Montana Trucks
Lauren Cummings was an athletic trailblazer during her high school years in Montana; now she looks to do the same with NIL and basketball at Long Beach State.
This special edition of The NIL Report newsletter features an athlete profile on Lauren Cummings who was a trailblazer by playing Montana high school football and baseball and is now on a basketball scholarship at Long Beach State.
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The Blue Beast
The recruiting visit was perfect, accepting the scholarship was easy, but one pressing question lingered.
How to get ‘The Blue Beast’ from the Montana mountains down to Long Beach?
The ‘Blue Beast’ is a 2006 Ford Ranger that belongs to Long Beach State’s true freshman basketball player Lauren Cummings. Driving 18 hours across approximately 1,250 miles with Lucy, her 15-year old springer spaniel, riding shotgun was not the most feasible plan.
Lauren had used sponsorship money she earned in high school to add upgrades to her truck such as huge snow tires and other accessories.
"Back home we get really bad winters.” Lauren described. “So I got a truck… I made some money through baseball getting sponsors and I was able to upgrade my tires and work with my truck to make it cooler.”
She began brainstorming to find a similar way to raise money to get the truck down to California.
Trailblazer
Athlete
In the recruiting world, you need to stand out. And despite being raised on about 12 acres in rural Montana— complete with raising horses, pigs and chickens— Cummings did exactly that.
Growing up, Lauren did it all—gymnastics; barrel racing; swimming; hunting elk, antelope, deer and turkeys; and even football.
"I think I started playing [football] in third or fourth grade. It took a long time to convince my parents,” Lauren admitted, “but I have boy cousins and they played and I just loved playing at recess. Whatever it was, I was always with the boys playing football. My parents finally let me play and kinda took off from there and just loved the game.”
Cummings would end up breaking barriers at the high school level. Along with basketball, she became the first female ever to play quarterback at a Montana AA high school and the first female to play American Legion Baseball in Montana. Adversity became her middle name.
“Being the only girl I learned how to face adversity… got out of my shell and learn how to be disciplined.” Lauren said. “The boys kinda look past you and think you are just a girl, so it’s pretty cool when you get to show them up and strike them out or throw that touchdown."
Lauren pointed out that she never let physical differences be an excuse for performing at a disadvantage. She had to get creative and think outside of the box in order to succeed.
NIL
Thinking outside the box is also exactly how Cummings looks to be a trailblazer in NIL.
She creatively negotiated an NIL deal with J&S Transportation to deliver the Blue Beast from Montana to Long Beach, just south of LA. The local logistics company specializes in providing quick, safe and reliable transportation of vehicles across the United States.
According to the J&S Transport quote tool on their website, shipping a truck from Montana to LA might cost around $1,700 or more. The owner was a former wrestler in college, which Lauren was able to use to build rapport.
It was a lightbulb moment for Lauren, who is pursuing a business degree, on seeing the value and benefits of NIL. Immediately, she designed an NIL plan to immerse herself in the business world and show brands how she differentiates herself from other athletes.
"I just think I'm different.” Lauren summed up simply. “Coming from Montana sets me apart from other people and NIL is kinda a new thing so reaching out to these newer companies and being like the first deal or helping them embrace the NIL process is pretty cool.”
Even prior to her true freshman season, Lauren is an NIL trailblazer. She already has an agent; a one-page infographic pinned to her Twitter account; and executed four NIL deals—including J&S and Canes. She expects to have a few more NIL deals with notable brand partners completed soon as well.
Work Ethic > Flash
One may look at her jacked up truck or NIL strategy and assume that Lauren is focused on being a materialistic Los Angeles ‘IT Girl’. It could not be further from the truth; after all her truck still has old school crank windows on the inside.
The truck’s dichotomy perfectly defines Lauren. A little bit of flash on the outside, but inside is a motivated self-starter with a Montana-sized work ethic.
Cummings averaged 17.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in her senior season at Billings Senior High School on her way to being named All-State and team MVP.
What’s more impressive? She earned the Team Workhorse Award for three consecutive basketball seasons (2021-23). Much of her inspiration comes from quotes of the late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. She loves his quotes like she loves his sneakers.
Reading motivational quotes is a tradition that was created by her dad.
"Growing up my dad, on every mirror, he'd put a quote up. Some kind of sticker quote so we looked at it every morning. Whether it’s your bedroom mirror or in the bathroom or it'd be on a doorway.” Lauren explained.
Those quotes helped Lauren commit to working harder, staying in the gym longer and defying gender expectations.
Beach & Basketball
Her fast style of play, smooth jumper and rebounding allowed her to ultimately catch the eye of Coach Amy Wright at an Oklahoma basketball camp the summer before her senior year.
However, Lauren was still undecided if she would play D1 or go the junior college route. That changed once she saw Coach Wright got the job at Long Beach State.
“I didn't know if I wanted to go the JUCO route for a year and then go play D1.” Lauren reflected. “Then I saw Coach Wright got the job here and she called me up… got me down here, took me on a visit and I was sold."
Cummings became the first signed recruit under Wright, who said that the freshman was a great fit for the program and will have the opportunity to compete for playing time right away.
Growing up hunting, skiing and hiking, Lauren is a lover of everything outdoors, and described the campus as perfect in that it is only five minutes from the beach. So even on a day off, she can go get in some surfing.
Not that she takes many days off.
A typical day begins at 6 a.m. where Lauren begins the first of five workout sessions: shots, basketball practice, weights, conditioning, and then more shots.
She’s determined to put the work in, to get ‘one percent better each day’ and see where the journey takes her in both basketball and business.
Of all the inspirational quotes, only one is used for her Twitter background cover photo from Calamity Jane:
“If a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.”
Lauren established her legacy in the Montana mountains, and now she is looking to add to it at Long Beach.