MSU gymnastics star Skyla Schulte will take the mound Friday night in Chicago prior to the White Sox’s game versus the Milwaukee Brewers to throw out the first pitch.
As a gymnast, she’s planning to put her own twist on it by performing an aerial into the first pitch.
For the uninitiated, an aerial is a gymnastics skill where hands are not touching the floor or the apparatus. Picture a cartwheel but with no hands. Now try throwing a baseball at the same time. Now try doing it on a major league baseball diamond. With thousands of fans in the stands. In your hometown.
That’s where Schulte will be Friday night, surrounded by her family and her best friends, taking in a Chicago White Sox game from a private suite.
None of this would have been possible without recent changes to NCAA rules which allow student-athletes to benefit from their Name Image and Likeness (NIL).
The NIL deal that Schulte signed that allows her this once-in-a-lifetime experience is through the Chicago White Sox’s ChiSox Athlete program. A representative from the organization reached out to Schulte about nine months ago and said she’d be a good fit for the program. She accepted quickly and has enjoyed repping the White Sox ever since.
Not only will Schulte get to throw out the first pitch and watch the game with her best friends and family members from a private suite, she also gets financial incentives for social media promotion, and has a direct line to the White Sox for internship opportunities or job opportunities after college.
The program is designed for Chicago-area high school graduates who attend college in the Midwest.
This year, Schulte joined Chris Autman-Bell (Minnesota men’s football), Yulexi Diaz (Illinois Chicago women’s soccer), Bryan Dowd (Notre Dame men’s soccer/football), Addie Halverson (Ball State women’s volleyball), Bridget Mitchell (Northwestern women’s soccer), Brooke Schramek (Wisconsin women’s basketball), and Ahron Ulis (Nebraska men’s basketball) in the ChiSox Athlete program class of 2023.
The White Sox say that the program “prioritizes a student-first approach focused on financial and professional marketing opportunities that help enhance students’ unique brands and platforms.” This season, the team plans to connect these athletes with “top-tier branding opportunities and access to professional resources within the organization’s front office” and help them “leverage the individuals’ Sox-provided photoshoots and help increase exposure for the athletes’ personal and professional brands.”
Did Schulte grow up a Sox fan?
It’s complicated.
“My family is more of a football family,” said Schulte. “If you ask my dad, he would say we are Cubs fans, technically, but my best friend and her dad are the biggest White Sox fans ever – so I was really excited to tell them [about this opportunity].”
Schulte is going into her junior year at MSU and expectations are high for the gymnastics team following an exciting year which saw the Spartans take down their cross-state rival, the Michigan Wolverines, for the first time in a long time. MSU also won the regular season Big Ten championship and performed well in the NCAA regionals.
Schulte says the team’s goal is to make nationals this season. To do that, she wants her team to compete like they practice.
“Everyone is always on in practice,” said Schulte. “We want to keep that consistency throughout the season.”
Last season, Schulte had another NIL deal with This is Sparta!, an MSU-affiliated NIL collective run by Charitable Gift America. This is Sparta! requires its NIL student-athletes to donate a minimum of 5% of their NIL money to a charity of their choice. Last year, Schulte chose two charities which help find cures for diseases which affected her family and friends: brain aneurysm – a weakness in a blood vessel that fills with blood – and leiomyosarcoma cancer, a rare cancer that grows in the smooth muscles of the body (intestines, stomach, bladder, blood vessels, and the uterus).
“My grandma had a brain aneurysm,” said Schulte. “She survived, but for 27 years she couldn’t do anything on her own anymore – so my papa took care of her for 27 years all by himself. My best friend’s mom passed in 2017 from leiomyosarcoma cancer. When we got the news about Charitable Gift America’s NIL deal, I knew right away those were going to be the charities, because it took a big toll on me and my family and friends. I knew it would mean a lot to my best friend’s family and my family.”
Schulte is grateful for these opportunities and is looking forward to what the future holds.
But, first things first.
There's an aerial to perform and a pitch to throw.
“When I was home in the summer, me and my best friend went to our high school baseball field and I was practicing there,” Schulte said. “I’m going home on Thursday and will practice one more time before Friday.”
Then it's off to Guaranteed Rate Field on the southside of Chicago where Schulte will throw the first pitch and enjoy the game surrounded by her family and friends.
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