getting the athletics marketing internship pushed Sophie toward the Playfly team, which ended up shaping her entire career. The first door may close, but the right one often opens immediately after.

-Jobs at Playfly Sports

-NIL Partnership Solutions Coordinator - University of Wisconsin

-Associate, Athlete Partnerships - Signings - Fanatics Careers

-NIL Content Producer - University of California, Berkeley

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of So You Want to Work in Sports. I appreciate you being part of this community.

If you have ideas, feedback, or future guest suggestions, feel free to reach out at [email protected].

If you want more hands-on support as you navigate the start of your career within sports, book a 1:1 session with me here. The sooner you start preparing, the more confident you will feel when opportunities come your way.

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