🏆 From Classroom to NIL: Guiding Athletes Beyond the Court

Phil Lowe is the Founder of Lowe Sports Group, a boutique consulting firm that helps student-athletes navigate the recruiting process and negotiate NIL opportunities. A Chicago native, he played basketball at Curie High School and Aurora University before spending more than a decade in education as a teacher, dean, and principal. He later built skills in digital media, advertising, and real estate before returning to his true purpose; educating and guiding young people. Through Lowe Sports Group and his nonprofit KlubCool, he has helped countless athletes find the right college fit while advising families on how to maximize both opportunity and impact.

From Classroom to Clicks to Closings

“I always knew I wanted to help people, particularly young people.” Phil spent more than a decade in schools as a teacher, dean, and principal. He calls it a tithe of time. “Tithing is not just giving 10% to the church. It’s your time, your energy, your efforts, and your resources.” A college friend later pulled him to Arizona to learn digital media. Phil owned and operated a basketball website inside a marketing and advertising company. “It was the most money I had ever made, and the most skills I had ever learned.” Entrepreneurship stuck. “Once I took that pill, I’ve never turned back.”

He later moved into mortgages and real estate. “It became the most money I had ever made,” he says, “but more importantly, it opened doors to help families access programs they never knew existed.” As Phil puts it, “I don’t chase money; I maximize opportunity.” Any financial growth he’s seen, he attributes to staying aligned with God’s mission for him: helping people.

Building Lowe Sports Group

Phil merged everything he had learned into a single mission. “What I think God has put me on this earth is to educate people.” At Lowe Sports Group he helps families navigate recruiting and NIL. “I’m here to help you with the things you need to consider and the questions you need to ask along your basketball journey.” The role is advisory by design. “My job is giving you recommendations and advice so you can make the best possible decision. The best decision is backed up by information.”

He does not call them clients. “I call them family,” he says. “Once you’re in my family, I’ll help you on the court and off the court.”

The Standard

The expectations are simple and firm. “Be open. Be honest. Be very transparent.” He is obsessive about time and clear communication. “I don’t lie,” he says. “Always tell the truth.” Above all, authenticity. “Always be who God called you to be, and always be your authentic self.”

“I know who I am, I know who we are, and I know who we are not.” Lowe Sports is intentionally boutique and relationship-driven, anchored by trust with “over 150 schools” in his network. “I say what I mean. I mean what I say. You can take that to the bank.”

Why He Wakes Up

“Every career I’ve had has helped people.” Former students still reach out about an entrepreneurship project he built across subjects where kids created real businesses, sold products for a week, and earned real money. “That's a real world application,” he says, and it stuck with them. Phil also wrote a basketball recruiting guide he plans to re-release, Truth Be Told, focused on “the things you should consider and the questions you need to ask along your basketball journey.” It walks student-athletes from middle school to their first day on a college campus. One former camper keeps the book on his desk and tells all his kids to read it. For Phil, that is the payoff. “That’s one of the reasons I wake up every day to do what I do.”

“My purpose is to help people and educate them.” His family multiplies that why. Lowe Sports is a family business. His 17-year-old daughter serves as his operational assistant while preparing to study sports management in college. His 11-year-old son, in Phil’s words, is “entrenched in basketball” and dreams of the NBA. He even attends college visits and knows nearly every coach in America. His 9-year-old daughter has proudly taken on the role of “manager,” packing her brother’s bag and keeping him on schedule. “This is truly a family business,” Phil says. “Now you see why.”

“They are my why and the reason I do what I do. They are also seeing what it means to own something, to build legacy, and to be part of a business they will always have ownership in. Family takes care of family, and I will always make sure ours is taken care of.”