Leading off today: A tip of the cap to Mike Dougherty and Phil Terrigno of The Journal News for their story Sunday on Twitter and social media as it relates to young athletes. It's as informative and all-encompassing as anything I've read on the topic in a long time.
As noted early in the story, "[T]he conversation isn’t always tasteful. Tweets attributed to the accounts of student-athletes from the Lower Hudson Valley have included profanity; references to underage drinking; and racist, homophobic and sexually explicit material."
In a society of free speech, accountability can easily fall by the wayside.
“I knew that a lot of my kids were on Twitter,” Pelham ice hockey coach and relative Twitter newcomer Ed Witz told the paper. “I wanted to monitor it because I’m not big on surprises. There is no way to police Twitter. You really can’t tell kids they can’t be on there, so you let them know they are going to be held accountable. You put something on Twitter, and it’s a public statement.”
A few notables from the special report -- which includes a sidebar on some Twitter accounts worth following:
• Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has 20.5 million Twitter followers, LeBron James has 9.4 million and Serena Williams has 3.8 million. Marquee athletes typically hire a social media consultant to do the actual thumb work.
• The Ossining girls basketball team made a pact a year ago to stay off Twitter until their season was over. “We saw all the things that happened to athletes by putting their lives out there," former Pride captain Daniella Ferrao said. "We were just like, ‘If we can’t go five months without Twitter, it’s really sad.’"
• Robert Zayas, executive director of the NYSPHSAA, said there has been discussion about adding guidelines for the use of social media to the code of conduct. A California school district requires high school students to sign a social media contract that spells out penalties for misconduct.
You can read The Journal News mainbar here.
Milestones: Fayetteville-Manlius boys soccer coach Jeff Hammond picked up career win No. 400 Saturday with a 4-0 triumph against Aquinas. Hammond is 400-84-28 early in his 27th season on the sideline.
Greene field hockey coach Sue Carlin also hit 400 wit a win over the weekend.
