Key Takeaways
- Motiv, a free communication and management app for high school athletics, is now used by more than 50 departments and is onboarding more programs each week.
- Co-founders Noelle Scheper and Jaden Walton, both University of Cincinnati students, built the platform to comply with Kentucky’s SB181, the country’s strictest coach-athlete data privacy law.
- The app consolidates messaging, calendar, rosters, and facilities tools into one free platform, with administrators able to view every message between adults and athletes.
- More than 20 states currently enforce student data privacy laws, and nearly a dozen additional states are considering similar bills.
- Walton estimates Motiv’s addressable market at roughly 8 million student-athletes participating in U.S. high school sports at any given time.
A Compliance Problem Reshaping High School Sports Tech
Kentucky’s SB181, enacted in June 2025, prohibits coaches and other school employees from following students on social media and limits direct contact via personal cell phones. All communication must be routed through a parent or guardian. The law is among the strictest in the country, but it reflects a broader national shift. More than 20 states currently enforce student data privacy laws, with nearly a dozen additional states weighing similar legislation.
For athletic directors and coaches trying to manage rosters, schedules, and day-to-day communications, the practical reality of staying compliant has become both complicated and expensive. Many districts have resorted to piecing together multiple paid tools to cover messaging, calendaring, and roster management.
From a College Pitch Competition to 50+ Athletic Departments
Motiv’s origin traces back to the University of Cincinnati’s Innovation Challenge, a program run jointly by UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship and its College of Engineering’s Student Tribunal. Scheper and Walton, both former high school athletes, developed the platform during the semester-long program and won the end-of-term pitch competition.
“We ended up winning the pitch competition at the end of the semester, so that was how we knew this idea was a real thing that we could keep working on and not just a class project,” Scheper said.
From there, the team moved through UC’s Venture Lab Next accelerator and picked up additional wins at pitch competitions across the country. The product is now in active use at more than 50 high school athletic departments, with new programs onboarding weekly.
Free Tools, Admin Oversight, Compliance Beyond Kentucky
Motiv bundles messaging, calendar, roster management, and facilities management into a single free platform. Administrators have visibility into every message exchanged between athletes and adults, a feature designed to address the oversight gap that has driven recent legislative action.
“Regulations are only getting harder,” Walton said. “Prices are going up, and if you want to host a team, you have to piecemeal software together. So, we brought it all in one place, completely free.”
The team built Motiv to exceed the National Data Privacy Agreement and Kentucky’s SB181, positioning the platform to absorb future legislative changes without major retooling. According to AB Today, nearly three dozen cases of high school coach misconduct were covered in 2025 alone, many of which could have been mitigated by greater oversight of coach-athlete communications.
Expanding the Stakeholder Map
Motiv currently serves four user groups: athletes, parents, coaches, and administrators. Walton said the next phase of product development will widen that circle to include athletic trainers and referees, two groups he described as historically underserved by existing tech stacks.
The total addressable market is significant. With roughly 8 million student-athletes in U.S. high school sports at any given time, and regulatory pressure pushing districts toward unified, compliance-ready platforms, free tools like Motiv have a clear opening with budget-constrained athletic departments.
What This Means for High School Athletics Software
The high school athletics software market has long been fragmented across paid messaging tools, scheduling platforms, and roster systems. Motiv’s free, all-in-one positioning, paired with built-in compliance for the strictest existing privacy law, gives it room to grow with departments that are either priced out of incumbent tools or unsure how to navigate the new legal landscape. Whether the platform can sustain a free model at scale will depend on its eventual monetization path. For now, the regulatory tailwinds and adoption trajectory are working in its favor.
Source: Athletic Business, Audrey Lee, April 14, 2026
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