INFLUENCERS
INFLUENCER
ff An offensive line coach has 27,000 followers? That’s pretty impressive.
Nate
There’s this unspoken, underground offensive line community that just love o-line clips, techniques.”
“Nasty” Leonard
New Braunfels (TX) High School
ff How do you use it right now at your school?
TWITTER: @COACHNASTYTX
Some people “do” Twitter, others learn to “own” it. Texas high school football coach Nate “Nasty” Leonard owns Twitter. “I’m huge on social media. It’s free advertisement,” he says. FNF Coaches chatted with Leonard about how and why he utilizes Twitter. BY DEREK SMITH
ff Why do you use social media? “You get to promote your student-athletes. You get to promote your school and you get to promote your community. It’s a free display of your culture. What you’re about. What your community is about. What your school is about. What your kids are about. You get to put your place on the map. We aim to make people think about the red team when they think about New Braunfels, the Cougars. We want to control the narrative of the program.”
ff When you say ‘control the narrative,’ that almost sounds political in a way. ff Social media hasn’t been around that long. When did you figure out it would be good for you and the places you coached? “When I was at UTSA I wrote for The Huffington Post. They asked me to write what was called ‘Diary of a College Football Player.’ After that I started writing for the school’s website but it was a way for me to see what else was out there. I created a Twitter account in 2012. I didn’t know what to expect. I got to see how you can use social media as a positive message board for your program. I didn’t have many followers at all. We would tweet about sports things. Then as a coach I started networking with other coaches and tweeting about offensive line things. When I got to Duke I tweeted this one thing about one of our offensive lineman knocking the helmet off a linebacker and it went viral.”
NATE LEONARD’S NICKNAME IS “NASTY.” A NATIVE OF
McKinney, TX, he was a “not very athletic,” 5-11 undersized center who was only offered one college scholarship – to the University of Texas-San Antonio under former Miami coach Larry Coker. After redshirting in 2010, Leonard started all 46 games (2011-14) in his career for the Roadrunners, becoming a Capital One Academic All-American, Conference USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a finalist for the National Football Foundation’s William V. Campbell Trophy. More importantly, it was at UTSA where he was dubbed “Nasty” for his aggressive play.
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ff It sounds like red is a branding thing for you guys. “It is. The main branding is ‘paint this town red.’ It’s our hashtag.”
ff How do you incorporate the players and students in social media? “Anytime they post a highlight, we retweet it. We blow it up. We post pictures of the kids and all the good things they do in the community. The kids love social media and they want that recognition just like anybody else does. It’s a way to get our community excited about the program.”
ff What other social media platforms do you use? “Twitter is my main thing.”
“We want people to see the brightest parts of our program. What we set forth.”
“NASTY’S” BIO
“There are two teams in New Braunfels. The New Braunfels Unicorns. They are blue. And we are the Canyon Cougars. We want people to associate New Braunfels with red, Canyon. Our community is wonderful. We want people to know that.”
ff Is there something specific about Twitter you like? “Twitter is where the kids are. We knew this as recruiters at Duke. It’s still that way. We are able to interact with them. We are able to promote them. That’s why I’m on Twitter as a coach.” We first started using to post scores from the games we covered and then we’d post our stories. “If I re-tweet something then all my followers can see it.”
Leonard, 30, made three stops as a teacher and assistant coach at the high school level – Memorial in San Antonio, TX, (2015-16), Seguin in Seguin, TX, (2016-17) and Reagan in San Antonio (2017-18). A chance meeting with Duke coach David Cutcliff at a coach’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., led to a GA position with the Blue Devils’ offense. Leonard helped coach current New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. But, Leonard’s heart was in Texas and high school football. Leonard spent two years as offensive coordinator at Clear Lake in Houston, TX, before his offensive coordinator at UTSA, Travis Bush, added him to a new staff at Canyon in New Braunfels, TX. @COACHNASTYTX CARICATURE DESIGNED BY @GO4TWOSPORTS
