Tyler Jackson—she digs, passes, serves, hits, and tweets. Photo by Robert Burge.

At the intersection of sports and media we noted last week that in the by gone I would track my favorite out of town teams and athletes with a phone sitting next to a radio. I got enough comments to dare a part two and peek into the future.

That is the umbrella that covers the universe of MySpace. Facebook, Insta-gram, LinkedIn and the 900 pound gorilla in the room, Twitter. The queen of social media in my book is #1 on your program, the 5’8″ all purpose star for women’s volleyball, Tyler Jackson (her coach moves her all around his line-up and all TJ says is “put me where I can help the team”).

As of press time Jackson had already posted 28,549 tweets (those 141 character or less Twitter messages) on everything from life with roommates (basically very positive) her favorite fast food spots (Wings, Yogurtland and Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles) and keeping her posse of fellow athletes on their toes. Oh yes, as befits young ladies these days, a constantly changing set of hair styles and glam photos. After all it is social media!

There are lumps in the oatmeal too. Ohio State’s third-string quarterback Cardale Jones made his feelings about attending classes last week on Twitter. “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS,” he wrote. The tweet and Jones’ entire account have been deleted, but multiple media outlets captured Jones’ words before they vanished.

Now less you think Jackson is out there by herself lots of corporations and well endorsed athletes’ use social media. For example the corporate cutie with LBSU paper Misty May. And wannabes like a court full of recent men’s basketball players such as Casper Ware, Greg Plater, Donavan Morris and Gene Phelps. What you won’t see after the men actually start practice is tweets but current men’s hoopers such as the clever writer and ball handler Mike Caffey. The coach will close down their Twitter accounts starting Friday night.

Nervous coaches and college administrator’s aside, for starving artists such as sports columnists, Twitter is a rich mine field for 411 on a wide variety of topics. Case in point basketball genius Jay Bilis surveyed twitter nation for ideas on the easiest college course for athletes.

His list: Tension Control and South American Indians at his alma mater; Oceanography in that land locked Kansas State, Wines and Vines at the U of Minnesota, Alcohol and Drugs, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, TV and Film in Pop Culture, Indiana U; Sex and the Bible, U-Conn; History of Horror Films, at Syracuse perhaps Jim Boehiem at half time.

FINISHING DUST—Tennis joins a number of other spring sports (and basketball) with fall competition. The best of last weekend for the Beach was in second flight (not the top seeds) when Sophomore Karolina Rozenberg defeated UC Irvine’s Sarah Gong in the championship match of the second flight of the Fullerton Invitational (2-6, 7-6, 6-3) to claim the biggest win of the day for the 49ers.

The top seed designee is Klaudia Malenovska who reached the championship in the top flight of singles but lost 6-2, 6-3 in the finals. The next net action for Long Beach State comes up October 18th in the very tough ITA Southwest Regional.

In softball the sweethearts of swat have a fall softball schedule of eight games, including seven at the 49er Softball Complex, between Friday, Oct. 12, and Monday, November 12. LBSU opens the fall when it hosts Fullerton Junior College on Friday at 2:30PM at home.

The defending Big West Conference champions return 15 letter winners, including nine starters, off a team that advanced to the NCAA Regionals in Tempe, Ariz. Six of the 49ers’ returning starters earned Big West all-conference honors, including first-team selections Cya Neal (2nd Base) and Erin Jones-Wesley (P) plus third baseman Hannah De Gaetano, utility/designated player Karli Sandoval and centerfielder Leilani Tupua-Tautalatasi. They all earned second-team All-Big West honors, while shortstop Shayna Kimbrough claimed honorable mention all-league honors.

Closing up the calendar women’s soccer had a sad Sunday giving up a 2-0 half time lead to Cal Poly and now have a long bus ride to contemplate things futball-ish to Davis and Pacific while volleyball, finally getting semi-healthy plays at Riverside on Thursday and Fullerton on Saturday.—DR. DAN