Football Preview: Social media forcing coaches to take action

Before social media entered the public consciousness and grew rapidly into the hottest trend of the Internet universe, high school coaches would tend to turn the other cheek on their players’ online behavior.

Not anymore.

There’s increasing awareness and concern about teenagers projecting an unforgiving image of themselves on the Web. That is why more schools and football coaches have legislated stringent social media policies for their student-athletes.

Delaware County coaches are paying more attention than ever, which is why most have created team accounts for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

At Garnet Valley, coach Mike Ricci doesn’t intend to keep daily tabs on all of his players, but wants them to know the difference between right and wrong.

“We tell the kids that we’re not interested in prying into their personal lives, that’s not what we want to do,” Ricci said. “We just want to have a safeguard so that we can help you realize the importance of what you put out there, because it stays with you for a long time.”

There have been instances of football players from various schools being punished for their behavior on social media. Some have been suspended and others kicked off their team for their regrettable actions.

The message coaches are trying to get across: Don’t be a numbskull, and realize that what you say on the Internet has a lasting negative effect.

“That’s the message we try to get across,” first-year Cardinal O’Hara coach B.J. Hogan said. “It’s all a part of the conduct policy we have for the kids. You want them to make smart decisions.”

In fact, Hogan and other coaches, including Interboro’s Steve Lennox, require that their players stay off Twitter when the season’s in session.

Of course, this is all done with their kids’ best interest in mind.

“You have to make good decisions with that. It’s a really hard thing and there can be a fine line,” Ricci said. “You want kids to be kids … so where’s the edge of that envelope? It’s important in the development of kids that they have that freedom, but at the same time you don’t want them to do something that will put them so far back, they’re digging a hole for the rest of their life. That’s what can happen with social media.”

This story appears in the Delco Times Football Preview, available on newsstands Friday.