DJ Damazo, assistant men’s basketball coach, said that about three years ago, the basketball team didn’t have a social media page at all. “I thought we were missing out on a chance to market our program to other students at Grinnell and probably, more importantly, like recruits,” Damazo said.
Damazo decided to find students to help him both make a social media page and gain a following. “We really built it up from ground zero, and built a pretty big following too which is really exciting,” he said.
One of the students that Damazo found was Nicole Mlynski `26, an outside/rightside hitter on the volleyball team and media specialist for both the women’s volleyball team and the men’s basketball team. Mlynski said filming videos for each social media page is pretty different. For volleyball, she said, “It’s really fun and easy because everyone wants to be in it. Everyone is always really excited about it.”
For men’s basketball, she said, “It’s a little bit different since it’s not my team, so I have to convince people to be in them.”
The inspiration behind the videos for each team comes from a different place too. “For volleyball, we all just throw ideas out at each other, and then I’m the one that puts it in its final form,” Mlynski said. “For basketball, we honestly look at what a lot of well known sports teams are doing — like the NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL (National Football League) teams — and they usually have really funny videos, and we take that and customize it to the Grinnell team.”
Ben Skiles `28, catcher on baseball and the graphics designer for the baseball, men’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams, said something similar. “For volleyball and basketball, it’s a lot more serious because I’m getting paid for it,” he said. “You can’t get paid for working for your own team. For baseball, we kinda just try to have more fun with it because we’re not getting paid.”
Skiles and Mlynski also had similar experiences at the beginning of their careers with learning how to do editing. Mlynski said that because she hadn’t planned on getting the job, she didn’t have much experience with the editing program on Instagram Reels. “Now it’s just so much easier because I’ve done so many of them that it takes like three minutes and then I’m done,” she said.
Similarly, Skiles taught himself how to use Photoshop through watching YouTube videos. “I took an introduction to Photoshop class my freshman year of high school, and I’m pretty sure the school messed up and gave me a subscription to all four years of high school,” he said. “In my freetime, that was my creative outlet — looking up how to do something new on Photoshop and trying to do it.”
James Snyder `26, the social media and communication specialist for the cross country and track and field program, also taught himself how to use Photoshop during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said his high school’s athletic department knew that they weren’t going to be able to have fans at games during the pandemic, and that they were thinking of ways to connect the team with the community of sports fans they had. “They thought, ‘let’s build a social media presence,’ and I was like, I would love to learn graphic design, so I jumped into it and really found a passion in it and decided that I wanted to do it in college wherever I went,” he said.
Snyder was recruited by Grinnell for his skills in social media and communications. “That was one of the draws of Grinnell — to be the social media and communications for the cross country and track team,” he said.
All three student social media specialists agree that their favorite part of their job is the creative freedom that comes with the title.
Mlynski said she enjoys working with her friends on the volleyball team. “It’s all very satirical, we’re just messing around,” she said, adding that she likes filming videos for the basketball team because she likes messing with them. “It’s the walking into the gym and everyone just kind of looking around and thinking ‘Uh oh, what’s going to happen today?’” said Mlynski.
Snyder said that, as well as creating posts for social media, he had spent a lot of time creating the website for the cross country and track and field program. On the website, archived newsletters about the teams and photos can be found. “I like the story-telling aspect of my job, and that really ties into it,” he said.
