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Forget the PA system. Simley High grows student fan base through Instagram.

By Cassidy Hettesheimer, the Minnesota Star Tribune, 02/03/25, 8:30PM CST

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Under wrestling coach and activities director Will Short, Simley is experimenting with social media to increase student body engagement with sports.

MN high school boys and girls wrestling

Simley wrestler Vristol Short lifts Lila Fumich in a dance move for a Simley Overtime video in the school's studio space. (Cassidy Hettesheimer/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Soon after Will Short, Simley’s activities director, wrestling coach and a former All-America wrestler at the University of Minnesota, unlocks an inconspicuous door in the high school’s media center, students begin to trickle in after him — rolling in whiteboards, booting up cameras — and he prepares himself for a different kind of coaching.

In the gym, he’s guided the Spartans wrestling team to six consecutive state titles after he won two of his own during his time as a Simley student.

Now, for an hour each day, Short guides a group of self-starting students through the elusive art of Instagram reels.

Social media has become a major way — if not the major way — for professional and college sports teams to connect with fans.

For more on Short and his plan, click here to read this story on startribune.com.

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