5 Things You Might Not Know About The Cavinder Twins

NCAA athletes began signing deals on July 1 to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL) after a new NCAA ruling opened the door for endorsements.

One of the many deals announced that day was Haley Cavinder and Hanna Cavinder, twin basketball players from Fresno State signed a deal with Boost Mobile, a unit of DISH Network Corp DISH.

If you didn’t know much about the Cavinder twins, you’ll likely hear a lot from them throughout the new NCAA endorsement market created this week.

1. Basketball Love Early: Haley and Hanna’s father played college basketball at Nova Southeastern University and likely passed on a love of the sport to his kids.

“The twins used to practice basketball before they went to preschool and continued to develop their skills by looking up drills on YouTube,” parents Katie and Tom Cavinder said in an interview.

The parents said the twins were competitive in all sports at an early age. The duo played in boy’s basketball leagues until middle school and then played up in grade levels with girls two or three years older than them.

2. High School Dominance: Both Hanna and Haley started as freshmen for Gilbert High School in Gilbert, Arizona. Over the four years at Gilbert, the duo posted a record of 96-24. Both players surpassed 2,000 career high school points.

Haley was named the Player of the Year for Arizona 5A as a senior and Hanna was named the Offensive Player of the Year for Arizona 5A.

Prior to high school, the twins received an offer from San Diego, according to their dad. Throughout high school, they received over 1,200 letters with 10 to 20 arriving each day.

Related Link: NCAA Athletes Can Now Make A Profit Off Their NIL: What To Know And Some Early Deals 

3. Attending Fresno State Together: The twins wanted to attend college to play basketball together. Their father said Fresno State built a relationship with the twins and was relentless with recruiting. The school sent letters, notes, called and attended games.

“The entire coaching staff from Fresno State was at every game,” Cavinder said.

Haley was named the Mountain West Player of the Year for the 2020-2021 sophomore season, leading the league in scoring at 19.8 points per game and leading the league in minutes played at over 36 per game.

Hanna was named All Mountain West in 2020-2021 and was third in the conference at 17.0 points per game.

The duo were the first freshmen to earn spots on the All Mountain West teams since 2015.

4. Large Social Media Following: The Cavinder twins have built a massive social media following that is one of the largest among NCAA athletes. The twins have 3.3 million followers on TikTok and have accumulated 66.4 million likes on their TikToks.

The twins have a YouTube channel that has more than 67,000 subscribers and over 3 million total views. Videos on YouTube include game-day vlogs, day-in-the-life videos, life at home, healthy eating habits and playing 1-on-1 basketball. Numerous videos have more than 100,000 views each.

The twins have separate Instagram accounts: Haley has 259,000 followers and Hanna has 256,000 followers.

5. More Endorsement Deals Coming: In the first day they were allowed to sign endorsements, the Cavinder twins announced deals with Boost Mobile and Six Star Nutrition. The deal terms were not disclosed but could be worth “five figures” combined according to Sports Illustrated.

The duo are working with Darren Heitner, a popular sport and intellectual property lawyer who has repped many athletes before.

“We’ve got another deal going live tomorrow,” Heitner said.

Based on the number of social media followers the duo have, they could earn around $3 million in deals annually. This comes based on 80 centers per follower, an advertising standard.

Appearances on “Outside the Lines,” “CBS News” and “Good Morning America” this week could help boost their profile to advertisers.

Photo: Fresno State