How this Hayden High School student became a part of Kansas State's social media presence

Dylan Foster has always loved sports, he's played golf and basketball but his favorite sport is football.

Just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Foster began to mess around designing graphics on his laptop after doing so on his phone prior to that.

That's turned into an opportunity to design graphics for some of the top athletes in the state.

Foster started by helping create graphics for Hayden High School basketball

Foster, a senior at Hayden High school this fall, was a Kansas State fan growing up and went to basketball and football games as a kid.

He says he doesn't remember when he started making graphics on his phone, but with his love for sports, seeing two things he enjoys come together makes sense.

"I used to make stuff like on my phone, simple stuff," said Foster. "But with COVID I started making (graphics) with Photoshop and that stuff. I just kind of stuck with it."

He watched YouTube tutorials about making graphics on his computer. As he made more, he was able to put his own flavor into his creations. He said it's a matter of trial and error to see what works and doesn't.

Designing a graphic can take anywhere from one to four hours for Foster. It started as a 20- to 30-minute process when he first began.

"When you're just trying everything out and something's not working right you have to go through everything and figure out why it's not," said Foster. "It's quite a process, but now that I know what I'm doing, it's a lot easier."

This winter, you might've noticed some graphics on the Hayden boys basketball team account. Those were made by Foster, who was asked by coach Dwayne Paul to help out with the team's social media.

Foster was given the autonomy to take pictures of the team at games and post his graphics to the team account while also serving as a de facto social media manager, updating the account with scores.

"Everyone kind of knew that I did stuff like that from my Twitter," said Foster of the graphics he made for the basketball team. "They all really liked the to see those on the Hayden account.

"Every game, they would all screenshot it and post it to Instagram, Snapchat, everything like that. It was really cool."

Since April of this year, he's been designing recruiting graphics for Kansas State football and basketball.

An opportunity with Kansas State

If you look at Foster's Twitter, his first media tweet is of a graphic he made as a fan of quarterback Skylar Thompson in November 2019.

He would post the various graphics he made of Kansas State athletes, tagging the athletes in them and the team he was designing it for, for fun.

It was tough to make Kansas State graphics initially as he transitioned to working on the computer as it came during the height of the pandemic and kids weren't taking any visits to colleges.

Those visits are where kids tour campus, meet players and coaches and often take pictures adorned in the gear of whatever school they're visiting.

Nonetheless, he made it work and his reach and audience began to grow as people shared his work and that turned into an opportunity when football staff reached out to him via Twitter.

Foster was invited to campus this year and spent a day at Kansas State, essentially as a recruit, given a tour of the campus with his dad while getting an opportunity to watch the team practice and meet some players and coaches.

"(Kansas State) invited me to go tour up there, like their football offices and stuff in March," said Foster. "But they didn't think they could hire me until I was out of high school."

But Foster was contacted in April by the athletic department who had looked into it and told him long as he had a title, he could be paid to work for them.

"I just love to do it. I didn't expect anything to be able to happen (until college)" said Foster. "So now that I get do it for a job, it's awesome. I was pretty stoked."

It's also something Foster said he never saw coming.

"I remember when I had four followers and no profile picture," said Foster. "I used to post something on Twitter and get five likes. I still liked to do it because I thought it was cool, but I didn't think it'd get this big.

"I was posting stuff and no one was ever really seeing it to now thousands? Yeah, it's awesome."

Today, Foster mainly makes graphics for Kansas State football and basketball recruits but said he can pitch in wherever the athletic department needs him.

What's next for the high school graphics designer?

Foster said although he's had a great time getting involved and getting his name out there, he's not sure graphic design is something he wants to do career wise.

He said it's really more of a hobby for him and mentioned possibly getting into business when he goes to college.

Last summer, Foster was visiting Baylor with his dad as he continues to look for the school he wants to attend for college.

His dad knew the author of Baylor Basketball head coach Scott Drew's book and was able to get in touch with him.

That turned into a Drew giving the Fosters a tour of the Baylor basketball offices where they met former Baylor assistant, and now Kansas State basketball head coach, Jerome Tang.

This year, the Fosters went to the Texas vs. Baylor basketball game and the night before the game, they ran into Tang at a restaurant where he came up and talked to them for 10 or so minutes.

"When he walked off," said Foster. "I turn to my dad and I go, 'Man, how awesome would it be if he was our coach at K State?'"

Contact Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @SethKinker

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Hayden student gets job designing graphics for K-State recruits