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High school freshman Julian Lewis has already made a Georgia state title game as a starting quarterback, has Ohio State, USC and Georgia among his 35 scholarship offers and has gone viral by wowing NFL stars with his skills.

The 15-year-old profiles as the precocious prodigy in nearly every way, even carrying the memorable nickname “JuJu.” Lewis has the same high school football coach as Trevor Lawrence and the same trainer who oversaw Lawrence and Justin Fields in their formative years in Georgia. None are holding back on what’s possible for Lewis.

“I’ve had the privilege of coaching Trevor Lawrence,” said Carrollton High School coach Joey King. “He’s in the same category as Trevor. The skill set and arm talent he has are definitely advanced for his age.”

Adds noted Atlanta-area trainer Ron Veal: “He’s right there with [Fields and Lawrence]. As far as ability-wise, he’s right on par with them.”

But after throwing 48 touchdown passes as a freshman and amassing 113,000 Instagram followers, Lewis is a new-age recruit with an age-old high school problem — he can’t make money off his popularity.

While more than half of the states in the country have legalized Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals in some form for high school athletes, the state of Georgia sits at a compelling crossroads. It is home to one of the richest recruiting bases in the country, the back-to-back national champions of college football and a generational prospect in Lewis, who could command well over a million dollars on the open market over the next three seasons.

Georgia is also the setting of perhaps the most notable high school cautionary tale in the NIL era, as a defensive lineman named T.A. Cunningham left the state to seek out NIL money in California last year and ended up ensnared in a thicket of broken promises and eligibility issues that required a court fight to get resolved.

That leaves Georgia as a fascinating test of figuring out a way to navigate amateurism’s new realities, in part to be sure to retain top talent. This all happens as Lewis’ father, T.C., watches his son’s games sold for local television and sponsors line up for award ceremonies honoring him.

“It’s all part of the football revenue-generating machine,” T.C. Lewis told ESPN. “The entire football machine is making money, not the players. It’s real.”

The reality for Lewis is he’ll be the face of the case for NIL in the state of Georgia. He said he doesn’t think about it much, but if NIL were made legal he’d find ways to procure deals that would also benefit his teammates. He said the conversations mostly happen with his dad, but occasionally with his friends.

He calls the lack of the ability to profit off his own NIL “definitely a little saddening,” and sums up the reality succinctly: “It’s not fair, to be honest.”

For now, the Lewis family looks unlikely to follow Cunningham’s path and flee Georgia for greener pastures. T.C. Lewis said his son’s long-term growth is the priority, which is why they have no plans to look out of state for a different high school. They aren’t naïve to the opportunities, but are happy to keep developing.

“As the season evolved and with the success that Julian had and where he and Coach King are and how he uses him, Julian and I have had extended discussions, and we’re willing to sacrifice short-term money for long-term development,” T.C. Lewis said. “At this point in time, we wouldn’t leave Georgia. We’re used to what we’re leaving on the table.”

Just how high that number would be is ambiguous, but it would only escalate if Lewis continues on his current trajectory. The top QB recruit in the Class of 2023, California native Malachi Nelson, was slated to sign close to a million dollars in NIL deals by the time he enrolled at USC. T.C. Lewis also mentions California prep basketball stars like Bronny James — who has been able to ink deals with Nike and Beats by Dre — and Mikey Williams, who signed a multiyear deal with Puma.

T.C. Lewis is a tech entrepreneur, so when Julian had the idea to start a company for slide sandals, they launched it when he was in seventh grade. They quickly shut it down, however, out of fear of risking eligibility. Lewis and his family are being followed around for a docuseries, including during his state-title-winning season. But they can’t profit off that, either. (Not even with payments deferred to after he’s done as an amateur.)

“At the end of the day, if your popularity comes from football, you can’t use that popularity to make money,” T.C. Lewis said. “There’s huge opportunities for Julian coming up. We have great relationships here locally and nationally. We’ve turned down so much already.”

Attorney Donald Woodard is advising the Lewis family, having become familiar with NIL through his work for USA Track and Field. He’d met T.C. Lewis years before in connection to one of Lewis’ business projects, and has been advising the family on what they can and can’t do in the NIL space for nearly two years.

Woodard sees the same arguments that for years were made at the NCAA level for athletes getting some type of compensation simply trickling down to the high-school level. He sees a similar “ecosystem” generating money in high school that existed in college.

T.C. Lewis estimates “on the low end,” his son could make $500,000 while in high school. He estimates the high-end at $1.5 million and pointed out they recently turned down a $60,000 opportunity.

“We’re hopeful that Georgia will come on board soon,” Woodard said. “Not just for Julian, but for all athletes in Georgia. The market will dictate which athletes are deserving.”

Georgia High School Association executive director Robin Hines declined comment on Lewis, saying they don’t discuss individual athletes. He did say the GHSA are in the process of researching what other states are doing and consulting with their own attorneys to find the best way forward for something in Georgia.

(Officials at the University of Georgia didn’t return calls seeking comment, but it stands to reason they’d want the best local high school talent staying in-state.)

While the GHSA is “way at the beginning” of the process, Hines said there’s a “possibility” a proposal could be moved forward in April. But first, they need to figure out an approach that makes sense, as he acknowledges there’s “only a small percentage of athletes” who would benefit.

He did say the prospect of losing top athletes like Cunningham to states with NIL isn’t looming over the decision-making.

“We certainly don’t want to be left behind, but we also want to do what’s in the best interest of our student athletes while maintaining our credibility as an amateur association,” Hines told ESPN in a phone interview. “That’s a tightrope to walk.”

Meanwhile, Julian Lewis will continue walking the tightrope of regular teenager and teenage star. After his Christmas money started to run out last month, he told his father that he wanted to get a job for spending cash. T.C. Lewis said he didn’t think that was a good idea.

His dad told him he doesn’t have time to hold a job and jokes he will pay him to train. T.C. Lewis does admit that the bills are real, from coaches to traveling the country for training and events.

In recent weeks, Lewis has gone to both USC and LSU. He has tripped to Alabama multiple times to see games because of its proximity to home. It’s too early to project any favorites, but T.C. Lewis said he has already raised his son to not be a fan of any team. He doesn’t want the emotion of fandom getting in the way of business.

“We keep the main thing the main thing,” he said. “NIL is going to play a huge part, but it’s not going to be the deciding factor. At the end of the day, if some school says we’re going to give you $5 million, if you can’t develop him or get him to where he wants to go, it doesn’t matter.”

The uptick in hype and attention hasn’t really fazed Julian Lewis. There are videos of him at age 9 with Justin Fields snapping him the balls for drills. Lewis didn’t know him as a top prospect, just a big-brother figure he trained with. That’s why the steps toward stardom — high school phenom, college prospect, eventual college starter and beyond — feel attainable for Lewis.

The Lewis’ are hopeful the GHSA passes some type of rule that will allow him to profit off his talents, but they haven’t done any direct lobbying. For now, Julian Lewis is seeking a typical teen experience, knowing that might be fleeting.

“Of course, I like being noticed and called out on certain things,” he said of his burgeoning fame. “But at some points, I want to walk around and be normal. We’re at the point where there’s no time to be normal. No one thinks of me as normal. I’m still 15. I want to be a kid. I want to go out and have fun and be chill.”

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M’s Naylor exits with sore shoulder after swing

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M's Naylor exits with sore shoulder after swing

SEATTLE — Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor left Thursday’s 4-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox in the third inning because of shoulder soreness, manager Dan Wilson said.

In his first at-bat against White Sox starter Shane Smith, Naylor grimaced after swinging at a high, inside fastball. He walked down the first base line and back before finishing his at-bat, which ended with a strikeout.

Naylor stayed in the game, but later exited after grounding out to second base to end the third inning.

Wilson told reporters after the game that Naylor is day-to-day.

Naylor, one of Seattle’s notable trade deadline acquisitions from the Arizona Diamondbacks, is hitting .289, with 14 home runs, 65 RBI and 21 stolen bases this season. Since joining the Mariners, the left-hander is batting .261 with three home runs and 10 stolen bases.

While with the Diamondbacks, the left-handed hitter was pulled from a June 23 game — also against the White Sox — in the fourth inning due to right shoulder discomfort. Naylor avoided a stint on the injured list and returned to the lineup two days later.

Donovan Solano, who hadn’t played in two weeks, took over at first base for Seattle when Naylor exited.

The Mariners, who swept a series for the first time since July 11-13, moved within 1 1/2 games of first-place Houston in the American League West.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Barrier-breaking MLB umpire Pawol ‘ready to go’

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Barrier-breaking MLB umpire Pawol 'ready to go'

NEW YORK — Jen Pawol was in her hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee, when she got the call she had awaited for a decade.

She was going to make her major league debut this weekend, becoming the first woman umpire in a century and a half of big league baseball.

“I was overcome with emotion,” Pawol recalled Thursday, two days before she will break a gender barrier when she works the bases during Miami’s doubleheader at Atlanta. “It was super emotional to finally be living that phone call that I’d been hoping for and working towards for quite a while, and I just felt super full. I feel like a fully charged battery ready to go.”

Her voice quavering with emotion, Pawol talked about getting the news during a Wednesday conference call with director of umpire development Rich Rieker and vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry.

Pawol thought back to her long road. In the early 1990s at West Milford High School in New Jersey, she had a summer conversation with Lauren Rissmeyer, the third baseman on the school’s softball team.

“‘Do you want to come umpire with me?'” Pawol remembered being asked. “I didn’t think twice about it. Lauren’s doing it, so I’m going to do it.”

Pawol’s pay was $15 per game.

“She took a field and I took a field,” Pawol said. “It was a one-umpire system. I had no idea what I was doing, but I got to put gear on and call balls and strikes, so I was in.”

A 1995 graduate at West Milford, which inducted her into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022, Pawol became a three-time all-conference softball selection pick at Hofstra.

After umpiring NCAA softball from 2010 to 2016, she was approached by then-big league ump Ted Barrett at an umpire camp in Binghamton, New York, in early 2015.

“Moreso than any female that I’d seen, she looked like she could handle the rigors of the job physically,” Barrett said Thursday. “But what impressed me was her willingness to learn. She seemed like a sponge, everything that we were teaching her. I’m proud that I made her aware of the opportunity.”

Barrett invited Pawol to attend a clinic in Atlanta and then a MLB tryout camp at Cincinnati that Aug. 15. He invited her to dinner in Atlanta with fellow big league umps Paul Nauert and Marvin Hudson and their wives.

“I warned her: ‘Look, this is what you’re up against. It’s going to be 10 years in the minor leagues before you sniff a big league field,'” Barrett said.

Pawol was among 38 hopefuls invited to the Umpire Training Academy in Vero Beach, Florida, and started her pro umpiring career in the Gulf Coast League on June 24, 2016, working the plate when the GCL Tigers West played at the GCL Blue Jays.

She moved up to the New York/Penn League in 2017, the Midwest League after the first two weeks of the 2018 season, then worked the South Atlantic League in 2019, the High-A Midwest League in 2021, the Double-A Eastern League and the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues in 2023. She was called in for big league spring training in 2024 and ’25.

“This has been over 1,200 minor league games, countless hours of video review trying to get better, and underneath it all has just been this passion and this love for the game of baseball,” she said. “This started in my playing days as a catcher and transformed over into an umpire, and I think it’s gotten even stronger as an umpire. Umpiring is for me, it’s in my DNA. It’s been a long, hard journey.”

Pawol is among eight women umpires currently in the minors. For her big league debut, she will join Chris Guccione’s crew in Atlanta, where she expects about 30 family and friends. She is to work the bases during Saturday’s doubleheader and call balls and strikes on Sunday.

Pawol was at third base Wednesday night as Jacksonville beat Nashville in the International League when Sounds third baseman Oliver Dunn congratulated her.

“If I make it to the big leagues,” he told her, “we will have both worked all the levels together.”

Pawol repeatedly thanked her minor league umpiring predecessors, mentioning several who exchanged calls or texts, including Christine Wren, Pam Postema and Ria Cortesio. Just after her promotion to Triple-A, Pawol met with Postema in Las Vegas.

“The last thing she said to me when I saw her was ‘Get it done!'” Powal explained. “So I texted her yesterday and said, ‘I’m getting it done!'”

Barrett will be watching from Oregon, where he is attending Northwest League games this weekend.

“The hopes of this are that it inspires,” he said. “Who knows, there’ll be a young lady watching the game on TV and says, ‘Hey, I’d like to try that.'”

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Skenes allows career-worst 7 hits, still blanks Reds

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Skenes allows career-worst 7 hits, still blanks Reds

PITTSBURGH — It took 47 major league games before Pirates ace Paul Skenes gave up seven hits to an opposing lineup.

Skenes’ record streak of allowing six or fewer hits ended at 46 starts Thursday night in a 7-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

According to OptaStats, the longest such streak to begin a career (excluding openers) previously belonged to Shohei Ohtani, who went 31 starts from 2018 to 2021 for the Los Angeles Angels.

Skenes (7-8) yielded seven hits over six innings Thursday night. He struck out eight and lowered his ERA to 1.94, lowest among qualified pitchers. He extended his scoreless streak at home to 27⅔ innings; he hasn’t allowed a run at PNC Park since June 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies — and that one was unearned.

“His stuff was elite,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said.

Skenes hasn’t permitted an earned run over his past five starts at PNC Park, the longest such stretch for a Pirates pitcher at home since earned runs became an official National League statistic in 1912. Skenes had shared the team record with Bob Harmon (1915) and Zane Smith (1990).

The 23-year-old right-hander is the youngest major league pitcher since 1920 with such a streak.

“Every time he goes out, he’s unbelievable, the way he’s able to attack hitters,” Kelly said.

Skenes has been especially effective against the Reds, with a 4-0 career record and 0.39 ERA to go with 33 strikeouts.

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