Lauded by Coaches and Directors Alike, Central High School’s Social Media Contracts Help Student Athletes All The Way To College

Dec 2, 2021 6:00 AM MST

By Dexter Zinman

PHOENIX – The age of social media has changed the way people interact with one another, allowing the spread of information, opinions, or just simple hellos to anyone in the world faster than ever before. 

It has also made it unforgivingly easy to document reckless and inappropriate behavior. 

This problem is especially pronounced for high school students. There have been countless stories of social media trends that incentivize irresponsibility, leading to everything from injury to destruction of school property. 

For high school athletes with collegiate aspirations, one social media post that goes too far can be devastating for their reputation.    

Downtown Phoenix’s Central High School has attempted to minimize the potential for problems by implementing a social media contract for all of its student athletes. 

In the years since its implementation, it has been a rousing success. 

“I think it’s been successful, so the kids know that they’re kind of being watched under a watchful eye,” Central Freshman/Sophomore boys soccer coach Dylan Beasley said. 

“Oh most definitely. Most definitely,” Athletic Director Evanna Santee added. “I think we’ve probably had like one incident.”

The single incident Santee brought up was not one worth getting caught up on. It wasn’t the reason the social media contracts were implemented, and based on Santee’s reflection on it, it wasn’t anything major, although not many specifics were mentioned.  

“There were some kids in their uniforms, and it wasn’t super inappropriate but something that shouldn’t have been put up.” Santee said. 

If anything it speaks to the contract’s effectiveness in dealing with incidences and preventing future ones. 

Varsity girls volleyball assistant coach Paiton Twitty also spoke to the success of the contracts at keeping incident rates low. 

“We’ve had a couple small incidents. We’ve been pretty straight forward with the girls,” Twitty said. 

Twitty also emphasized how it was the contracts that specifically led to the small amount of incidents. She made a point to mention how the contracts were there with the student athletes’ best interests in mind. 

“They did sign a social media contract at the beginning of the season per Santee’s request, and we kind of have to be like ‘look, a lot of you guys want to play college volleyball, and that is something that is completely not allowed,” Twitty said.     

For Central’s AD, coaches, students and parents, the contracts aren’t there just to lay out punishments for students who violate them and prevent incidents for the sake of the school’s reputation. They really are there for the student’s benefit, not limitation. 

Central’s athletic programs are full of students with collegiate aspirations. One step into director Santee’s office and plain to see is a wall full of university pennants. It absolutely behooves Central to do everything they can to keep the college pipeline as open as possible for their athletes. 

“We want to promote the positives, that’s one of the reasons why we have that,” Santee said. 

“I’m glad that we have them, so we can kind of keep them in check,” Beasley added. “It’s just good for the kids to know like hey, if you’re trying to go into college, this is what colleges are going to look for. They’re gonna look at your social media. So how about you keep it clean?” 

The social media contracts haven’t just been successful at keeping student athletes’ social media feeds appropriate. The athletic director and coaches have praised the contracts for reinforcing the communicative aspects of their jobs with student athletes and parents. 

“We’re told as AD’s to make sure we talk to our coaches and our kids about the content they’re posting on social media, just to make sure it’s appropriate,” Santee said. 

Santee went on to mention how nearly everyone in the athletic department is involved in communications regarding the contracts.  

“This is one thing that I usually, well I shouldn’t even say myself, but the coaches usually talk about this at their parent meetings before their season starts, and basically explain to the parents what this is for, why they’re signing it, why their students are signing it,” Santee said.  

The contracts have allowed nearly everyone involved with the high school athletics to begin the process of communication. Coaches talk with parents, parents talk with the children, and the children can go to coaches for help or questions they may have. 

Beasley also sees the contracts allowing for communication opportunities between the coaches themselves. He thinks the contracts are more important for the younger players, as it gets them used to cleaning up social media feeds for colleges, as well as allowing other coaches to take a look at their feeds as well if they have interest in them for the varsity squad. 

“I think it’s more important, so if I wanted to I could just tell (Xavier) Flores, the varsity coach, hey, if you want to look at my players, you can go look at their social media too to see like hey what are they doing? What are they posting about? And you know, try to get an insight on why they are outside of school too.” Beasley said. 

The student athletes at Central are also understanding of why the contracts exist. They too feel as though they have been successful in what they are trying to accomplish. 

Freshman boys soccer player Jose Perez summed it up pretty clearly when asked if he felt the contracts were a good idea. 

“Yes,” Perez said. “Because you never know what could happen.”

Junior boys soccer player Christian Ixpertay says the contracts work as intended, acting as an extra step between student athletes thinking of a social media post and actually posting it. 

“I guess it helps them think about the consequences that even a post can (have),” Ixpertay said. “I feel like it makes them think a little bit more ahead, than just posting without thinking.” 

Some student athletes also see similar communication benefits that their coaches see. Beyond having the potential to incentivize communication, some student athletes have seen their general relationships with their coaches strengthen as well.    

Ixpertay feels the social media contracts have built strong relationships between players and coaches. He points to a good social media presence being part of the image the coaches try to create for their players as they progress through their academic careers.   

“I feel like it builds a better relationship with your coach,” Ixpertay said. “Because your coach feels proud that he’s built up a student of his to get recognized.” 

Some students take it further, using the contracts as a reason to begin fostering actual lines of communication with coaches. 

Jose Perez spoke about how he turned to varsity soccer coach Xavier Flores for help when he was having trouble understanding elements of the contract. 

“When I did it first I got confused on how to do it, but I got help from coach Flores,” Perez said. 

Perez does not practice with Flores normally, as he is not on the varsity team. Perez still felt comfortable enough to go to him for help. 

That says a lot about Central Athletics’ coaching staff, but it’s also another way the social media contracts go along with what Dylan Beasley said about being able to help coaches really get to know the kids outside of the classroom setting. 

The social media contracts at Central High School were implemented to curb unwanted social media behavior that would reflect negatively on the school, as well as on student athletes with collegiate sports ambitions. 

They have been very successful to that end, and the numbers back it up, but the contracts have done more for student athletes at Central than just acting as a check on unsupervised social media use. 

From the perspectives of everyone throughout the athletic department, from freshman athletes all the way up to the athletic director, they see added benefits from the contracts. 

One notable social media incident in approximately three years of implementation is definitely worth it for a system everyone agrees has merit and is working well. 

It’s working well for the athletic department and the coaches, and most importantly, it’s working for the students.