The Social Athlete Bandwagon- Should Coaches ban their players from using social media?

By Jessica Cruz

If you ask NCAA Louisville coach, Rick Pitino, social media poisons the minds of athletes. This was the reason why he banned his players from using Twitter. In fact, many other coaches have banned their players from using social media such as Washington State Football coach Mike Leach. To justify their decision, they say it is dangerous and a distraction to the players. 

 Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL0AHOgv3TI

Many athletes on social media tend to tweet things that shouldn’t have been posted. People make mistakes and coaches need to find alternative decisions on how to prevent it from happening again. Banning their players shouldn’t be the only option.  This is what Kentucky Wildcats coach, John Calipari emphasized. Calipari explains that coaches must educate their players on how to use social media and use it as a positive. 

"We as parents and teachers, we want our children, we want our players to communicate, to articulate a message, to get in front of a human resources person and articulate their passion for wanting a job" –John Calipari 

Social media should be used as an opportunity to express your opinions and feelings, to try to be positive, to try to let people see you for who you are. Athletes must understand that they cannot be defined by people on social media.  They must define themselves and hopefully it will be positive.   

Here is a link to a web page that asks a group of sport communication scholars on their view of coaches banning players from using social media:  http://scralliance.com/2013/08/20/scra-roundtable-college-athletics-and-social-media/#more-128

Ramos, Ronnie (2014). Ramos: Instead of banning Twitter, educate college athletes in using social media. Retrieved from http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/instead-of-banning-twitter-educate-college-athletes-in-using-social-media/