Boyd Rankin, shown here, took home first place and $3,600 for the LaxReShot, his business pitch for the 2026 Pee Dee Idea Challenge. Photo provided by Rankin. (PDB2B photo provided by Boyd Rankin)
In April, Rankin took home first place and $3,600 for his business pitch in the Idea Challenge, which can be described as a Shark Tank for students from area colleges, including Coker, Coastal Carolina University, Florence-Darlington Technical College and Northeastern Technical College. His business idea was to produce and market the LaxReShot, an automatic ball return system designed to minimize downtime in lacrosse practice.
Rankin explained in a phone interview that it all started when he took a required class — Intro to Entrepreneurship, BUS-150 — taught by Andrew Burkemper, associate professor of business at Coker, as well as the Idea Challenge’s organizer and co-founder.
Rankin said he had come up with the idea for the LaxReShot while a junior in high school. “I am an avid lacrosse player,” he said. “I figured the LaxReShot would solve some of my own problems when training.”
The LaxReShot pitch was “meant to be a project for the class,” he said. He explained that, while they receive grades for the projects, students are required to submit them as entries into the Pee Dee Idea Challenge.
This image provided by Pee Dee Idea Challenge served as the slide for 2026 champion Boyd Rankin’s pitch for LaxReShot, an automatic lacrosse ball return system. (PDB2B image by Pee Dee Idea Challenge)
“Some people have good ideas and go on to win money or else make it through some of the stages of the Challenge,” Rankin said. “When [Burkemper] told us about it, I didn’t expect to get anything out of it. I was doing it for a grade in the class.”
But when his class was told that some of their entries, including his, had advanced to the semifinal round, “I took it a little more seriously,” he said.
I didn’t expect to get anything out of it. I was doing it for a grade in the class.
This year’s 2026 Pee Dee Idea Challenge drew 118 entries from hundreds of students, all competing for $10,000 in prizes. The finale took place April 1 via Zoom call with 10 semifinalist pitches, which ultimately were whittled down to five projects in the final round. Each finalist project underwent a three-minute question-and-answer period.
While fielding questions from the judges panel, Rankin had said, in the absence of a working prototype, that he would start out by filing a patent for the LaxReShot and looking into funding for development of a prototype. He had estimated it would cost $300 to produce a single machine that he could sell for $500-$600.
Rankin said over the phone that he has been looking into avenues to pursue the project. In a follow-up email, he said he had filed for a provisional patent in mid-May, making the LaxReShot “officially patent pending now.”
There’s a lot of work to do
Boyd Rankin plays for Coker University’s NCAA Division 2 lacrosse team. (PDB2B photo provided by Boyd Rankin)
Rankin said he has played lacrosse since his freshman year of high school, about five years. He currently plays on Coker's NCAA Division 2 lacrosse team, which had gone .500 in its most recent season. “We’re losing a lot of guys this year, because we have a lot of seniors,” Rankin said. “We’re changing a lot of things this year, and I think we’ll be in a good spot for this year and the next.”
He has given at least some thought to going professional after college. “Pro lacrosse is in its early stages; salaries aren’t extremely high,” he said. “I’d have to develop a lot to get to that point. I consider myself a good player, but there’s a lot of work to do.”
Other ties
Rankin said, despite having been born and raised in Tallahassee, “I do think I’ve created other ties with my lady and whatnot in South Carolina, so I do see myself staying in the Pee Dee.”
“I have networked,” he said. “I know some people at Duke Energy, and I know some people at CaresSouth Carolina ... I landed an internship at Coker, so that would be a good opportunity.
“The Coker internship is for the fall with the IT department, but I could continue into spring if I had time with my lacrosse season,” he said. “Cybersecurity is a part of the STEM program at Coker. I was eligible to apply for the STEM scholarship, and there are a lot of benefits that go with that scholarship.”
With the Challenge project, I did discover a newfound love for creativity and entrepreneurial ventures in general.
He is already planning to apply for a cybersecurity internship at SPC Credit Union once the Coker internship concludes, and in October he will be attending the 2026 S-STEM Scholars and PI Meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting convenes scholars of the Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Resource and Evaluation Center. It is managed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the center’s website, which states “This meeting provides an opportunity to build community throughout the S-STEM network, connect with potential employers and graduate degree programs, engage in professional and career development activities, and present work across a wide array of STEM disciplines.”
“It will be a good networking opportunity and learning opportunity,” Rankin said.
He has been interested in computers “ever since I was younger, probably fifth or sixth grade,” he said. “I would have majored in computer science, but it’s very math heavy, so I looked into cybersecurity. It just seemed like something I would be interested in doing.”
Rankin said he would be eligible to enter a subsequent Pee Dee Idea Challenge, as long as he came with a different business idea. “I could see myself doing that,” he said. “With the Challenge project, I did discover a newfound love for creativity and entrepreneurial ventures in general.
“I didn’t think I’d enjoy it as much as I did,” he said.
This story was updated to correct Boyd Rankin’s hometown on May 26 at noon.