Iowa prep makes historic NIL partnership with educational roots

Date:2025-08-01 22:38:12 Category:US Views:2 Comment:0

DES MOINES, Iowa — A back-to-school celebration is kicking off its 20^th year by signing a local prep star to what could be Iowa’s first high school athlete with a name, image and likeness deal.

“You can’t go to college if you don’t have the right education, especially for us athletes. You have to be able to do good things in the classroom. Knowing that I can help provide good things in the classroom is very good,” said Jayden McGregory, student-athlete at Valley High School in West Des Moines.

McGregory will be a senior this school year and is ranked by some as the top football recruit in the state of Iowa. He recently made a verbal commitment to the University of Louisville after narrowing his choices to U of L, Minnesota, and Missouri. McGregory says Iowa was recruiting him as a basketball player after helping Valley win back-to-back high school state championships on the hardwood.

One Year! Ali and family celebrate transplant milestone, reach out to donor family

This partnership will allow the non-profit, Back to School Iowa, to promote its educational events using Jayden’s name, image, and likeness.

This year’s Back2School Bash will celebrate two decades of serving the community through education by handing out free school supplies to the first 1,200 students to attend. The event will provide thousands of perishable food items to families and free haircuts to get kids in order to get them ready for a new school year.

While McGregory is making history with the NIL deal, his past of being on the receiving end of free school supplies at the same event makes the partnership powerful.

“My mom was a single mother of three so that Back2School Bash just knowing she didn’t have to rely on getting back-to-school materials and just knowing we would have the materials because of the Back2School Bash took a big stress off of her and made everything else good,” McGregory said.

The celebration is free and will be held at Evelyn K. Davis Park in Des Moines on Sunday, August 17th, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.