During the later part of this summer, the Northeast Indiana got an interesting boost when it comes to high school basketball in the area, by way of social media.
Fort Wayne Buckets popped up on Instagram pages in mid-July of this year with a mix of visually appealing posts, quick interviews, some opinion based posts and more. Utilizing AI for image generation, the page has grown exponentially in that six-week or so timeline. As of October 9, Fort Wayne Buckets has amassed 2,272 followers with their 162 posts.
The creators of Fort Wayne Buckets wishes to remain anonymous at this time, they told Outside the Huddle.
“We love sports and believe that athletics bring people together,” Fort Wayne Buckets said. “Our hope is that when people see in their IG feed that there is a new Fort Wayne Buckets post, they immediately smile, knowing that its going to be something fun.”
Over the summer as things started taking off for the page, the creators brainstormed a few ideas for different series they can do. That leads into evenings of research and artistic designs split between the two operators of the page.
One of the common features is the Bucket Bio; interview pieces that have been brief, focusing on both coaches in the area and player profiles. They do a good job of being light and showing fans things about players outside of the game, including favorite shows and restaurants. The interviews with coaches provide a little bit more info and it has been great to see area coaches getting on board with the new page. The bios have also started to delve into the managers who work behind the scenes with teams.
The Fort Wayne Buckets creators say that they have loved these Bucket Bios the most. The goal is to have a Bucket Bio from each school within the four main area conferences, the SAC, NE8, ACAC and NECC by the time basketball season starts.
But a big part of the fun has been the random, AI aided posts that showcase mascots, teams as cars/hot rods, players as a wing sauce type and matchups of area players as gladiators, warriors, vikings and more. It shows very clearly the creativity that Fort Wayne Buckets is pouring into this venture. And it gives the players, coaches and fans a very unique look.
“AI has unleashed a new ability for people with limited physical artistic skills to create any image they can dream up,” Fort Wayne Buckets said. “We knew that high school students would be our target market, and that when they’re on their phones, we have to grab their attention fast.”
Fort Wayne Buckets has also stayed in the meatier area of coverage with things like fictional conference betting lines, a fan vote tournament for the top boys team in the area this coming season, opinion laced “hot takes,” focus on some of the best statistical leaders in the area last season, and lately they have started some conference standings of opinion.
For now, Fort Wayne Buckets plans to stay focused on basketball despite interest from outsiders and viewers for them to add other sports, particularly football. That way they can dive deeper into hoops, crafting unique and exciting posts rather than spreading themselves thin. That said, the feedback has been a major support system for their ideas early. The Fort Wayne Buckets creators note they realized a bit of the following they were getting when they did their first “Built in the Fort” post featuring former area players with where they went on to play after high school.
“Deshaun Thomas reshared our post and we both looked at each other in disbelief. We’re both massive Buckeye fans, and had spent a lot of time watching him play for the Buckeyes back in the day, so we were thrilled to get a repost from a Buckeye legend,” Fort Wayne Buckets said of the former Bishop Luers and Ohio State standout on that post when they still just had a few hundred followers.
“We’ve had multiple coaches reach out and share how appreciative they are that we spread the love around to all teams and conference so well. That means a lot because we put a massive amount of time into making sure everyone is getting some time highlighted.”
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