It was her senior fall of high school and Julie* had already committed to a school to play college basketball. Julie put the school name in her social media bios and communicated excellently with her soon-to-be coach. All Julie had to do was finish her final year of high school and she would be ready for college basketball!
Julie started her senior season of basketball and it was off to a great start. She was even in contention for being named Gatorade Player of the Year! This was until Julie made a big mistake. A couple of months into her season, Julie posted an inappropriate video on her social media. One of Julie's teammates saw the video and quickly told her to take the video down. The video was up for less than an hour, but the damage was already done. Someone had sent the video to Julie's college coach and within a few days, she was in deep trouble. Julie received a text from her college coach saying that she would like to meet with her on a video call. The call was quick, but the message was clear. Julie would not be able to play college basketball at that school anymore…her offer had been withdrawn.
Julie was devastated. She had told so many people about where she was going to college and now she had to break the news to everyone. She then realized that she had not applied to any other schools and the deadlines were closing in! Julie had to scramble to fill out applications and get in contact with coaches. Luckily, Julie's high school coach had good connections and was able to get her in contact with a few coaches.
Julie's mistake cost her a lot. She really had to work hard to get new coaches to give her a shot. This one video almost cost her a shot at playing college basketball.
There are two things to remember from Julie's story. Number one: watch what you put on social media; you never know who is watching. And number two: make sure you have more than one school that you are in contact with! You never know when one of them might go south.
*Name changed for anonymity.
* Originally published on July 18, 2023, by Bella Nevin
