Photo by Laura Mansfield
Story by Maks Goldenshteyn
In:Site staff reporter
Most would probably agree that if given the chance, embattled former University of Washington football coach Tyrone Willingham would be too chicken to “tweet.”
But in a radical departure from the stern-mannered Willingham — ‘Paint Dry Ty,’ according to a local columnist because of his no-fun approach – new football coach Steve Sarkisian has joined the ranks of numerous other sports guys and celebs who use Twitter.
Granted, he’s no Ashton Kutcher, the first person to gain one million followers on the popular micro-blogging tool. But Sarkisian’s Twitter account (@CoachSark) has amassed about 2,700 followers.
“This is a great football program. It’s a great university. We want people to know it,” Sarkisian told the media back in February about why he’s using Twitter. “We want people’s interest level to be high.”
And as the successor to a crabby coach with a 0-12 team, Sarkisian will need to get the most he can out of the 140-character-limit tweets. Already he’s busy reaching out using tools like Twitter, Facebook and a personal blog (www.coachsark.com).
He keeps keep fans caught up on the mundane (staff meetings), the routine (practice) and the ordinary (other UW sports scores).
9:22 a.m., April 4: What a great day for football, practice starts at 1pm. Lets GO DAWGS!
But then there’s the occasional tweet that offers insight into Sarkisian’s personal life, like his baby daughter Taylor’s first birthday, or a regular old outing to the ballgame.
1 p.m., April 13: Fired up! Going to the Seattle Mariners game tomorrow. Hope to get to play with the new Nintendo Dsi game system.
“We’re connecting to fans more, but more importantly, we’re connecting with them on a different level,” said Richard Kilwien, the school’s associate athletic director for communications. “It feels like a more personal level.”
And unlike USC head coach Pete Carroll, under whom Sarkisian served as an offensive coordinator, Sarkisian tweets for himself except during each of the team’s four weekly practices, opened up entirely to fans and reporters for the first time in years.
On those occasions UW football’s director of player personnel Jared Blank tweets practice updates and posts pictures of the scrimmages.
“We want people to know how hard our coaches are working, how hard our kids are working,” Sarkisian said.
Officials at the UW athletic department say the school’s venture into the world of social networking was a bit of a no-brainer.
In addition to Sarkisian and Carroll, coaches like the University of Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez, the University of Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin, the University of Illinois’ Ron Zook and the University of Georgia’s Mark Richt are all a-Twitter.
“It’s pretty simple really — the whole social media phenomenon has taken the Internet by storm,” said Kilwien. “I know that the percentage of Americans who are online as part of social media is growing rapidly. For us to not be a part of it would be a little short-sighted.”
Pro hoopsters have been among the most eager athletes to embrace social networking, led by comical Phoenix Suns superstar Shaquille O’Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) who has over 700,000 followers.
O’Neal had plenty of advice for Oprah last week after she tweeted for the first time, writing in all caps:
HI TWITTERS . THANK YOU FOR A WARM WELCOME. FEELING REALLY 21st CENTURY.
The Big Diesel’s response: u doin good. jus keep it real n dnt ova cook da tweets hahaha.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva (@CV31) tweeted during the halftime of a game from the team locker room saying, I gotta step up. He received more than an earful from head coach Scott Skiles afterward, who would later ban in-game tweeting.
Former UW forward and current NBA hopeful Jon Brockman (@JBROCK40) recently made the leap from lecture-hall mainstay Facebook (where he is maxed out at 5,000 friends) to Twitter (where he has 1,400 followers).
And after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before a Mariners game at Safeco Field, the 6-foot-7, 255-pound baller-turned-hurler tried to explain to fans why he bounced the offering into the dirt: The mound is alot farther than it looks. Threw the heat, but was a little low.
Then there’s Lance Armstrong (@LanceArmstrong) being, well, Lance Armstrong. Just off the bike. 6 hrs. Amazing ride. Harder than hell tho. Oh wait, that’s the way I like it.
But that doesn’t mean that everyone has caught on.
Asked about Twitter not too long ago UW basketball coach Lorenzo Romar looked puzzled.
“I could tell you if I knew what that was,” he said quizzically.
Yet for a UW football program attempting to resurrect itself from the burn of a winless season, a little extra openness is a welcomed thing.
And all it takes is a bit of typing. A click of a button. A post public to the world.
“We think we’re getting our message across,” Sarkisian said.
Tweeting about a first win would probably go a long way too.
