GREENCASTLE, Pa. — As the Greencastle-Antrim High School color guard team prepares for competition season, one longtime coach is always critiquing and uplifting.
"It's art and motion and I think when you marry the two together, there's something cool that happens there," said Ryan Eberly, a Greencastle resident who's been coaching since 2000.
Last season, something cool did happen on the practice field when Eberly posted a video spinning a rifle to TikTok.
"I saw him recording them at practice and we're all like, 'what are you doing'?" recalled Addie Stouffer, a Senior color guard performer.
"I did a little routine, posted it, didn't think anything about it until the next morning, and it had like, a lot of hits," Eberly said. "They just thought I was some old dad, but I wasn't."
Back in the day, Eberly was the only boy on the Greencastle Antrim color guard team.
"Now it's a lot more accepted than it was in the 90's," he said. "I always felt like, if people are going to watch me, I have to be the best and I have to work extra hard."
That hard work paid off in a big way, catching the attention of viewers across the country.
"[I was] texting my kids like, at which point do you consider it viral?" he said.
"I was kind of shocked," said Briana Cosey, a Junior color guard performer. "I did not think he'd actually get over a million views on a video."
He didn't get one million -- try four million.
Just a few weeks later he'd blown up again. This time he showed off his flag skills over an N-SYNC hit to the tune of more than eleven million views.
His spectacular moves even earned him a comment from one of the song's performers.
"I was like 'this is really cool.'" Eberly said. "I'm telling these kids, Lance Bass! They're like who is that? I'm like, ask your mom. She'll know."
Eberly's team said his newfound fame hasn't changed him.
"To everyone else, he's like TikTok famous," Stouffer said. "We're like, yeah he's our coach."
Now, Eberly posts tutorial videos, sharing his tricks with a new generation just like he does on the practice field.
Eberly posts on TikTok under the username @ryan1eberly.