In today’s world, nothing is ever done in secret. As celebrities and politicians have learned, there’s usually somebody, somewhere, who snapped a picture or recorded you doing something that you’d rather not be published for all to see.

These lessons, learned by athletes and coaches, like Laremy Tunsil and Chris Foerster not only affect public figures on a national stage but on our local one, too.

On September 29, members of the St. Joseph High School football was caught sending insulting Snapchats to Haddonfield’s footballers players, their opponent that week. All the players were at the home of their head coach, Coach Sacco, the winningest coach in all of South Jersey, on the Friday night before their game. Sacco reportedly was not present, scouting future opponents with his assistants. The athletes, allegedly unsupervised, took their time to send Haddonfield players a video of them saying racial slurs. Because Sacco wasn’t around, he is no longer allowed to host team gatherings in private residences.

The consequences were varying at the time, but resulted in some players and Head Coach Sacco being suspended for two games. The principal of St. Joe reached out to Haddonfield’s administration and apologized for the incident. Haddonfield’s superintendent released a statement as well. 

Haddonfield dealt with its own racial controversy last year when its lacrosse team. Haddonfield schools chief David T. Lindenmuth canceled the boys lacrosse season after a player used a racial slur.

On October 15th, Saint Joe players and coaches defended Coach Sacco by signing an open letter which stated he was a good guy and doesn’t deserve all of the negative replies.

The overall message of this incident is that teens don’t think before they post or send things on social media. This problem could affect their future life while playing in college or other careers. This issue doesn’t only effect athletes, but everyone in that case. It’s very important to think twice before posting something on social media because it’s never deleted. 

The Press of Atlantic City reported the St. Joe case on October 11th, 2018.