Football: Recruiting, Facebook and Twitter. It’s a vicious circle in the recruiting landscape. Also, a Michigan HS team has two-a-days from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Say what?!

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A couple interesting reads from the New York Times.

The first article is in regards to how the recruiting process has evolved with the growth of social media. Coaches and recruits, according to the New York Times, say Facebook accounts for 50 percent of their recruiting interaction. Twitter is second and gaining ground, they say, with its direct-messaging function offering the bite-size communication preferred by teenagers.

Here’s an interesting tidbit:

In the multimillion-dollar businesses of college football and men’s basketball, the shift toward social media in recruiting has come partly because the N.C.A.A. barred coaches from text-messaging athletes in 2007, citing their effect on recruits’ cellphone bills as one reason. But coaches and experts say the increasing use of social media is indicative of communication trends, as voice mail is considered superfluous, e-mail is pass and phone conversations are often clipped and awkward.

Also from the New York Times, a high school football team in Michigan has two-a-days for a week from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Fordson High School’s enrollment is more than 90 percent Muslim and this week of two-a-day practices coincides with Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, when adherents refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. According to the story, This allows players to break their fast at sunset, drink liquids and eat a light meal, practice in the relative cool of what has been a baking summer, then eat again before sunrise.

Good reads.

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