The Eccker 10 – Lexi Unruh

Lexi Unruh has had a unique career filled with perseverance on her part. At the time of this interview, Lexi is working back from her second ACL tear. While the physical toll of the recovery is difficult, balancing that with the mental impact as well as being a full time student can be extremely difficult. With all of this going on, Lexi has recently started working on leveraging her NIL and has found success early on. She sat down with Eccker Sports to talk about recovering from injury, learning about NIL, and how her NIL experience has helped her become involved with projects and causes that she is passionate about

10 Questions

Tyler: What is your greatest memory as an athlete?

Lexi: Honestly, my greatest memory is probably a little different than a lot of athletes because I wasn’t able to participate in it. I’d have to say that my best memory is when we made the Elite Eight my freshman year. I was hurt but that whole experience when you’re in that situation with all the fans supporting you at every game is just amazing. It wasn’t something people expected from us but we had a lot of talent on our team and it was fun to be able to show that to everybody else.

Tyler: What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as an athlete and how were you able to work past it?

Lexi: The biggest challenge by far has been injuries. I’ve torn my ACL twice now and am currently recovering from my second tear. I’d say this one has been a lot harder mentally. When you’ve done it twice, you have the nerves of it happening again, you wonder if you’ll be able to be the same player, if your body can recover…all that stuff. I was able to get through it because of all of those around me. Brad and Petra, my trainer and strength coach, have worked with me every day throughout the recovery process. Every day for nine months they’ve helped me not just physically but also mentally. There are so many days where I just get mentally drained after working all day. They always notice and sit down and talk to me and help me through it. There are days when I don’t know if I can keep doing this rehab or return to play after so many injuries but they’ve always been there to encourage me and help me remember the love that I have for the game.

Tyler: Do you have any unique or hidden talents?

Lexi: I can make some pretty good chocolate chip cookies. I think the key is a little extra brown sugar.

Tyler: What was your first NIL deal?

Lexi: I got it through working with NIYOU. I’d been in contact with them and they thought I’d be a good fit for some things they were working on. We met with the owner of Nissan of Omaha, got to know him a little bit, and we thought we’d work well together so we kept meeting, set the deal up, and I signed it. The process was great, the owner of the dealership is awesome, he supports women’s athletics, he’s got two daughters, and he really values women’s sports. It’s fun to work with someone who supports what we do. There are a lot of companies who pour money into men’s sports, which is great, but it’s also fun to have support for our sports as well.

Tyler: How has NIL impacted your experience as an athlete?

Lexi: The biggest thing I’ve appreciated so far is the connections we’ve made with these companies. Jason from Nissan for example, I love having a connection with him and with a company that cares about women’s sports. When I get out of college and I have all these connections with different people in Omaha, I’ll be set up well for my future career, wherever it takes me after college.

Tyler: How do you determine which brands to partner with?

Lexi: I focus on deals that represent me. Deals that help me present myself in the way I want. My faith is important to me, and so is mental health. I’m also super passionate about helping the underprivileged, so overall it’s important that I engage in deals that are representative of the things I care about and the type of person that I am.

Tyler: How do you educate yourself on NIL?

Lexi: My biggest resource has been NIYOU. They’ve helped me figure out what I’m doing, what steps to take, and how I want to approach NIL. Creighton has also had some people come to speak to us about NIL but NIYOU has been my biggest resource overall.

Tyler: How has education played a role in your NIL experience?

Lexi: If I didn’t have my relationship with NIYOU, I wouldn’t have any deals and I wouldn’t know where to begin, how to reach out to companies, or what NIL even could look like for myself and my teammates. NIL is a huge opportunity and working with NIYOU makes the process so much easier. The education has really opened my eyes to all the possibilities that are out there in NIL.

Tyler: If you could change one thing about NIL and how it’s worked so far, what would it be?

Lexi: There needs to be more education. A lot of my teammates and I didn’t even know what was possible with NIL, how to find deals, or how to even look for deals. Education is important because it opens your eyes to all of the opportunities that are out there. Learning more about how beneficial NIL is and teaching athletes how to properly leverage it is really important. Until this summer I had no idea what type of deals I could even get, and now I’ve been able to get a brand new car through my NIL. You don’t have to be a top 1% player to succeed in NIL, you just have to know how to best approach it.

Tyler: What piece of advice would you give to high school athletes as they start their NIL journeys?

Lexi: Start with how you want to represent yourself. What do you want to portray to the world? What do you want people to know you for? Have those things written out so that when you start looking for deals, you can evaluate how that deal lines up with the way you want to represent yourself.