How FSU softball player Kathryn Sandercock is leveraging World Series experience to market pitching lessons

ASHBURN, Va. — It's a scene familiar throughout the country. A high school athlete with college aspirations getting instruction from a trainer.

What was different about this session is who is doing the teaching and how she got here.

Kathryn Sandercock is less than a month removed from being one of the stars of softball's Women's College World Series. The Florida State pitcher threw 31⅓ innings in Oklahoma City and helped the Seminoles reach the final game of the championship series against Oklahoma, while she earned all-tournament honors.

When she returned home for the summer, she had options to start capitalizing on her name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time, starting July 1 when NCAA policy and state laws permitted it.

So she decided to continue teaching, but with a twist. Sandercock was in a unique position to parlay her success and national exposure immediately. She can advertise herself as a Florida State pitcher and benefit from being one of the new stars of the sport.

Sandercock gave lessons at home and was paid for them before the NIL rules went into effect. However, the way she can market herself and her teaching is more advantageous now.

"I could say, 'I'm Kathryn Sandercock and I give lessons,' before, but now I can say, 'I'm Kathryn Sandercock, Florida State pitcher, and I pitched in the World Series,' " Sandercock said.

She called a local training facility in her Northern Virginia home and they agreed to work together after ensuring all the appropriate NIL rules were followed.

Sandercock is giving 30-minute lessons three days a week for four hours each day until she goes back to school in August.

The facility, SixFour3, put out a notice to their members and on social media. The company's scheduling policy releases its training openings in three-week blocks. Her 72 total sessions were gone in less than 24 hours, notably faster than the slots for the other 25 instructors that teach at the facility.

One of the students that was able to secure a spot is Noa Tyo. A 15-year-old who just completed her freshman year, she had seen Sandercock pitch on television. She also had a connection: Sandercock played club softball on a team coached by one of Tyo's instructors.

“I was really excited," Tyo said when her lessons were booked.

Tyo will do three sessions this month as part of her training. She takes other pitching lessons, but appreciated Sandercock providing a different perspective and a connection as a peer.

“I like her as an instructor," Tyo said. "She’s friendly. She'll say, 'You’re doing this well. You need to do this.' It is a balance of things.”

Sandercock also was able to confirm where Tyo needed to improve, demonstrating that the lessons aren't a novelty or something she isn't taking seriously.

“It was spot-on with what other instructors have noticed," Tyo's dad, Walter Tyo, said after their first lesson. "It was exactly the same thing that her current instructor had said to focus on.

“There’s some instructors she’s had where the guy isn’t actually doing the pitching. He might say something but he can’t imitate and show it. You can find that commonality.”

As much as her students — who range from 8 to recent high school gradates preparing to play in college — get a benefit from the technical and mental insights she passes along, Sandercock also relishes the experience, too.

“I enjoy giving lessons," Sandercock said. "When I was learning and growing up, I took lessons from college athletes. I’m a big believer in going to a lot of instructors. I see myself giving lessons for a long time."

Working through the challenges of the NIL rules and regulations also makes the process tedious.

For example, Sandercock was wearing a Florida State T-shirt when giving her lessons last week. She had to call Bret Clein, the FSU sports information director, to confirm she could be wearing it when photographed for this article.

Florida State also has provided support and guidance in other ways. A Zoom meeting with a professional agent prior to July 1 gave guidance on how to manage the process.

“The one thing she said that really stuck out to me was if we’re going to be branding ourselves or selling things using our name, image and likeness it should be something we believe in," Sandercock said.

“I’m not going to go on Instagram and promote a bat or hitting tool because I don’t hit. Being authentic and being yourself is going to be important.”

While Sandercock is making good money teaching at the facility, where pitching lessons cost in the neighborhood of $50, and at her home this summer, it's not going to materially alter her life. The benefits of the NIL rules, however, aren't just monetary for those playing. Lessons and exposure will also benefit future athletes and the sports they play, especially those that struggle for resources and attention.

"They’re allowed to come out and teach what they know to younger athletes and grow the sport," said Peter Padiotis, one of SixFour3's three partners. "Now is when you are going to see some (of) these smaller sports grow more because of this."

Sandercock already has experienced some of the notoriety of softball's growing popularity. The Women's College World Series had record ratings with an average of more than 1.8 million viewers watching the championship series. That bettered the three-game baseball College World Series championship.

She's seen the impact on social media as her Instagram account grew from fewer than 2,000 followers to almost 8,000 since the start of the WCWS. And she became a familiar face — on campus and at her local Little League at home.

“It’s been really crazy,” Sandercock said. “I’ve been recognized by people which I think is really cool because it shows how much the game has grown and how many people the World Series has reached.”

Sandercock could continue coaching when she returns to campus. Her teammates are coaching this summer and will this fall. She’s undecided on that, however, as the loss to Oklahoma in the final game is still on her mind. She's still rewinding the experience, looking back at pictures and videos from the tournament.

“Our focus is on getting back to the World Series and getting back to that championship series and being able to finish it out," Sandercock said. "It’s not really about name, image and likeness. That’s secondary. That’s a perk.”

That fits her general approach in sorting through the current state of NIL — dipping her toe into the pool, rather than diving in headfirst.

“I want to see how other people go about it and then decide what I want to do," Sandercock said. "I’m not going to aggressively go after anything right now but I’ll probably decide what I really want to do with it and then aggressively go after those things.”

Whatever she decides, Sandercock knows she is in a unique position.

“I’m so grateful to be in college while all this is happening," she said. "I think of having the experience of playing for three years before it happened and now I get my last two years afterwards. It’s really a historic time to be playing college athletics.”

Follow colleges reporter Erick Smith on Twitter @ericksmith

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How a Florida State softball pitcher uses NIL to market lessons