New Hyde Park has taken the internet and ran. “It’s a great time to be a sports fan.” According to Boston University’s PRLab, the rise in social media over the last decade has completely changed the sports industry. Social media has not only changed how communication is carried out, but also has offered many opportunities for employment through sports photography and social media managers in New Hyde Park. The internet has enabled a new age of sports media, forever changing the social and economic landscape of New Hyde Park.
New Hyde Park has seen its own rise of social media use for sports teams, specifically through Instagram. Teams including varsity football, varsity field hockey, varsity softball, varsity baseball, varsity soccer, volleyball, basketball and more are now updating the New Hyde Park community through Instagram. Specifically, they highlight teams’ game days, game results and important events such as senior nights or playoff games.
“After years of scrolling through all the New Hyde Park sports Instagrams, this year there was a big change. It was like seeing posts through a different lens which was very enhanced and amusing. Spotlighting different players really shows what each team is made up of and the talent of making the posts is very impressive,” junior Aditi Parikh said.
As sports photographers and social media managers are becoming more popular in the sports industry, students at New Hyde Park have taken initiative and stepped into these roles.
Sophomore Edison Isada is someone you might see on the sidelines of every game with his camera.
“I always played sports my whole life and once I got a lot of injuries I ended up switching over to sports photography,” Isada said. “I love capturing emotions and energy through the players. I also really enjoy getting to watch players have fun on the field.”
Senior Shahriyar Bari runs many of the sports teams’ instagram pages at NHP. He is also a familiar face at home games and is constantly editing and working on his photos.
“I became responsible for managing teams’ Instagram accounts by asking my guidance counselor, who’s also the varsity basketball coach, if he was interested in having a social media manager. From there I started to branch out to other sports teams,” Bari said. “I enjoy the thrill of capturing exciting moments in heated games or just emotions of the players in general. I also enjoy having people reach out to me to take their pictures. I feel that by having social media attracts not only a younger student audience, but a large number of parents and guardians too.”
Through their passion and initiative, the growing presence of student photographers and social media managers at NHP are opening gates to involvement in school sports. From behind the camera and constructing creative posts online, students like Edison Isada, Shahriyar Bari and others are playing a large role in engaging the community, reaching diverse audiences online and documenting games to look back to.
