TWEET TWEET
Getting to know the girl’s basketball players who helped save ‘high-risk’ sports
CLIFTON PARK, NY » “I’m a SENIOR student-athlete who plays basketball at Pittsford Mendon. If we have a season, I pledge to hold myself/ team accountable to all COVID safety protocols. I challenge athletes to share this message and a photo if you feel the same.”
Those were the words that started it all - the Twitter movement that would get high-risk sports across the finish line in New York State after months of uncertainty about whether those student-athletes would get a season.
That tweet came from senior Cornell University commit, Lexi Green. A student at Pittsford Mendon High School, she plays in the Class A division of Section 5 and had her season shortened last year prior to their regional championship game, much like the girl’s basketball team at Shenendehowa.
“We wanted it to get a lot of attention, but I don’t think I expected it to get as much as it did, from all different kinds of sports,” Green said. “When I sent my tweet out, I texted some of my friends to make sure they saw it and they could do what they wanted it.”
One of those friends was Shenendehowa standout and Green’s City Rocks teammate, Meghan Huerter, who is committed to play basketball at Providence College.
“Lexi texted me and said that she tweeted and tagged me - she asked if I could get it started in this area. I said ‘yeah, of course. Anything to help improve our chances,’” Huerter said “I didn’t think much would come from it, but then I saw like two hours later that we were potentially going to have a season. It was a pool of emotions, I didn’t expect it to come at all, let alone the same day. I was super surprised.”
In Green’s initial tweet, she tagged ten different girl’s basketball players from across the state that she has either competed against or played with in some capacity. Two other girls that were tagged in that post, who are fellow City Rocks players were Rylee Carpenter of Shenendehowa and Olivia Olsen of Niskayuna.
“The last couple of weeks had been hard. My teammates and I have been in the gym, getting ready, hoping everyday that we can have a season,” Carpenter said. She joined her teammate Huerter in not being too optimistic prior to Friday’s Twitter challenge.
“I had set my expectations low for whether or not we were going to have a season. Honestly, I was very hopeless,” Huerter said. “My mindset was to use my workouts and this time to prepare for college. Then the Twitter challenge that Lexi started changed that.”
Green, who did not have much advocacy experience, started this journey on a Zoom call with her local assemblyperson, Jen Lunsford (D-135), who she credits with helping her select their next steps in their advocacy for high-risk sports.
“This was my first time I’ve been in a position to advocate for something. Every single person that we reached out to was awesome and all were willing to help us and willing to listen to what we had to say,” Green explained. “We knew that we were getting down to the wire, with spring sports starting soon; we really had a since of urgency. We ended up on a tweet because that was the quickest way for it to gain attention, which worked out pretty well. Then we had the idea to put a picture in it, so everyone could see what we’re all missing out on.”
The advocacy to elected officials turned into taking matters into their own hands, by showing the strength in numbers of student-athletes. From Pittsford-Mendon to the Capitol Region across the rest of the state, Friday’s Twitter challenge attracted over a hundred tweets from athletes from different schools and different sports.
Carpenter, a Dominican College women’s basketball commit, had her phone blowing up throughout the day after her tweet.
“I posted mine after I saw Meghan posted hers and I kept seeing each time that more and more people had posted theirs and I was sitting in my math class and my phone kept dinging. I just kept thinking that this was going to happen.”
The key to each unique tweet, including the student-athlete’s year, school, sport, the pledge and a picture, was to use the hashtag #LetUsPlay and to tag Dr. Robert Zayas, the Executive Director NYSPHSAA and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“It was hard to see myself and teammates in the gym, following all the COVID protocols and working so hard to show we could do this safely - we knew that if we didn’t start to speak up about it there could potentially not be a season and that wouldn’t be fair,” Carpenter said.
That message was received.
Green’s first tweet was sent at 12:38 p.m. on Friday.
Around 3 p.m. the same day, not even three hours later, news started to circulate that basketball, wrestling and hockey would be given a February 1 start date.
“One of the great things about high school sports is that it teaches young people how to deal with adversity and overcome challenges,” said Dr. Robert Zayas, when asked about the effort by Green and her fellow basketball players. “I am always impressed with students when they explore strategies to overcome difficult times. With authorization to begin play on February 1st, thousands of students will have the opportunity to continue to learn incredible life lessons that will surely benefit them long after their final high school game.”
Green described what that moment was like for her.
“It was pretty awesome. I didn’t believe it at first. It was crazy, emotions that I’ve never experience before,” she said. “The kids coming together is really what stands out to me and how much everyone wanted this, something that everyone needed.”
Huerter also described the moment the news broke.
“My Dad sent me a screenshot of a tweet saying we might be able to start February 1. I showed my sister and a few other girls who I workout with, who participated in the challenge and we were all really excited that our voices were heard.”
While it was Green and those close to her that came up with this specific challenge, the greatest number of tweets came from the football community, who have been advocating for their seasons since last summer.
“It’s very gratifying to see the results of this efforts come through for us able be able to get a season now,” said Todd Julien, Green’s coach at Mendon. He is among the few whom she gives the most credit for coming up with this idea.
“Both coaches at Pittsford Mendon and captains Jacob Shadders and Danielle Strauf - we really put a lot of time into this, to try to get ourselves and players around New York State a season,” Green said.
A critical aspect of the challenge was to make sure is wasn’t isolated to one team or one area. Green using her City Rocks teammates help spread the word became the difference in the success of this effort.
“Lexi doing this was so awesome to see. I got the notification on my phone and I was so excited because I thought that this could really happen, we can make this work and it was so smart of her to think of this,” Carpenter said. “All my teammates on City Rocks share such a love and passion for the game of basketball and it makes our relationships outside the court great as well.”
Carpenter also spoke about what it was like seeing girls across the state take on leadership roles in organizing this effort.
“That was something that made me so excited, to see all these girls basketball players coming together to see the girls from different club teams and different high schools, it was awesome and it shows that girls are able to do anything.”
With the decisions on approving high school, highrisk sports now going to county officials, the biggest hurdles have now been jumped. Green echoed the sentiment from Dr. Zayas who has since tweeted, “Student-Athletes: we have received authorization to START all sports seasons; how we FINISH the seasons will be up to you. Please be smart, avoid social gatherings, wear your mask, be role models, listen to your coaches & parents. So excited for you to have a season!”
Green gave her message on how teams will be able to finish their season.
“Lots of athletes made the pledge on Twitter that we would follow COVID protocols if we were to have a season and I think that’s something we need to stick to. It’s really important that everyone stays safe and healthy,” she said.