With winter sports in full swing, and spring sports starting up soon, sports teams’ social media accounts have become active again. Over the past couple of years, popular sports teams at Monte Vista like football and basketball have their own social media accounts to promote the team. Now, almost every team at the school (both boys and girls) has their own Instagram account, posting updates and pictures.
Traditionally, these accounts are used to post match results and build up hype surrounding games in the future. They highlight achievements, invite fellow students to support them, and even put a spotlight on sports that usually go under the radar. By posting more about upcoming games, they can gain more followers, which in turn, helps out with more support at upcoming matches. Not only does this help the attendance, it helps the players as well. By posting highlights and victory celebrations, players are able to take pride and gain some recognition for the hard work they did during the game.
“The Instagram accounts helped bring a lot of attention to the games” said senior rally chair Ryan Razeghi. “As a rally chair it’s an important tool to build hype. It’s a fun way for students to help bring awareness and be creative.”
Not only do these accounts bring more attention to the teams, they also bring some friendly trash talk into the mix as well. When it comes to big rivalries like Monte Vista vs. San Ramon, players often make posts containing trash talk to make fun of the other team and get in their head before the big game. These posts bring comments from players from both schools arguing about how and why their school will win.
However, these accounts come with strict restrictions as posts can easily go from fun to cyberbullying. Recently, one of the most popular social media accounts made by MV students, @montevistabarstool, was taken down controversially. This account was used to post trash talk and results for all sports at the school. Unfortunately, things went too far, as posts made about opposing school teams that contained trash talk were considered not appropriate by school administrators. This has happened in the past as well with other pages getting taken down and even putting teams in jeopardy with disqualification for the posts made.
“I think it’s a great way for teams to express themselves, and instead of raising tension during the game they get it off their chest on social media,” said junior Aditya Namburi. “This also makes the rivalry stronger and makes the games more spiritual. And I think that, in a way, its freedom of speech and students should be allowed to do it.”
While for the most part the social media pages are a fun way to raise awareness, school administration and account moderators are working to communicate and set regulations. Students running the account and administration continue to negotiate and set the lines for the right amount of restriction and fun. While what is and is not allowed hasn’t been clearly set yet, sports media for Monte Vista is only growing.
