At 4:53 a.m. on June 22, Cal field hockey coach Shellie Onstead was locked inside her hotel room in Virginia Beach because of a broken door handle.

At 6:36 p.m. on June 12, Bears volleyball players Meagan Schmitt and Tarah Murrey finished up a yoga workout. That weekend, teammate Mindi Wiley went home to Sonoma, Calif., while libero Kristen Kathan travelled to Boston to visit her grandmother.

Although it might seem like it, fans aren't accessing this personal information through stalking. They're getting it on Twitter.

"Everybody is talking about Twitter. Updating their Twitter. Who are you following on Twitter?" Cal Assistant Media Relations Director Anna Oleson-Wheeler said. "So it's important to keep up with that and be at the forefront of that, or you'll get left behind."

Twitter is described on its website as a social networking tool built around the question, "What are you doing?" The answer, posted by the user on their own home page in 140 characters or fewer, is the way that Twitter "makes it easy for folks to stay connected."

Over the past six months, Twitter has exploded. According to Nielsen-the marketing and media information company-Twitter's growth has increased a stunning 1,382% from 2008 to 2009.

Cal athletics has noticed. So far, athletic director Sandy Barbour, football coach Jeff Tedford, women's crew coach Dave O'Neill, Onstead and the men's gymnastics, women's soccer and volleyball teams have all added Twitter accounts.

"I was actually really resistant at first. It was just one more thing to deal with," Onstead, who signed up for Twitter in April, said. "But it turned out to be great."

Twitter's seemingly narcissistic basis-keeping people constantly updated on what you're doing-has turned out to be just the right formula for facilitating fan/team interaction. In real time, fans can find out where Onstead is recruiting, see the view from Tedford's office or learn about the summer jobs of the volleyball team.

"There's a more personal connection and it's a different way to get your information," Oleson-Wheeler, who maintains the men's gymnastics and women's soccer Twitters, said. "It's not just the who, what, when, where, why."

Still, it seems odd that Cal would pick up on a social networking site whose most-followed user is actor Ashton Kutcher. But both Cal media relations and Onstead agree that Twitter's capacity for personal interaction-something that has made its celebrity users so popular-translates well to personalizing the Bears for their fans. And that's something that the traditional forms of media used by the athletic department-like its website-often lack.

"We've definitely been talking about it in the (media relations department) meetings," Oleson-Wheeler said. "We do have a departmental plan."

They're not alone, as evidenced by the proliferation of Pac-10 football coaches on Twitter. Since first joining on May 12, Tedford has garnered over 850 followers. USC football coach Pete Carroll has more than 29,000. Stanford's coach Jim Harbaugh has over 1,500, and Washington's Steve Sarkisian has a little more than 5,000. Nearly every major Division I athletic program-and most conferences-has also added a Twitter page.

But that's not the only reason Twitter has exploded in collegiate athletic programs across the nation.

"I'm not going to lie," Onstead said. "It was a good little recruiting thing to stay in touch legally with young prospects."

By updating her Twitter, Onstead is able to show potential recruits the day-to-day operations in the Cal field hockey program, something they couldn't get elsewhere. It also gives recruits a glimpse into the personalities of the coaches who maintain their own pages, like O'Neill, who talks about his charitable efforts on his.

"Ironically, in the next coaches' meeting I was in here (after joining Twitter) a couple coaches asked about it," Onstead said. "And I thought clearly this was going to be the next thing."

Based on its reception in the Cal athletic department and athletic departments across the nation, Twitter isn't going to be the next big thing.

It already is.

Tags: SHELLIE ONSTEAD, CAL ATHLETICS, TWITTER, JEFF TEDFORD