Senior Mya Winston, a member of the Bellevue East volleyball and bowling teams, knew the reality of student debt. She wanted to study special education and was hoping for a scholarship to ease tuition costs. So she started to share her athletic abilities online. She posted volleyball highlights on her Instagram account and Hudl, a video sharing platform for athletes.
Social media is becoming more commonly used in sports as a way for student athletes to promote themselves to colleges. Additionally, many sports teams use social media to share information about their athletes and games. Winston often posted with the hope that a college or university would see her athletic ability and offer her a scholarship.
“I’ll just post my games on my Instagram because I know a lot of universities have social media,” Winston said, “so they can see what I’m up to.”
According to Next College Student Athlete (NCSA), college coaches frequently use social media platforms to scout out student athletes. Winston said her posts resulted in a scholarship offer from Morningside University in Sioux City.
“It’s just posting about my clips, basically, and it was successful because I did get a scholarship,” Winston said.
Aside from college recruiting, social media can also be used to promote school athletic programs and games. Many sports at Bellevue East have social media accounts, including the girls basketball team.
“We created an Instagram account because we feel that a good majority of high schoolers have Instagram,” girls basketball head coach Eric Lenear said, “and [we] wanted to spread the word about games and announcements to a larger audience.”
Girls basketball has 123 followers on their Instagram account and frequently posts reminders of games. They also share team photos on places like social platform X.
“We also have an account on X (formerly Twitter), but feel like high schoolers aren’t on that platform as much,” Lenear said.
The Pew Research Center reports that about 17% of teens aged 13-17 use X, while 61% are on Instagram. NCSA says most coaches use X to search for potential athletes, but Instagram can be helpful for a combination of photos and videos. TikTok is another way of connecting with the younger generation of student-athletes.
“[I post] videos my dad took of me, and passes I throw and stuff like that,” freshman Clayton Blaha, who plays football at East, said. “I know I did on TikTok once, and then MaxPreps.”
Athletic accounts on all social media platforms are popular– according to Deloitte Digital, 42% of social media users follow sports topics. Lenear said that social media can have advantages and disadvantages for athletes.
“Social media can help by building confidence, promoting some achievements and creating recruiting profiles,” Lenear said. “It can be harmful through the added pressure or comparison to other people.”
However, Blaha believes that social media helps more than it harms student-athletes. While he is only a freshman, he hopes to gain recognition from colleges through social media as an upperclassman.
“It’s something for athletes to post on to get recognition from scouts,” Blaha said. “I think it can help. I don’t think there’s any way of harming unless you post your bad plays.”
Whether it is used for college recruitment, encouraging others to get athletically involved, or spreading the word about upcoming games, social media is becoming increasingly common in sports. It can create comparison and decreased self-esteem, but it can also boost school spirit and connection within athletics.
“Posting myself was just a different way to just show my athleticism,” Blaha said.