Collin Stoecker Nominated for NIL Director of the Year

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Western Kentucky University Director of student-athlete name, image and likeness, Collin Stoecker, was nominated this week for the NIL Director of the Year award.

Given out by the NIL Store, Stoecker and his team have helped over 300 WKU athletes sell merchandise on the NIL Store website.

The opportunities given to Hilltoppers to grow their name this year is an effort that attracted nationwide attention and Stoecker gave a lot of credit to the creative athletes.

“Our kids are getting really creative in ways that they’re working with the NIL store. I mean, they’re really cool, too, they create custom merchandise. So Caden Velkamp goes out and he was the MVP of the Toastery Bowl. I just met with Elijah Young, running back on the football team, and he walked in with a T-shirt with Caden’s face on it that said, “Bowl Game MVP”, so it’s kind of becoming part of the culture here,” Stoecker said, “and we’re seeing our student athletes supporting each other and our fans supporting our student athletes. So, it’s really special.”