NIL Library / NIL-003
A Donut Truck Started Michigan's High School NIL Era
Michigan's high school NIL era did not start with a shoe company or a six-figure contract. It started with a donut truck. I work with young athletes, so here is my honest take: after months of headlines about teenagers signing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, this is the healthiest NIL story I have seen all year, and it is the one parents should actually study.
In May 2026, ABC57 reported on how high school NIL really got going in southwest Michigan. Two sisters, Zoey and Lydia Heyn, run a food truck called Zo's Mini Donuts. Zoey started the idea at 15 years old, and it grew into a six-location business that sold more than 150,000 donuts last year. When the Michigan High School Athletic Association approved its NIL bylaws in January, the sisters did not wait for a corporation to move. They reached out to local student-athletes on Instagram and, in February, signed eight of them.
What NIL is, in one paragraph
If the term is still fuzzy, NIL stands for name, image, and likeness. It is the right of an athlete to earn from their own brand: their name, their photos, their following. It became legal for college athletes in 2021, and it has flowed down to high school, where most states now allow it. A deal can be a national shoe contract, or it can be exactly what these sisters offered: a small, local partnership with a business in your own community.
What the deal actually was
This is the part worth slowing down on. The deal was a branded photo shoot, some free merchandise, and one compensated social media post. That is it. No agents, no collectives, no money that changes a family's life. A local business and a local athlete agreeing to make each other look good. That is what the healthy version of high school NIL looks like, and it is a long way from the panic in the headlines.
The numbers nobody quotes
The state's own data tells the real story. Geoff Kimmerly, communications director for the MHSAA, said that across about 180,000 students in Michigan, only around 125 have signed any NIL deal at all, and only about 20 of those are worth more than a thousand dollars. So the fear that every kid is about to get swept up in big money is not what is happening on the ground. The money is real, but for almost everyone it is modest, and the deals are local.
The athlete who already gets it
One of the eight, Lainie Dorow, plays flag football and basketball at St. Joseph High School, and she became the first athlete at her school to sign an NIL deal. What she said about it is the whole lesson. "I don't think that it's just a money grab like a lot of those people might think," she said. "Me personally, I want to support the brands I'm working with and build them up just as much as they want to do that for me." She also talked about being one of the first girls to do this, and about using her platform to be a positive role model for younger girls.
That is not how someone thinks who is chasing a check. That is how someone thinks who understands they are a brand, and that the partnership only works if both sides build each other up.
What this means for your athlete
Here is the shift I want every parent to make. Do not think of NIL as a deal that might happen someday. Think of your kid's name, image, and following as a brand that exists right now, before a single dollar shows up.
Look again at what was in that donut deal: a branded photo shoot. These partnerships only work if both sides look good doing it. The athlete a local business reaches out to is the one who already takes their own presence seriously: a clean, consistent image, a real story, a way of carrying themselves that a business is comfortable standing next to. You do not need an agent in ninth grade. You need a foundation, and an adult in their corner. Build the brand and protect it early, so that when a local business does reach out, your athlete is ready to be the kind of partner they want to keep.
Source: ABC57 / WBND (May 21, 2026). This is education and observation, not legal or financial advice.
Source: ABC57 / WBND