Online Remarks Prove Costly

scared straight 
for recruits on twitter

David Hill has less than 500 followers on Twitter, which makes the response he got to a message he posted on April 3 even more impressive.

Hill is the recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach at the University of Charleston, an NCAA Division II school that brought back its football program in 2002.

Charleston, W.Va., is outside of Southeastern Conference territory, and the Golden Eagles are far from a college football power. But with his matter-of-fact tweet written earlier this month, Hill sent a message to high school recruits around the country.

Other people took notice as well. Hill’s two-sentence message was retweeted 2,456 times, which far exceeds his number of Twitter followers.

After reading some of what a recruit put out on Twitter, Hill decided to go on the social media website and make his own bold statement.

“We dropped a recruit this past week because of his Twitter,” Hill wrote in his April 3 tweet. “We were ready to offer him until we saw some of the things he posted.”

Hill hasn’t revealed the identity of the recruit, whose clearly stupid remarks on Twitter 
cost him a scholarship offer.

But more recruits, including those in Northwest Arkansas, should pay attention.

Consider Hill’s message a form of Scared Straight for the athletically gifted.

Since NCAA rules limit how much contact a college coach can have with a recruit, Twitter 
has made it easier for schools to keep up with what’s going on in a player’s life.

And since college coaches take the heat 
when their players get 
into trouble, Twitter has given those on the recruiting trail an indication of whether they’re pursuing a quarterback with “character issues.”

Or a wide receiver with a negative view of women.

Or a linebacker who simply complains every day about going to 
class.

There is such a thing as sharing too much information with the world, or at least the 1,000 people who follow you on Twitter.

Especially since there’s a good chance that at 
least a handful of college coaches are among those paying attention to 
every 140 characters you write.

Back at Charleston, Hill disagreed with the suggestion that it must have been a “borderline recruit” who got turned away by the Golden Eagles because of his dumb remarks on Twitter.

After all, no college, especially one of Charleston’s size, would shy away from signing a player just because 
of a few questionable comments posted online, right?

“He would have helped us a lot actually,” Hill wrote in an April 7 tweet.

It’s not uncommon for high school coaches to monitor what their players post on Twitter.

Even college coaches do this, and players have 
been told to shut down their Twitter accounts because of something they posted.

More recruits should follow suit.

Over the past few months, tweets from local high school players have included racial slurs, misogynistic language and other head-scratching remarks.

Don’t think people aren’t paying attention.

Hill noticed, and it cost a recruit a scholarship offer.

Alex Abrams is the assistant sports editor for Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.

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