Abbreviation For Missouri

Miami coaches say recruiting has changed

OXFORD — College recruiting isn’t what it used to be. Everything has changed, and not just a little.

Improved technology has made the process of landing that special, perfect-fit athlete so much easier. And so much more frustrating. Just ask Miami University’s Charlie Coles, Maria Fantanarosa and Don Treadwell. They’ve seen, first hand, the fundamental changes in recruiting over a combined span of 72 years on the road.

Technology rules

Treadwell still is two months away from taking the field for the first time as a head football coach, but when it comes to recruiting he is an old-timer.

“To be honest, I’ve been involved in recruiting for at least 30 years, ever since I was a grad assistant,” Treadwell said.

College recruiting began to emerge from the dark ages about a decade ago.

“No question, 10 years ago you started seeing a lot of changes starting with the advent of new technology,” he said. “These recruiting services have produced so much insight into the location of potential athletes, they do a lot of the leg work. Almost every state has their own recruiting service.”

But coaches who rely too much on these services, he warned, do so at their own peril.

“It’s like a GPS that has a general idea of when you’re going but doesn’t have the exact address,” Treadwell said, adding that recruiting services “can’t show everything.” Statistics, yes. Attitude, demeanor, performance in the classroom, no.

“It just helps you with time management,” he said.

Expanding the field

Technology also has allowed coaches to reach farther, to look beyond their university’s own backyard. Now a laptop and the Internet can be two of a coach’s most valuable recruiting tools.

“Years ago you would just usually recruit Ohio and maybe Indiana and maybe look at Kentucky,” said Coles, who is in his 16th year at the helm of Miami men’s basketball.

“But with all of the technology, you know about all the kids across the country,” he said. “It used to be only the big schools who knew all the kids.”

Over the last several years Coles’ roster has included players from Georgia, Missouri, California and Colorado.

Another thing which has helped expand the recruiting base, according to Fantanarosa, the Miami women’s basketball coach, is an increase in the size of coaching staffs.

Business Writing: A Place for Two-Letter State Abbreviations

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You may have recognized them instantly, but many adults have spent more time reading email and text messages than noticing state abbreviations on envelopes. Like them, your international business readers may not easily recognize on that list Nebraska (not Nevada), Alabama (not Alaska), Colorado (not Connecticut), Iowa (not Indiana), and Massachusetts (not Maine or Maryland).

Customers seeking a restaurant, hotel, or business in Nevada don't want one in Nebraska, so be sure to make your location clear to potential customers and visitors by spelling out the state name.

The place for two-letter state abbreviations is on envelopes between the city and the zip code. They were created to fill that spot, and that is where they belong.

Guideline: In business writing and journalism, when you refer to a state in text (rather than a chart), always spell it out. That way, your reader will recognize Virginia right away rather than having to translate VA acknowledges the growing popularity of the two-letter postal versions. My Microsoft spelling and grammar checker flagged the abbreviations above, suggesting the two-letter postal versions.