SOCIAL MEDIA IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS

By  Jason Gonzalez: Minneapolis Star Tribune:

"A sign on the locker room doors at Bloomington Jefferson jumped out at Tom Dasovich. Big, bold, underlined words, in all capital letters, some of them underlined for emphasis:

"Treat every conversation you have on TWITTER or FACEBOOK as if it were a NATIONALLY TELEVISED PRESS CONFERENCE."

The Minnetonka boys' basketball coach spotted the note during his team's recent visit and snapped a picture on his phone. Then he posted it on Twitter with the message "Players take note." Nearly half of his 173 followers retweeted or favorited the message.

Such warnings have become a staple of high school team meetings and huddles at practice, joining longstanding warnings about alcohol and drug use.

With teenagers communicating, venting and celebrating with the lightning speed of social media, coaches and athletic directors are scrambling to cope with and limit negative effects of controversial tweets, posts or photographs. Fears of defamation, suspensions, forfeitures and team chemistry issues have led some coaches and administrators to fight the use of Twitter and Facebook by their athletes.

Others, such as Dasovich, are embracing the reality that teenage athletes will find ways to keep their social status up to date.

He manages two Twitter accounts and encourages his players to use them to follow team news and events. He also monitors or trolls through his players' tweets, on the lookout for anything that could taint the Minnetonka name.

"I thought about getting one of those teachable moments out of it," Dasovich said of posting the locker room door message. "Helping kids navigate that world, I think, is important. [Proper use of social media] is a big issue with schools and teams."

Huddle talk: Be smart online

DeLaSalle football coach Sean McMenomy's phone erupted the afternoon former Gophers wide receiver and DeLaSalle alum A.J. Barker posted his denunciation of Gophers coach Jerry Kill and the football program on the Internet. Though he didn't coach Barker, McMenomy still felt the effects of something he classified as an example of how far such statements can reach.

Daily reminders are now a part of McMenomy's battle against ill-advised social media use. The post-practice and postgame speech message to "avoid parties, drugs, alcohol" now includes "be mindful of what you're putting on the Internet."

"With what happened in recent months and last year, you worry about it," McMenomy said.

This past season a Breck football player began a Facebook quarrel with someone at DeLaSalle that led to his suspension and required an in-person apology to the downtown Minneapolis school.

"We are always trying to keep ahead of the game," McMenomy said. "A kid can put whatever the heck they want out there. We gotta figure out what we can do to protect ourselves, and that's educate kids and stay on kids."

Curtailing chatter in Edina

Edina boys' hockey coach Curt Giles made Barker's rant required reading for his team and asked his players to steer clear of such potential social media distractions.

Junior defenseman Tyler Nanne said he took the message to heart. The avid Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat user said he has sacrificed a lot of his social media freedoms.

Nanne and senior defenseman Matt Nelson agreed it's tough to operate under such limiting guidelines, but the consequences of misuse are much worse if left in the hands of their 1,000-plus Twitter followers.

"It can destroy a team and a program," Nelson said. "The guidelines are to protect ourselves and the program as a whole."

Nelson, who has committed to play hockey at Princeton, already has received social media guidelines from his future college. Many major colleges have taken similar measures. The University of Michigan recently formalized social media practices for all athletes and required each to sign an agreement. Associate athletic director David Ablauf called it a "reactionary" response to a growing problem.

Edina girls' hockey players Casey McGarvey and Shelby Anderson said they've learned you can't take back an ill- advised message once you've hit send. And Lakeville North girls' volleyball player Alyssa Goehner considers her 1,062 followers a serious responsibility.

"Sometimes kids send out things and they don't understand the end result, how far it reaches," said Giles, who requires his players to put all their phones in a box prior to games. "[Kids] are going to use it. You always see them on their phones, on Facebook, in Twitterland. We just have to make sure they understand how to use it."

Coach learning curve, too

Understanding the proper use of social media also can be a challenge for coaches and athletic directors. For some, it's overwhelming to even try.

While Bloomington Jefferson girls' basketball coach Andy Meinhardt is well-schooled on social media and took the initiative to post the warning sign on the school's locker room doors, boys' basketball coach Jeff Evens admits to knowing little about the social media world.

Former Southwest football John Biezuns embraced the new world by connecting with colleagues and players. In November, he suddenly resigned for personal reasons amid speculation of misusing social media. 

He recently said he could not speak on the matter, but acknowledged he has learned a lot from his social media use and called its integration with sports "probably not a good thing."

"Coaches need to be aware of anything social media and as a coach, you have to be careful what you say," Biezuns said. "Anything that gets written down, e-mailed or texted can come back to haunt you."

Bloomington Jefferson athletic director Brian Fell will implement a version of the University of Michigan's new social media guidelines for next year's Jaguars athletes.

Minnetonka boys' basketball captain Riley Dearring is convinced the Skippers' approach is best.

"We all try to look out for each other. If we feel there is something that should not be put out there, we let each other know," Dearring said. "I think it's a good way for players to connect with other players. It's a good way to get information out."

ECONOMY HURTING SPORTS PARTICIPATION

THIS IS FROM The Associated Press

Chris Labeots' fledgling basketball career might well have been saved by an installment plan.

The Hoffman Estates, Ill., 8th grader is built like a bouncer, but his game is more finesse than muscle. With high school ball in the hyper-competitive northwest suburbs less than a year away, he figured he needed a summer with a travel team to improve his skills.

Participation in youth sports - including baseball - has declined.But Labeots' dad, Jim, is without full-time work and couldn't manage the $875 fee. So team director Tony Reibel extended an offer he's been making a lot lately: He let the family pay in affordable chunks.

"Chris wouldn't be able to play without that," Jim Labeots said.

Sports are practically a birthright for kids in the suburbs, where playing fields, swimming pools and gymnasiums teem year-round with young athletes. But as the recession tightens its choke hold, parents are being forced to consider a bitter sacrifice.

From baseball to soccer to hockey, many organizations are reporting a significant drop in the number of participants as families slash their discretionary spending. Some parents have lost jobs, others worry they'll be next.

"People were scared before, but now they're really scared," said Stephie Arkus of the Glenview (Ill.) Stars Hockey Association, which was anticipating a small decline in registrations.

In response, youth teams are coming up with creative ways to keep costs down and help out the newly broke, hoping to keep children active even when their parents' finances crumble.

"One of the worst things we could do is pull kids away from sports to save money," said coach Jon Cabe, whose St. Charles Swim Team is trying to establish a payment plan for struggling families. "It's (an organization's) duty to find a way to keep kids involved."

Even in the best of times parents sacrifice for their kids' athletic endeavors. The price tag of a season in a recreational league often surpasses $100, while elite travel squads can cost thousands of dollars.
When a family's fortunes decline, the spending can be hard to justify.

"Daily, I would say, people walk into our office (with stories of hardship). Yesterday, one mom said to me, 'I can't (pay the fees). I'm out of work,'" said Lisa McClellan of the Aurora, Ill.-based Wheatland Athletic Association, which has seen registrations for its spring soccer league drop by 17 percent.

Organizations facing such losses must watch their own finances. The Glenview Stars are reselling ice time they've already paid for.

The Libertyville Girls Softball Association is hiring teenage umpires who charge less than adults. The Flying High gym in Countryside is being judicious with its thermostat.

Teams also are finding new ways to hold down costs for parents. A season with Frankfort's Ultimate Volleyball Club can cost up to $1,700, but this year director Erin Lorenz started a $175 training academy where kids practice two hours a week for 10 weeks.

That spares them the expense of tournament travel but still offers the sophisticated coaching they'll need to improve, she said.

"This is in direct response to what we heard from parents ... who wanted to put their child in (volleyball) but simply couldn't afford it," she said. "I had so many of those calls, I thought there had to be a way to make this affordable."

Others clubs are letting parents pay by credit card, allowing teens to work off their fees and relying on video rather than appearances at distant competitions to highlight athletes for college recruiters.
Despite such efforts, some kids are going without.

Courtney Wolf, 12, hadn't been much of an athlete before 4th grade, when she discovered basketball at Immanuel Lutheran School in Palatine, Ill. For two years she was a tenacious, defense-minded guard, but in September, just before she was to begin her 6th-grade season, her father, Christopher, lost his customer-service job.

The fee for basketball was about $400, Christopher Wolf said. The school probably would have helped with that, he said, but because it had already cut Courtney's tuition by more than half, he wasn't comfortable asking for more.

"We didn't want to burn anyone else," he said.

One of the worst things we could do is pull kids away from sports to save money. — Jon Cabe, coach of St. Charles Swim Team.

Some organizations are encouraging parents to seek aid. The Palatine Park District has long offered scholarships for children who couldn't afford its fees, but it hadn't publicized the program. This year, when sign-ups for its youth baseball and softball teams were down by almost 30 percent, it contacted parents to tell them help was available.

Registrations shot up and so did scholarship appeals, but Keith Williams, the district's superintendent of recreation, said that so far it has been able to meet all requests.

"When kids get involved in these programs, it's not just learning baseball — it's the social aspect of making new friends, the development of social skills," Williams said. "It's tough if all of a sudden you can't do it this year because mom or dad is out of a job."

A child doesn't have to be devastated if he or she is forced to sit out. Dr. Matthew Parvin, a Plainfield, Ill., child psychiatrist, said parents can rebuild their kids' sense of fulfillment by playing catch with them, forming casual neighborhood teams or finding other activities to pursue.

The families he worries about, he said, are the ones that relied on intense participation in sports to avoid engaging with each other.

"If all their ego is based on this sport, and they don't have anything else to fall back on and there's more stress... there's a chance the kid could get depressed or maybe turn to drugs or other things that could cause problems," he said.

Chris Labeots, the 14-year-old basketball player, wasn't worried about such grim consequences. Had he been unable to play, he said, the worst thing would have been "sitting on my butt on the couch every day, not doing anything."

But his dad, knowing how quickly the glory of youth passes by, saw it differently.

"I just want him to be the best he can be," Jim Labeots said. "I just want him to enjoy it, as long as he enjoys it."

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