On Sept. 9, Colgate cruised past Syracuse, 3-1. The game concluded a few minutes after 4 p.m. More than five hours later, SU head coach Phil Wheddon took to Twitter.

Wheddon tweeted, “Everything we do we do together. We win, we lose, we fight, we fall.  We congratulate our opponent but now we regroup & grow. Learning hard lessons will motivate us all. We must continue to develop & prepare for our next opponent. No stone left unturned @cusewsoc”

Since the tweet, SU has gone 0-5. After each loss, another positive remark follows.

“I believe in this team still,” Wheddon said. “I’m just trying to make this a common thing for us to realize.”

Under @PWSUSoccer, Wheddon became more active on his social media page when the season started, reacting to game outcomes publicly. He’s tweeted after 11 of Syracuse’s (3-9, 0-4 Atlantic Coast) 12 games. He rarely talks about statistics and things that went wrong.

His tweets are a mix of shoutouts and motivational quotes, with a new element of consistent, optimistic game analysis.

Accounts like @CoachMotto and @Sports_Greats fill his page. Often, Wheddon retweets quotes from sports legends like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While most of his followers are soccer and SU-related, the rest are people who promote positivity and stronger mental mindsets.

Two people, Dr. Jim Afremow, an MLB mental performance coach, and positivity author Jon Gordon, pack the bulk of his feed.

One tweet from Gordon, “Great teams should have amnesia about what they accomplished (stay humble) and a great memory of all the little things they did to get better (stay hungry),” was retweeted and then quoted a day later by Wheddon.

Usually a couple of hours after a game, Wheddon tweets a long-form — albeit 280 characters max — reaction, win or loss. He hadn’t tweeted as frequently after games in past seasons.

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When SU wins, Wheddon only talks strengths. After an 83rd minute game-winner from Georgia Allen against Northeastern, Wheddon tweeted, “Really proud of the entire squad today.  Everyone played a role and did it to the best of their ability.”

After a loss, Wheddon tweets a negative note before highlighting positives. Against Boston College, a 3-0 shutout, Wheddon tweeted “It’s all about details and execution. We will all be better through this adversity & will be stronger because of it.”

“They’ve beaten us in a difficult league like this,” Wheddon said on Sept. 25. “So I always say my thoughts but congratulate the opposing team.”

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His tweets about the Orange’s victories circulate more on social, averaging 33 likes per tweet, while his thoughts about losses average a little under 15 likes each. And his players have started to latch on.

“He likes to vocalize everything he says to us,” Taylor Bennett said, “and then just put it on the internet. It’s pretty much the same message.”

Most of his likes and retweets are from players’ parents like Jenna Tivnan’s mom, Teri, and Shannon Aviza’s dad, John. Kate Hostage and Bennett occasionally react to his tweets as well.

Wheddon also finishes his tweets with a multitude of hashtags. One that occasionally pops up is #wewill, which he said references getting past losses and adversity.

For players like Bennett, Wheddon’s optimism is the “perfect reset” after a loss.

“Sometimes I believe in them more than they do,” Wheddon said, “so I tell them that.”

He tweets it, too.

Published on October 3, 2018 at 10:44 pm

Contact KJ: kjedelma@syr.edu | @KJEdelman