Tweets sweeten athlete's outlook

Source: The Beaumont Enterprise, TexasJuly 29--William Wilkerson thinks it was about six months ago that Kameron "Kam" Martin first reached out to him on Twitter.文件倉Wilkerson covers Texas football and recruiting for ESPN's HornsNation website. Normally, he will not report on prospects as young as Martin, who was then finishing his first year at Port Arthur Memorial."At the time, I didn't have any (scholarship) offers and was trying to get them," Martin said. "I reached out to everybody asking what it takes to get the big offers."Wilkerson had never heard of Martin, but the two began to develop a rapport on Twitter. Martin was taking advantage of an online tool that Southeast Texas coaches and players are finding can be used to connect them to each other and others, if used properly.The tweets led to Wilkerson realizing how talented Martin was. That in turn led to Wilkerson writing about the young running back. The articles made college coaches and the football recruiting world aware of Martin.Today, heading into his sophomore year this fall, Martin has scholarship offers from Texas Tech, Baylor and Akron."Marketing himself to the masses is a genius move, especially for somebody that young who has not been through the (recruiting) process," Wilkerson said. "I've probably written about him more than any other 2016 prospect in the country. He made me a believer and that really started from Twitter."In eighth grade, Martin set out to play varsity football when he arrived at Memorial. After achieving that goal, he was determined to get scholarship offers as a freshman.On Twitter, he began following fans of the schools he wanted to attend and tweeting to those who covered their teams."Twitter helped me a lot," Martin said. "Anytime 247sports.com (a recruiting site), ESPN.com or the Beaumont Enterprise writes an article about me, I'll tweet it out to help get my name out there."Pretty soon, the previously unknown name, "Kam Martin," began to mean something. He has over 1,450 Twitter accounts following him, littered with fans from all over the country and media members.On July 13, a University of Kentucky-themed account named "SaveUK" with 3,700 followers tweeted, "Big Blue Nation follow UK football recruit (Kam Martin) show him the love!" Sure enough, a quick scroll of Martin's recently added followers will show a collection of Kentucky fans.While Twitter helped gain Martin notoriety, his speed legitimized the attention.Martin said he has attended summer camps at Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. At the Tech camp, Martin ran the 40-yard das存倉 in 4.39 seconds."Kam will be one of the top recruits in the 2016 class," Wilkerson said. "I think he would have gotten there without Twitter, but Twitter has pressed the fast-forward button and allowed people to get to know him a lot more."Just as Twitter helped Martin gain scholarship offers, that same blue "tweet" button can take offers away."Almost every single college coach has a Twitter account," Wilkerson said. "Some have accounts under different names and they're kind of sneaky about it. It helps college coaches choose who to go after. If there are two kids who are very similar athletically and fighting for that scholarship offer at the same university, a Twitter or Facebook account could be a deciding factor if one is egotistical and the other is humble."Wilkerson added that he has unfollowed recruits on Twitter for excessive self-promotion that becomes obnoxious.Bridge City assistant baseball coach Chris Moore operates his team's Twitter account, which is one of the largest for a team in the area, with just over 400 followers."We talked to our guys about stuff we found on Twitter and Facebook last year," Moore said. "Even though you think it's private, you're still representing yourself and your school."Wilkerson advised players to not use profanity in tweets and to keep in mind that Twitter accounts are an extension of a player's public profile."I'm not going to name any names, but there have been some players at UT who have been scolded for their Twitter accounts," Wilkerson said.Orangefield football coach Josh Smalley considers himself a "technological idiot" but has found himself tweeting since friend and Bridge City baseball coach Chad Landry introduced him to it.He uses Twitter as a personal bulletin board for the Orangefield athletics community."I can put information out there about practice, workouts or anything else we have going on," Smalley said. "You got to go with the flow and adjust to things. Twitter is a big deal now."Perhaps the peak of Smalley's tweeting career came last November when the 3A coach (nearly 200 followers) tweeted at Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy (over 387,000 followers), seeking advice.About 21/2 hours later, Dungy replied."If you get on the phone, it might take an hour to reach some of these people, but a tweet takes 30 seconds," Smalley said.AZaleon@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/avi_zaleonCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas) Visit the Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas) at .beaumontenterprise.com Distributed by MCT Information Services自存倉