Inside Preps: Akins to Hornets: Stay Focused
Thu. February 16, 2012 at 4:16 a.m. | By Solange Reyner
Here's a challenge: Stay off of social media.
That's a toughie, isn't it?
Probably more difficult for high school kids considering they've grown up around smart phones and tablets, Facebook and Twitter.
But it's a challenge Haines City coach LaDreda Akins has posed to her team as her girls make their way deeper into the playoffs.
Haines City faces Harmony in a Class 7A regional final this Saturday and the outcome will determine which team earns a trip to the state tournament.
The key to getting there, Akins believes, is to stay focused. Staying off social media is a small part of that.
"I told them, ‘I understand you guys are really big on Facebook and Twitter and I know you get a lot of positive things but you also get negative things,'" said Akins, who doesn't own a Facebook account but stays active on Twitter to correspond with college coaches.
"I asked them to stay off because I wanted them to focus on what's important right now. And that's getting to the state finals."
People say lots of nice things online. But they can also nag and talk trash. And some of that can sway a player's attitude heading into important games.
Akins said Briona Brown, a senior starter, got a message once from an opponent that read "Good luck, but we're going to bring it."
Not necessarily a bad thing, right? Well, Akins said it could have had a negative effect on Brown – it didn't – and that sometimes, messages like that will make you want to "play hard against that person, not that team."
She's got a point. Jarring publicly on that platform can also bring about unwanted attention. As a result, many pro and collegiate athletes find themselves having to answer questions from the media and from their coaches after posting silly remarks.
Take what happened between the Pistons' Charlie Villanueva and the Celtics' Kevin Garnett in 2010. Villanueva spoke out on Twitter at how he was annoyed with Garnett's comment during a game that he looked like a cancer patient. Villanueva has alopecia universalis, a medical condition that results in hair loss. Garnett, known for his trash talking, said it was a miscommunication and that he just said that Villanueva was "cancerous to your team and our league."
The comment wasn't necessary, but it was blown out of proportion because of social media.
That's not what this Haines City squad is about this year. Akins has preached team work and defense since the outset. And focus. Lots of focus.
Brekia Henderson, a junior guard who Akins jokingly refers to as the "Queen of Facebook," thinks her coaches' most recent request is working.
"My mind has been on nothing but basketball since she challenged us," said Henderson, who has 2,000-plus friends on Facebook. "It made us realize that a little thing like social media is not that important when we're looking at the bigger picture."
