A Bloomsburg University baseball player, Joey Casselberry, was dismissed from his team on March 21 in regards to a tweet that he posted about Pennsylvania Little League sensation Mo’ne Davis.
He tweeted a very offensive remark about Davis, referencing when she pitched against Nevada in the Little League World Series last year. The university took to Twitter saying, “Bloomsburg Univ is deeply saddened by what was written about #MoneDavis by one of our student-athletes. His words do not represent us.”
When hearing about the news, Davis sent the university an email asking them to reinstate the athlete.
In a recent interview on Sports Center Davis said, “Everyone makes mistakes, everyone deserves a second chance.”  Davis went on to say, “It hurt on my part, but he hurt even more.”
It is rare for someone not to be involved in some type of social media ranging from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or some other form- but people sometimes forget that what the post online is available to the public.
CSU Stanislaus’s Warrior women’s soccer coach, Gabriel Bolton, holds his team accountable to what they post on social media sites.
“We really recommend that their posts are always positive,” Bolton said. “That they’re never critical of teammates or coaches on social media.”
Bolton and his coaching staff have shown the team examples of what has gotten student athletes in trouble in the past.
“The only guideline we set is that their responsible for what they tweet, what they retweet and what they post,” Bolton said.
Amanda Rosas, former Warrior cheerleader and now Assistant of Marketing and Sponsorships for Warrior Athletics (which includes running the social media sites) has the same approach when it comes to how the Warrior athletes use social media.
“If you can’t post it up on a billboard on 99, then don’t post it all,” Rosas said. ”Once you post it, it’s out there, it’s online. Even if you delete it, it’s still online.”
When it is all said and done, Davis is right, “People make mistakes.”
In order to prevent those from happening, people need to think about what they are posting, especially when representing a university or team.
If the athlete wants to have a good experience on the field, they also to need to make sure that they are careful when it comes to off-the-field issues… and that includes social media.