Think Twice

Colleges have started taking away scholarships from student athletes more and more due to offensive or obscene social media posts.

“I think you should be mindful of what you post all the time,” senior Dominic Campagna said. “Always be respectful whenever you post.”

Campagna is verbally committed to Fort Lewis and said his coach never laid down a “rule,” but he knew what would occur if he “ever said anything out of line.”

“You are held to a higher standard because you represent the college you are playing for,” Campagna said.

Senior Mercedes Brooks, who is committed to Kansas State said that colleges are always looking at what their athletes post and there should be a rule or policy about the consequences of media mistakes.

“I think the rule should be common sense,” soccer coach Carl Wiersema said. “We need to educate our athletes and teach them to understand that they reflect themselves, their schools and their parents.”

Wiersema had an athlete of his lose a scholarship to a school because she posted a racial slur and “within 20 minutes I had emails from Virginia and from Europe about the post and how it represented our school.”

“Sometimes things are done without forethought and they  get themselves in trouble and can’t take it back,” Wiersema said.

College athletes are monitored more simply because if they misrepresent the school it costs them money.

“If your education is tied into a monetary scholarship then you have to have a little more due diligence,” Wiersema said.