Everyone knows social media brings a sense of community and access to information at undeniably quick rates. The importance of social media has been debated and beaten into the bush time and time again, but as society progresses into using social media as a tool, how will sports teams adapt?
Any sporting activity or team can use social media to promote, publicize, and showcase what is unique about them.
The majority of Leeville athletic teams have a personalized Instagram account. Whether that account is student run, or by coaches, each one is catered to the specific sport.
Blake Annison, Leesville senior and admin of @officialpridefootball and @leesvillembb, said, “I do three things; I do the gameday and final score graphics, so everyone knows when there is a game and how we did. I’ll go to games and do both photo and video content and so that will be additional content to show people what’s going on, as well as pictures and videos for the team.”
On the right is an example of Annion’s gameday post for Leesville’s Varsity Men’s Basketball team.
He catered it to the specific team, completely highlighting their event. With a solo athletics account, sports teams can easily highlight their events.
Every one of Annion’s gameday posts make it easy for fans to see where, when, and the theme of a basketball game.
On the left is a highlight from Leesville’s Varsity Swim and Dive team. Their Instagram page, @pride_swimanddive, is able to reach out to the Leesville community in very simplistic ways.
They were able to post a short, funny video that gives outsiders an insight on their sport — not many people can relate to braving the cold after swimming 500 meters.
Mattie Matonic, senior and @lrhs_wbb admin, utilizes the women’s basketball page for more than game updates. For them, the basketball Instagram is a way of bringing their team closer.
Matonic said, “We definitely use Instagram for gameday and win posts. The TikToks are whatever other ideas we come up with, whatever is trending.We like to take on whatever movies come out, or games that are popular… We ask around the team to see if anyone has any ideas and it adds to the team morale after a win.”
Above are story posts from the Leesville Women’s Basketball Team Instagram depicting their wins in a creative way.
Individual sports teams that do not receive as much publicization around the school utilize social media to promote themself.
Joy Denner, senior and admin of @lrhs_cheer, said, “I feel like we always go to support everyone else. It’s nice if other people want to come and support us [at competitions] and they can see. Our Instagram is pretty organized, you can go through and see all the things we have to do.”
Leesville women’s tennis has 312 followers on Instagram, but only about 12 of them show up to support the team during matches. Social media gives sports like these a way to outreach to the community.
@leesvillewtennis posted a simple “season kickoff” event recap. It has 82 likes, 12 comments, but 8,870 views. Just a simple post, before the season officially started, gave Leesville tennis a wider reach in the community.
Social media has transformed the culture of sports. It has the power to turn an individual activity into a group or community event.
Tennis is an extremely individual sport — there is one person playing per court creating a sense of isolation. Yet, the power of social media made it feel like a group event.
In October 2025, only 6/14 tennis girls traveled to Wilmington for Cap 8 regionals.
While they were gone, there were gameday posts made that highlighted each girl that was playing. Pictured is a gameday post from regionals highlighting the where, when, and participants of the first day of the tournament.
Each day there was an update of who was moving on into the next round, what the facility looked like, and how the team was bonding during the trip.
Over the course of three days, the six girls representing Leesville Women’s Tennis drew the attention of close to 7,000 people.
Closer to home, posting on social media can physically bring more people to the games.
Annison said, “The football team page almost doubled in followers. Posts have gotten more kids and members of the community at the games for sure…I think that’s the biggest goal, to get this community involved.”
Overall, social media has transformed every aspect of life — sports are no exception. If Leesville sports teams learn to utilize the power of social media, there will be a greater community outreach.
It makes my day better when people bring me Chipotle.
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