Jen Hoffer – Sports Editor
At the beginning of each academic year, athletes are given a document along with other paperwork that they have to look at.
“They have to sign and acknowledge that if they goof up with social media in some way shape or form that there are penalties and repercussions,” associate athletic director Mike Kobylanksi said.
It is engraved in the student athletes’ heads that while Twitter and social media platforms have great benefit, the athletes also have a responsibility.
“They need to be aware of the fact that their role as a student athlete comes with additional responsibility and additional scrutiny,” Kobylanski said.
What the athletic program has tried to do over the last year or two at Southern is to educate the student athletes and reinforce their roles both within their teams and within the campus community.
“We just want them to make smart choices when they are utilizing the various social media platforms,” said Kobylanski.
For men’s basketball coach Mike Donelly, he understands that this type of social media is part of today’s culture.
“The world keeps changing and it has evolved to the point where this is the way the kids communicate now,” Donelly said.
As far as players having Twitter, Donelly said he doesn’t have a problem with the athletes using social media. Even though Donelly has a Twitter that he uses frequently, he doesn’t use it as a tool to follow his athletes and keep an eye on them.
“I don’t monitor what they do,” Donelly said. “I don’t have specific rules set in place and the reason being is because of that sole reason of how it has become part of society now.”
Donelly does stress a lot to his players how important it is to use the outlets wisely because there can be other people out there like the school monitoring what they’re posting.
Donnelly said he uses the media as an example all the time to his players.
“Say we have a bad game and one of the guys gets mad at me, or one of his teammates and posts something out of rage or while they’re not thinking clearly,” Donelly said.
“Whatever they posted can be very detrimental to the program. Not only can the school see it, but it can be seen by reporters from the New Haven Register. And if the post is good enough, it could become a story, which isn’t a good thing.”
Donelly stresses that he wouldn’t feel right if he followed his players on Twitter because he still views them as individuals and that it’s their form of freedom of speech.
Kobylanksi also said heat of the moment lapses by players could lead to something being posted.
“We just really want the players to exercise good judgement,” Kobylanski said. “Because even if they post something momentarily on any of the social media platforms that is either controversial or illegal, then by all means they should have to deal with the consequences that come from that.”
Coaches and directors constantly reinforcing the responsibility aspect of using social media wisely, gravitates down to players, as Donelly said he hasn’t had any issues since he’s been here.
