WHS Student Leads His Nation
The desire to make a difference and change a person’s life is much different from working up the courage to act upon it.
While each day presents various opportunities to make a difference, not everyone takes them. Often times, it takes more than a few minutes of conversation; it takes more than a text to a special someone or an email to a teacher letting them know their effect on you. Impacting a group of people or multiple groups of people takes patience, courage, motivation and social awareness.
When one is given a platform and possesses each of those characteristics, they’re more than capable of making a change.
One student at Waverly High School honed in on his abilities and made something of it - something that most others would take years to establish or even think of.
Sophomore Hunter Radenslaben started a Twitter account under the handle of @AthleteNationCO in the summer before his eighth grade year.
In just a week, he rounded up about 1,000 followers. As a middle schooler attending a small school like Waverly, that was incredible progress.
His beginning was nothing unusual; it was just a spark of motivation after noticing what effect certain accounts had on him.
“I was following this ‘Playing for Him’ account and it just tweeted Christian athlete stuff, and it really helped me,” Radenslaben said. “It was kind of weird, you don’t really think of a Twitter account inspiring people, but it was motivating, and I decided I wanted to do the same thing for others.”
While athletes make up a majority of Radenslaben’s audience, he welcomes anybody.
“The United States revolves around sports, and athletes play a big role in society. I felt as if basing the account around that would attract the biggest audience,” Radenslaben said. “They make up a majority of my followers, but it’s not limited to athletes. I’m open to anyone that follows me.”
Many people’s worries are always set into their follower count or their number of retweets and favorites. One new Twitter release has also offered users an opportunity to see their analytics (number of individuals who view a particular tweet). Twitter Analytics offers details such as where and when a tweet was accessed, where followers are from according to their country and which posts get the most attention.
However, Radenslaben isn’t worried about the numbers.
Athlete Nation currently follows 2,651 and has a prodigious audience consisting of 60.3 thousand. Based off the account’s last ten tweets, its average number of retweets is over 750, and the average number of favorites is over 620.
The number of impressions in the last 28 days based off his analytics is four million.
Those statistics make it hard to believe that there is only one person behind the maintenance of each account affiliated with Athlete Nation, and even harder to believe a 16-year-old from Waverly runs it.
“For this account, I don’t go to a lot of people,” Radenslaben said. “I keep to myself with the business of it. I really take my own thoughts and do what I feel is right.”
As other accounts have done for him, his ultimate purpose is to further motivate athletes and teenagers on and off the court, track, field or mat.
“I want to tweet stuff that people can relate to, and I want people to realize they’re not facing their struggles alone. I want people to see my tweets and be able to think, ‘Wow, what I’m struggling with is not that big of a deal, I can get through it,’” Radenslaben said. “I just want to make a positive impact on people’s lives.”
His teachers saw potential in him even before the account.
“Hunter has endured more life lessons than I can even imagine,” middle school teacher Kellie Milleson said. “Through it all, he’s displayed a positive, can-do attitude. Hunter has a genuine heart and is a natural leader, which is something you can’t teach.”
Family of Radenslaben also got to witness growth and progress through the years and know exactly what makes him qualified.
“What makes him capable of running the account and succeeding with it is not having that fear of failing,” Hunter’s uncle Scott Radenslaben said. “From his dad, he’s got great work ethic. From his mom, he has tremendous courage.”
Radenslaben’s mother, Taina Radenslaben, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at an early age and was told that she would never have kids. She beat the odds and ended up having two: Hunter and his sister Ashley.
In 2008, his mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through chemotherapy and radiation and came out of the process stronger than ever.
“It was tough, but I got to see how strong she was,” Radenslaben said. “Her faith through it all was just amazing and that’s what’s inspired me in a lot of ways.”
In 2010, Taina was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2013. She was informed that it was terminal cancer and told she wasn’t going to make it. But even with that knowledge, her courage didn’t waver.
“The doctors told her it was terminal cancer and that she wasn’t going to make it. They said they’re going to try this treatment and they’re going to see how it works,” Radenslaben said.
About a year after the start of the treatment, Taina passed away on Aug. 4, but it’s safe to say she fought until the very end.
“My mom was definitely tough; she was working full days up until a week before she passed,” Radenslaben said. “It was incredible the way she battled through everything. It made me want to make a difference in people’s lives just as she did.”
Saying that Radenslaben has made a difference in people’s lives is not a matter of opinion, but rather of the words from a few of his 60-plus thousand followers.
“That’s where Athlete Nation differs from other accounts: the fact that the guy who runs it cares for each of his followers and is out here interacting with them, opposed to just posting things for entertainment,” Athlete Nation follower Michael Jensen said.
Radenslaben himself takes pride in actually talking to his followers as well.
“I don’t try to act like I’m some robot that doesn’t interact with my followers,” Radenslaben said. “If you look through the tweets, I try my best to reply to people and if I see someone constantly retweeting my tweets, I’ll follow them back.”
For Hunter, running a successful Twitter account isn’t where he’s complacent. He has bigger plans in mind that many people are ready to help him fulfill.
“I have a website made which isn’t published yet, but what I want to do is start selling apparel through my account and online,” Radenslaben said. “I think there’s a lot of people that would be interested in something like that.”
And apparel is only the beginning.
“I think starting the sale of clothing would be a good way to start it off, and in the distant future, what I want to do is open Athlete Nation up to an even bigger audience,” Radenslaben said. “I want to open up athlete-based camps. Professional athletes could come to the camps and talk, give their testimonies and share their experiences. That’s one way I can reach out to people more personally than just through tweets on an account.”
As for right now, Radenslaben’s impact stems from tweets and direct messages, but he has so much more in mind. His viewer base is always expanding, he has a website in the works and he and his supporters have high hopes for what’s next in the Athlete Nation.
