Through interviews, reporters/news, as well as social media, student athletes, high school and collegiate, are put at extreme risk. Although they are still teenagers/children, they are expected to act as adults.
Volleyball star Harper Murray is a sophomore student athlete at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The Cornhuskers had a terrific season in 2023, going 33-2, with their only losses coming to top 5 teams. They started the season with 27 consecutive wins before losing to a top five team in Wisconsin
A huge part of that success was indeed then freshman Harper Murray. Murray, a 6’ 2” outside hitter, finished second on the team in kills with 3.23 kills per set and a .237 hitting percentage to go with 2.07 digs per set and a team-high 36 service aces in 2023.
Despite their fantastic season, Murray and the Cornhuskers fell short of their goal, losing in the national championship to the Texas Longhorns.
After the game, Murray said during an interview, “I think we’re going to win three national championships the next three years.”
Although this may seem like a harmless comment that just shows Murray’s confidence in her team’s future, many viewers didn’t take it that way.
On the team’s flight home the following morning, Murray scrolled on social media, and she felt sick reading comments that said she should learn how to pass before she talks smack. Some of them said her late father would be disappointed in her. Others told her to kill herself.
These comments and responses led to Murray’s mental health tanking and self esteem falling off of a cliff. The game of volleyball became a distant thought, and she began to skip class, and was arrested multiple times for DUI and theft. It got to the point where her own family worried that she may attempt to end her own life.
Things turned around for Murray as her sophomore volleyball season approached. Murray credits a big portion of her healing to the fact that she had some wonderful friends and family by her side. Her mother, volleyball teammates, as well as the coaching staff played a crucial role in Murray’s road to stability, refusing to give up on her and constantly checking and asking if she was okay and what they could do to help. She and the rest of the Nebraska volleyball team look forward to the 2024 season, which they have started 9-1, with consecutive sweeps against top ranked teams Stanford and Louisville.
But what if Murray’s story had turned out differently? What if those people hadn’t been there for her? Or what if they didn’t intervene before she harmed herself or her image that she could never recover?
Marcus Stokes, a former Florida quarterback recruit, is an example of this.
On Friday, Nov. 18th, 2022, Stokes published a video on one of his social media pages showing himself using a racial slur while singing along to a rap song.
Stokes, who had previously committed to Florida University in July of 2022,was completely unaware of the repercussions of what he had just posted online.
Stokes initially realized what he had done when he saw comments and reactions by other creators posted online, and he responded by immediately deleting the video and issuing an apology that read. “I was in my car listening to rap music, rapping along to the words and posted a video of it on social media,” Stokes said. “I deeply apologize for the words in the song that I chose to say. It was hurtful and offensive to many people, and I regret that.”
But it was too late; Stokes’ scholarship offer was revoked, and he was mocked and berated online for months.
Stokes has since received offers from multiple HBCUs (Historically Black College or University).
Although their outcomes were extremely different, these two stories have a lot in common. When a young athlete makes a mistake or says something controversial, the backlash of these events causes their lives to spiral.
Obviously, there is a line between right and wrong. What Marcus Stokes did was most definitely wrong, but should the work that he put in to get where he was be thrown out the window because of one mistake.
These kinds of events take place everyday with teenagers and young adults. Athletes, especially recruits and at the college level, are held to a higher standard than their peers. They are expected to act perfectly, always say the right thing, and be an adult, when they are still surrounded by children.
Although they are athletically gifted, they are still children and must be seen as such.
Social media plays a huge role in this. With all the pictures and videos being posted online, it’s easy for someone to be caught saying the wrong thing, and for those words to spread like wildfire across the internet.
These elite level athletes need to learn and practice their publicity skills, before they are interviewed, posted, and berated online.
Athletes such as Murray and Stokes had extremely bright futures ahead of them, and yet they were risked because of a sentence or phrase that they said.
This is something that we can fix. By providing training, protection for athletes in interviews, and social media advisors, star teenage athletes can be protected from their own words and actions.
