Defending champion women's soccer makes social media push

Faced with the daunting prospect of the Manchester United Fitness Test during preseason, the Penn women’s soccer team offered the coaches a deal: if the players increased the team’s social media presence on Twitter and Facebook, the coaches would have to knock off one of the 20 full-field sprints in the test.

But with one day remaining in their deal, the players were sitting well short of their goal of 250 Twitter followers and 1,000 ‘likes’ for their Facebook page.

Needing almost 200 more followers and 600 ‘likes,’ the team sat down together, opened their laptops and buckled down, spamming friends, family — anyone who would give them a follow — all to avoid that last sprint.

Within eight hours, they were in the clear.

“It got pretty intense,” junior goalkeeper Sarah Banks said. “It’s pretty cool how many people follow us.”

The follow-fest gave the returning Ivy champions a chance to gel as a team and an opportunity to gain some new fans.

“Hopefully it will just help awareness with our team,” Banks said. “I think it’s hard. Students at Penn have a hard time because Rhodes [Field] is not in the middle of campus. [Now] people will know when games are, where they are. People will be able to come out — and if they can’t come out, [at least] they’ll know the score.”

While the women won an outright title last year, the buzz around their championship was a bit subdued as the clinching game was on the road at Princeton. Their first-round NCAA tournament match, meanwhile, was in distant Morgantown, W. Va.

The Quakers return 14 letterwinners from last year, including three All-Ivy players: senior keeper Caroline Williams, senior forward Marin McDermott, and 2010 Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kerry Scalora.

“After the amazing season that we had last year, after all the national and professional teams that we’ve had here, it seems foolish not to have thousands of likes and followers and things like that,” said assistant coach Kaleen Adami, who has spearheaded the team’s social media push.

Adami, a 2008 Penn State graduate, said she’s seen what a powerful tool social media can be for collegiate teams.

“It comes down to the girls working hard day-in and day-out, and they deserve some recognition. There’s no quicker way than on the internet.”

Many other Penn teams have Twitter accounts run by assistant coaches, but Adami said women’s soccer is making it a priority this season, with the entire team generating content ideas to post to their followers.

“The girls are from all over, it’s not like parents are from an hour or two drive away,” Adami said. “So we’re hoping that activity pumps up during games and that everyone will really stay clued in.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.