The Eccker 10 – Reece Beauchamp

Texas has always been synonymous with football. From Friday night lights to burnt orange on Saturdays and America’s team on Sundays, Texas and the sport of football have a special relationship. Kids grow up dreaming of leading their local high school team to the playoffs, but even moreso, many dream of donning the burnt orange and playing for the state’s beloved Texas Longhorns.

Few hometown kids are lucky enough to see those dreams come true, but Texas wide receiver Reece Beauchamp is one of them. As a freshman, Beauchamp has joined one of the nation’s most storied programs just as a sport he has dedicated his life to is undergoing one of the largest paradigm shifts in its history: the legalization of NIL. Texas is one of the programs at the forefront of the NIL discussion. The athletic program has utilized its wealth of resources to create one of the top NIL programs in the country, something that Beauchamp began to take advantage of from the moment he stepped foot on campus. Eccker Sports had the opportunity to speak with Beauchamp and discuss his lifetime of experience as an athlete, and learn more about his NIL journey.

10 Questions

Tyler: What is your greatest memory as an athlete?

Beauchamp: I’d say my junior and senior year playoff runs in high school. We went four rounds deep in both my junior and senior year. Just practices and games and team dinners with all my teammates were probably some of my favorite things I’ve ever done. Those memories I made with them…something about the playoffs and how the further we went, the more was on the line just made it more fun and more enjoyable. It would probably be that. 

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

Beauchamp: I’d say balancing school and athletics and fitting a social schedule in as well. It’s not terrible throughout high school but there’ll be times and weeks where you’ll have lots of school and you have a big game coming up so you’ll have to watch film, do schoolwork, and get a good night’s rest as well. There’ll be times where you’re not able to hang out with friends or play video games with friends. Once you get into the rhythm of things and find the way you want to go about things, it’s easier to do it all, but overall I’d say balancing school, social, and athletic schedule as well is probably the hardest thing to do as an athlete.

Tyler: Do you have any unique or hidden talents?

Reece: Hidden or unique talents…I love to hunt and fish. I’m a pretty good fisherman if I do say so myself. I’d say I’m a pretty good outdoorsman.

Tyler: What was your first NIL deal?

Beauchamp: The first thing I got started with was with a concussion prevention mouthguard company. Myself and some of my teammates were the first ones to try it out in games. They kind of tried it out on us and we gave them feedback. That was the first one I started with, and I wear that mouthpiece here in college. 

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

Beauchamp: I think with NIL, it makes you think about how you carry yourself as an athlete and a person. I think the better you do that, the more that companies will see how good of a person you are and how good of an athlete you are. I definitely think that NIL makes you think about how you carry yourself throughout the day, how you carry yourself on social media for sure, and how you just present yourself as a person. 

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

Beauchamp: I would say that you want to do some research. If you’re getting DM’s or messages from certain companies, first you want to do research into them. See if they just started up or when they started, what they believe in, what the product is. You always want to make sure it’s not a scam or something like that. I would say definitely do your research before and see if it’s something that you’d be interested in doing and if it’s something that you’d want to represent. 

Tyler: How do you educate yourself on NIL?

Beauchamp: Kind of a similar thing. We have people here who help us with NIL. When we first moved in during the summer, they helped us set up NIL accounts, gave us information on rules of NIL and stuff like that. Just following those rules and picking and choosing what you want to do matters. It all goes back to researching what you want to do and what you want to represent.

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

Beauchamp: I’d say just knowing what kind of brands I want to look into, whether that be football related brands, equipment related, even hunting or fishing related. Kind of just knowing what you want to look into and then how to look into it.

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

Beauchamp: That’s a tough one. I know since it’s getting started, the rules aren’t all perfect. I’d say maybe setting limitations for certain guys. I know a lot of dudes have a lot of deals and I know there’s not really any limitations right now. I feel like that can kind of hurt the college football scene: that dudes are signing to certain schools just based on NIL deals and not based on whether or not they actually want to attend that school. So I’d say just setting certain limitations for NIL because I know a lot of dudes make decisions based only off money and NIL and their image.

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

Beauchamp: I’d say just take it slow. It’s gonna start off slow. Obviously as a freshman you’re not going to get all the NIL deals that you want. You have to continue to build a name for yourself. Just represent yourself the best way that you can. Know that someone is probably always watching. The more people you know the more connections have, which will probably lead to more deals. Stuff like that. But just be patient. It’ll start off slow at first but it’ll continue to grow and build as you get older.