Social media has impacted all aspects of the ways in which we communicate, from gossip to advertising to politics. Naturally, the methods through which Choate’s sports teams communicate with players, families, and prospective students have evolved along with social media. In addition to the Choate Athletics social media pages, most varsity teams also have their own social media accounts.
The Choate Athletics social media accounts are run by Ms. Abby MacCarthy, the Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Information. “The overarching goal is we want to cover all of our sports,” she said. “Whether that’s interscholastic or intramural, boys or girls, we want to make it so that everyone gets to be on there.” This allows potential students to realize that even if they are not a recruited athlete, there are opportunities for them to play sports.
Choate Athletics is active on both Instagram and Twitter; however, the goals of these two platforms are different. “For Instagram it’s about something that’s happening currently,” Ms. MacCarthy said. “The posts on the feed will be, the majority of the time, photos. Usually, they’re either reposted from other another sports team’s site or it’s a photo that I have taken. The Instagram story is for what’s happening right now and fun videos.”
While Choate Athletics’ Instagram primarily posts photos and videos, Twitter posts tend to be more word-based and focused less on visuals. “The goal there is to get information out on scores, scheduling, and news-worthy posts,” said Ms. MacCarthy. Additionally, news regarding alumni athletic accomplishments is also posted on Twitter.
While Ms. MacCarthy handles the Choate Athletics accounts which represent sports at Choate as a whole, individual teams have their own accounts that are centered more on individual team dynamics and recruiting. These accounts are usually run by players, captains, coaches, or managers although the accounts are required to be registered through Ms. MacCarthy and the Communications Office. Mr. LJ Spinnato, Head Football Coach and Assistant Director of Admission, explained that the football team has Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts, yet most of the posting is done on Instagram. He noted that most of the posts focus on “what’s going on on campus, what’s going on in our kids’ lives, what’s going on in alumni lives, and updates generally about the program.”
Girls’ Varsity Squash and Soccer athlete Paley Adelson-Grodberg ’22 noted that most teams almost exclusively use Instagram as opposed to other social media platforms. She said, “If we have a really important match, like against Deerfield, we say: ‘On Wednesday come under the lights or come to the squash quarts and watch us play.’”
Similarly, Varsity Softball co-captain Kali Lawrence ’20 explained that the team’s coach, Mr. Edrik Lopez, does most of the posting on Instagram to advertise the team. “Before games, he will post what’s coming, after games he will post the score, sometimes he will post inspirational quotes, or sometimes he will post random things about Choate and how great it is here!” The Varsity Softball Instagram mainly strives to let people know about games and players’ successes off the field. Lawrence also explained that posts help to “generate hype for the new kids, make them feel welcome, and let everyone know how excited we are to have them.”
Social media plays a significant role in some teams’ recruiting process, too. Ms. MacCarthy said, “The majority of recruiting goes through individual accounts, individual sports teams, and a lot of times it will be through direct messaging.” Many students looking to be recruited on to a competitive high school sports team will look at teams’ social media accounts in order to get a better sense of the identity of a program.
Mr. Spinnato added, “Without a social media presence, you’re probably going to have a hard time attracting kids, especially if everyone else is doing it you’d be missing a key component to show your program and your institution’s personality. Really, that’s the only way that a kid’s going to be able to feel like he or she could be at home here outside of a revisit day. So, you’ve got to be able to show them who we are, a little bit of our personality and our quirks.”
Furthermore, Indi DelRocco ’21, a member of Girls’ Varsity Soccer, Basketball, and Softball, said, “We usually send our username out to our recruits so they can see what our team is like, see what do outside of basketball, see what happens during our bus rides, and to get know us a little bit more. Hopefully, they get excited and want to come.”
Choate sports’ accounts are a vital tool used to inform both the Choate community and potential new talents about the happenings of various sports teams. Be sure to support Choate Athletics and individual sports teams on social media!
