![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Heavy breathing, squeaks of shoes and witty banter echoes through an empty gym as two basketball players match up in an intense one-on-one game. One of them is FlightReacts, a basketball influencer with nearly 5 million subscribers on YouTube, and the other is Harker alum Roy Yuan, a Division I basketball player for Stanford. This showdown captures the growing intersection between the world of content creation and traditional athletics.
Yuan attended Harker from eighth to ninth grade from 2015-16 and played on the basketball team. He later enrolled at Stanford, not as a basketball recruit, but as a student. To pursue his goal of playing Division I basketball, he became Stanford basketball’s team manager and spent free time practicing in the gym. Gradually, the coach noticed Yuan’s skills and talent and in sophomore year, offered him a spot on the team.
However, Yuan never set out to become a content creator. Last year, he filmed a one-on-one basketball game with a friend and casually uploaded the video to a new YouTube channel. His video quickly went viral, garnering over 700,000 views. Many of these viewers remained interested in his content; currently, he has 48.9K and 14.8K followers on YouTube and Instagram, respectively.
“It gives me a reason to continue playing basketball and gives me more motivation,” Yuan said.
“A lot of people like to reach out, and it’s fun meeting new people and doing collaborations through social media with other creators.”
His talent and social media presence allowed him to play one-on-one with major basketball content creators like CashNasty and FlightReacts. However, after Yuan graduated and began working for an AI cloud infrastructure provider, his goals for social media shifted from just playing basketball to documenting his life and connecting with other players.
“As I think more and more about what I want to do, doing more vlogs centered around basketball rather than just playing seems more interesting,” Yuan said. “Basketball around the world and in different leagues is very different. I want to explore what the hoop scene in other places of the world is like.”
While Yuan began posting in college, some student-athletes began building their platform earlier. Frosh Faye Gu launched her journey as a dance influencer in middle school after partnering with the popular dancewear brand AK Dancewear. Though she shared a few videos on her Instagram account before, that collaboration encouraged her to post more consistently, especially as positive comments and messages from viewers made the experience more rewarding.
“I applied to be an AK ambassador after I saw their loving community and their amazing dance wear,” Faye said. “After I became an ambassador, I loved the community and all the dancewear, and I started posting a lot more. I usually do a bunch of dance moves to trending songs and edit them together to create some content.”
Harker’s varsity girls volleyball team also runs an Instagram account, and they film casual videos of trends and post-game recaps. Senior Eden Kelly, who edits and posts videos on that account, shared that filming together before or after games improved team camaraderie and morale.
She emphasized that the purpose of the account is mainly to attract students to watch their games, rather than growing their followers or likes. She hopes that by continuing to post, they can fill the stands more during their matches.
“It’s more about, ‘Guys, please come to our game,’” Eden said. “Even if the reel gets only 20 likes, but five of those people show up, I would much rather have that than getting 100 likes and only two of those people show up. It’s more about having people show up and support us.”
Posting quality content on social media regularly is no easy task. Student-athletes already need to balance practice and schoolwork. Managing a social media account adds even more to their workload. Yuan shared his advice for student-athletes navigating their commitments alongside influencing.
“There’s a lot of pressure in everyone’s lives, but ultimately it’s just about deciding what you want to do,” Yuan said. “If I had time and if there’s an opportunity, I would go do it, but I would never prioritize that over things like school or player duties.”
Ultimately, athlete influencers have different motivations for maintaining a social media account. Eden aims to build support for her team and attract people to their games, Yuan sees his social media accounts as creative outlets and paths to collaboration, while Faye hopes to foster a supportive online community for dancers.
“I really hope young dancers can get inspired by my posts,” Faye said. “I hope they can be inspired to compete or join dance events and become more confident in themselves and their dancing. I’m really happy about being able to connect with people through my account because it helps me promote both AK and me.”
