Daughter of Legendary Notre Dame Basketball Coach Digger Phelps Launches NIL Website and App for Notre Dame and Saint Mary's Student-Athletes

SOUTH BEND, Ind., Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Karen Phelps, longtime nonprofit humanitarian and the daughter of Notre Dame's most well-known basketball coach, announced the launch of Golden Touch, the first and only NIL collective to empower both Notre Dame and Saint Mary's student-athletes to secure name, image, and likeness income opportunities–with a particular focus on increasing opportunities for players of the women's sports and campus Olympic sports from golf and lacrosse, to volleyball, soccer and more.

GoldenTouch.world brings Fighting Irish and Belles players to an online NIL marketplace where they can partner with companies, charities, fans, grow their life experiences, and strengthen their mental wellness. Phelps also announced the tandem platform, GoldenMinds.world, an web resource designed to stop the stigma in sports around mental health and serve as an easy one-stop hub connecting players to important resources along their journey as a student-athlete.

Notre Dame and Saint Mary's fans, alums, followers, nonprofits, and businesses can book players or entire teams via the Golden Touch web platform or mobile app (iOS and Android compatible) for services like one-on-one live video-chats, personalized video shout-outs, and autographed memorabilia purchases to more elaborate branded content endorsement campaigns and unique on-campus experiences. Powered by PlayBooked's proprietary, fully compliant, secure online platform, Golden Touch can manage all aspects of its collective needs in one place.

"Golden Touch is a different kind of collective and one that's easy to love," says Phelps, a mom of eight, six of whom played college sports. "We position ourselves as a democracy – we'll work as hard for ND baseball and Saint Mary's rowers as we do for our marquee football and basketball players. We have pricing opportunities at any level – from big brand budgets to single fans requesting a video shout-out and Golden Touch was born out of a passion for our enduring mission – to invest in all our players on and off the field with Golden Minds."

"We think of Golden Minds as mental armor for athletes," adds Phelps, "and strongly believe it will attract fans and brands to a collective where profits support a differentiating purpose."

True to its brand roots and core values – inclusivity and diversity for any athlete with a particular intention to celebrate underrepresented players – Golden Touch announced its inaugural NIL deal:  RYU (Respect Your Universe), a fast-growing lifestyle apparel brand, agreed on a new partnership and begins its commitment starting with Notre Dame's current national championship fencers. RYU plans partnership expansion to Irish women's basketball and tennis players and eventually hopes to bring all Olympic sports players on both campuses into its arrangement.  

PlayBooked is the NIL platform of choice for a host of other collectives, including those representing players from Michigan, Cal Berkeley, San Diego State, among others. Phelps said that she entered the NIL world after PlayBooked gave its full-throttle commitment to embed Golden Minds into the initiative. "Our Golden Touch group couldn't be more enthused to generate creative marketing opportunities for players at our alma maters," says Phelps. "But the drive for me was our vision for mental health. I know first-hand the intense pressure on young people to balance academics, sports, and life. The alarming rates of depression, anxiety, and even tragic suicides we've all read about aligned with my learnings about emotional and mental well-being through the grief camps I started for the Moyer Foundation (now Eluna Network). We really believe Golden Minds has something to contribute."

Recent NCAA surveys reveal significant gaps Phelps hopes to help bridge: more than 30% of Division I student-athletes reported feeling seriously overwhelmed, yet only 47% surveyed feel comfortable seeking campus support. Phelps sees Golden Minds complimenting what schools provide and "meeting the athletes where they are," in the following ways:

• Providing an off-campus resource if players feel more comfortable choosing that option;
• Stimulating conversations to stop the stigma and foster open minds about embracing mental health as an equal priority to physical health;
• Giving student-athletes the chance to ask for a navigator who will create personalized action steps and make connections to appropriate resources for their situation;
• Offering independent learning by carefully curating reading materials.

"We have tremendous aspirations for Golden Minds and a vision to grow and evolve services and programs customized to this unique cohort – college athletes," says Phelps. "There's no such thing as doing too much when equipping our young people with best mental health practices. We even include a feedback form on our website, so players can suggest more ways we can listen, respect, and empower them to put their mental health first. But it really starts with a destigmatizing conversation about mental health and populating our website with a lot of real talk. Even the boldness and impressiveness of two of our Golden Minds captains, Avery Davis (Notre Dame football) and Dara Mabrey (Notre Dame women's basketball), encouraging their peers to embrace mental wellness fully – that's powerful and compelling. We want Golden Minds to be known for completely normalizing the pursuit of strong mental health."

"Karen's vision for Golden Touch, a NIL collective where transactions directly support peak mental wellness resources for athletes, is extraordinary and inspired," said Aaron Taylor, former ND and professional football star and CBS Sports analyst. "My own struggles – anxiety, depression, loss of identity after retiring, suicides by peers – tell me we don't think enough about prevention and wait too long until there's a crisis. Golden Minds, a one-stop digital resource catered to college athletes, is Karen's contribution to getting ahead of this challenge."

"There were days [after injury] I didn't want to get up…but you have to get your mental health right…and take proper steps to move forward."

• Excerpt from an interview with Avery Davis, Irish football captain.

"I hear all the time, 'what if they call me soft?' It's deeply saddening that athletes hesitate to speak up. I'm here to tell athletes, 'you are not alone.'"

• Excerpt from an interview with Dara Mabrey, Irish Women's basketball guard.

For more information about Golden Touch collective, visit GoldenTouch.world or download the Golden Touch App (iOS and Android). To learn more about Golden Minds visit GoldenMinds.world.

About Karen Phelps

Karen Phelps has spent her life in service to others. A mom of eight kids–most of whom played college and professional sports–she blazed brand new trails with her groundbreaking work at The Moyer Foundation, which spawned free camps for suffering children across the entire country to help them with grief, loss, and additional challenges. Raising more than $25 million since 2002, her accomplishments were the subject of Emmy award-winning HBO documentary, "One Last Hug." Phelps has served on the National Mental Health Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention and has a Mental Health First Aid Certification.

About PlayBooked

PlayBooked is a web platform/mobile app that connects college athletes with fans and brands. Co-founded in 2020 by Chloe V. Mitchell, the first collegiate athlete in history to monetize her name, image, and likeness (NIL), the PlayBooked app  empowers student-athletes to seamlessly field booking requests for live video-chats and personalized video shout-outs from fans and endorsement opportunities from brands or local businesses. PlayBooked for Business custom-curates multi-athlete content creation  campaigns for brands and also licenses its technology  platform to collectives and organizations. For more information, visit PlayBooked.com or download the PlayBooked app (iOS and Android).

SOURCE PlayBooked and Golden Touch NIL Collective