By Zak Koshar
Shell Sports Management is a student-run marketing agency that has grown from four athletes to 15 across four sports in less than a year. Ahead of its first anniversary, it has completed more than 20 NIL deals at the University of Maryland.
Founders Tyler Koshar and Jake Esterson launched Shell Sports in November 2025 to help Maryland athletes secure endorsement opportunities. The agency has now worked with a variety of teams at Maryland, including baseball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and basketball.
Initially, Koshar and Esterson saw an opportunity to help athletes in Maryland’s lesser-publicized sports find partnerships with businesses while gaining experience in an industry they hope to enter professionally.
“We wanted to give athletes who don’t get as much attention more opportunities to benefit from NIL,” Koshar said.
Shell Sports focused on baseball and lacrosse at first, before expanding into men’s and women’s basketball during the summer and fall of 2026. The expansion has given the agency access to new audiences and helped it pursue campaigns involving athletes from different teams.
The founders also changed their business outreach approach. They initially pursued major brands such as Gatorade and Under Armour before shifting toward local businesses and rising companies.
“We’ve since become more intentional about targeting local businesses and emerging companies,” Esterson said.
The founders believe smaller companies can benefit significantly from partnerships with Maryland athletes, particularly when those businesses want to reach college students and local sports fans. Shell Sports also looks for opportunities to turn initial deals into longer-term relationships.
“We’d rather build a relationship where both sides trust us enough to keep working together,” Koshar said.
Shell’s expanding network has also created opportunities beyond individual endorsements. The agency helped identify Maryland basketball players for an athletics-wide NIL FanBox campaign, a program where fans can pay for a mystery box full of player-signed memorabilia.
This has allowed it to contribute to a larger audience through its connections with athletes.
Although there may be bigger opportunities, Shell focuses its partnerships on fitting each athlete’s interests. The founders want players to work with businesses they enjoy, not just take deals for the money.
An example of this is Maryland women’s lacrosse star Lauren LaPointe’s partnership with The Board and Brew, a local College Park business. LaPointe already enjoyed the business’s matcha drink, so Shell arranged the partnership, and it was a perfect match.
The agreement guaranteed compensation in exchange for four social media posts over four weeks. Shell Sports recorded content with LaPointe ahead of time, allowing The Board and Brew to plan its promotional campaign.
The founders see that genuine connection as an important part of successful NIL partnerships.
“I think people can tell when an athlete promotes something they don’t genuinely care about,” Esterson said.
Shell Sports has also developed relationships with Maryland coaches and athletic department personnel. Before launching the agency, the founders presented their idea to senior athletic department leadership, who encouraged them to pursue it. Also, Koshar is registered as an athlete agent in Maryland.
As Shell Sports enters its second year, the founders want to expand into additional sports, develop campaigns featuring athletes from different teams, and strengthen relationships with previous business partners.
They also want to keep the personal approach that shaped the agency’s first year, even as the number of athletes and businesses they work with increases.
“Our goal is to make every athlete and business feel like they’re the only one we’re working with,” Koshar said.
After completing more than 20 NIL deals and expanding its roster across four sports, Shell enters its second year looking to build on its early growth while creating more opportunities for Maryland athletes.
