As reported by Opposing Views, and quickly disseminated across the web, the 5-year-old Dzheus completely stole the show during a testimonial match for Belarussian side Torpedo Zhodino star Vadim Evseev. With Evseev set to retire, the club hosted a final testimonial for its star, with Evseev's club rolling to a 4-1 lead.

Yet that lead would expand in the most unlikely of circumstances when Evseev was taken off the pitch and replaced by none other than the 5-year-old Dzheus, who wasted little time before slotting in his side's fifth goal of the game.

Yes, Dzheus was only brought on as a gimmicky thank you meant for his father, who runs an all-Russian Children's Center called Eaglet. Yes, the defense disintegrated as quicly as Moses parting the red sea, leaving Dzheus with a pretty clear take on goal.

Still, any time a 5-year-old scores an actual, registered goal in a professional soccer match, that is some news. In this case the news is that Dzheus is a budding talent and Evseev is such a well respected character that opponents are even to help one of his successors find the goal to bring a smile to Torpedo's loyal fans.

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According to Milwaukee CBS affiliate WDJT, 31-year-old Steven Springsteen-Hensel was arrested in the parking lot of an Elkhorn middle school after police officers were tipped off to the advances Springsteen-Hensel had made to a teenager by a school resources officer.

Springsteen-Hensel, who is an Elkhorn resident, was arrested and held on bail of $15,000 and made his first court appearance in the case against him on Wednesday afternoon. Milwaukee Fox affiliate WITI reported that Springsteen-Hensel has admitted to his role in the incident, and has been banned from making any contact whatsoever with minors, as well as a blanket ban from using computers or cell phones for any reasons.

Meanwhile, the Elkhorn Wrestling Club, for which Sprinsteen-Hensel coached along with his role running the Southern Lakes Wrestling Center, quickly cut all ties with the coach despite Springsteen-Hensel's position on the Elkhorn Club's Board of Directors.

"We were completely shocked and devastated," Travis Showalter, vice president of the Elkhorn Wrestling Club, told the Janesville Gazette. "The person that you believed and trusted, this has come to the surface, and you don't know who this person really is.

"It's difficult to explain [to children] what Mr. Hensel's being charged with, and you've got to kind of make it so that he can understand it, yet it doesn't introduce him to a whole world that an 8-year-old doesn't need to know about."

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As Cincinnati.com and other national media outlets reported, Kentucky will join Illinois as the second state to sponsor a high school bass fishing state championship, starting next April.

"I think it's fantastic. The earlier the exposure to bass fishing the better," Matt Luken told Cincinnati.com. "I talk to people all the time that wished they had bass fishing in college. We can say the same thing that we wish we had it in high school."

Kentucky's High School Athletic Association announced back in February that bass fishing, bowling and competitive cheer would be added as sports in the coming year.

The current competitive format would have two student-anglers fish from a boat that's driven by an adult. The best five fish for each team member would be added up to determine a winner based on total weight. All fish will then be released after the weigh-in.

"It's one of those programs that initially people kind of laugh about and go, 'Oh, you're kidding me,'" Dave Gannaway, who helped Illinois high schools get a bass fishing championship, told Cincinnati.com.

But the sport is no joke. States like Kentucky and Illinois have been adding different sports to the usual rotation over the last couple of years. Arizona became the first state to make beach volleyball a sanctioned high school sport just last year.

Honestly, I think adding bass fishing is a great idea. So long as high schools are willing and able to field a team, I could definitely see this taking off. Illinois announced last year that they've gone from 99 high school bass fishing teams to 232 in the past four years.

If anything, the sport gives other students that don't want to play baseball or football as chance to compete in a sport on the high school level against their peers. And that's never a bad thing.

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As profiled by the Bellevue Reporter and Seattle's KING-5 TV, Interlake (Wash.) High's recently eliminated Class 2A state playoff squad featured a talented pitching staff that included one particularly notable senior: Eleanor Worley.

Worley missed most of her final campaign — the only one spent on the Interlake varsity squad — but still got one notable start when she took the mound for Interlake's home finale against Juanita (Wash.) High. In that game, the teen who had showed plenty of moxie in rehabbing from arm struggles throughout the season pitched an impressive five innings, eventually departing after allowing just three runs and striking out a pair en route to earning what would be her lone varsity baseball victory.

"It really wasn't any different," Worley said of pitching in a varsity game. "I'm just focused on doing my job out there."

In fact, the only thing that may have been different was the treatment Worley received because of her hair. Unlike male players, Worley wears a braid that reaches her waist, and Juanita batters demanded that she tuck the hair into her jersey so it wouldn't be a distraction for batters.

As it turns out, Juanita needed more than a lack of distractions to pull out a victory against Worley, who will depart high school having been part of a playoff baseball squad (Interlake eventually fell in the Class 2A playoffs to Seattle (Wash.) Archbishop Murphy).

"In the end, it's about doing a job, not who is out there doing it," Worley said. "If someone can play, that is all that matters."

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Now, for the first time, an innovative young man has filmed a trick shot video for his own position, long snapper, and he has produced a true gem.

As featured on ESPN Boston and a variety of other sites, the video above was filmed by Cambridge (Mass.) Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School senior Nick DiChiara, who played football throughout his time at the school. Helped along most notably by BB&N teammate Eric Olson, DiChiara rattled off a series of trick snaps in the school locker room, in the gym, the parking lot, the baseball field and even Harvard Stadium.

Throughout it all, DiChiara celebrates successful trick snaps as if he's just body-slammed someone in a WWE ring. Let's face it: He has the hair to pull of just such a feat.

While DiChiara is trying to make his name as a wild long snapper, his football skill set goes far beyond snapping the ball over incredibly long distances. At BB&N, DiChiara played at wide receiver and linebacker, where he made a legitimate impact in the ISL.

It's too early to know how DiChiara's long snapping glory will go down at Colgate. Will he become a campus celebrity with his ability to knock a coke can out of a walking classmate's hand? Will he thrill his roommates with his ability to close a door with a football from 40 yards?

No matter what he does from here out, DiChiara can rest easy knowing that he has made a name for himself as one of the (or possibly the only?) preeminent trick long snappers of our time.

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To be fair, Prep Rally has no idea who the unfortunate cheerleader who happened to either A) kick herself in the head, or B) slip in untimely circumstances, actually was. What we do know is that the video that depicts her least glorious moment — and was brought to Prep Rally's attention by NBC blog Off the Bench — was uploaded to YouTube by a teenager named Natalie Mudd, who happens to be a student at Jefferson City (Mo.) Blair Oaks High.

Add to that the fact that the students in question have all the marks of being high schoolers working out at a high school field, and it's pretty safe to say that the video can serve as a historical document about the risks inherent in school spirit at the prep ranks.

Naturally, the most important concern is that the unfortunate cheerleader in question avoided any kind of a serious injury. Based on her reaction — and the fact that only her butt and elbow hit the ground with any force — it seems safe to say that she at least achieved that.

In the process, she also showed that she has a heck of a sense of humor about her own cheer capacity. Good for her. Anyone who can take a foot to the face or slip into a brief behind injury is bound for greatness if they can laugh at themselves.

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Then, some schools even go a step further, like the University of Georgia. When the Bulldogs needed to fill a vacancy for an on-campus recruiting coordinator, the Bulldogs passed over a variety of analysts in the recruiting space to hire a man who was most recently serving as the director of Under Armour football camps in the state, who happened to have one key prior role on his resume: He formerly coached the nation's top recruit, Loganville (Ga.) Grayson High defensive end Robert Nkemdiche, early in the top prospect's career.

To be fair, Daryl Jones, the man who landed the recruiter position, is a fully qualified candidate. Before taking the reins of Under Armour's Georgia prep operations, Jones coached at different schools for 17 years. That time certainly gave Jones ample opportunities to forge bonds with other schools across Georgia and the Southeast, from where UGA draws nearly all of its recruits.

Still, there is bound to be skepticism about Jones' appointment because of his relationship with Nkemdiche, an in-state recruit who might be the best prospect out of the state of Georgia in years. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound beast of a defensive lineman is considered a plug-and-play solution on the defensive line for any team with a hole, making him arguably the nation's most sought after 5-star recruit in the Class of 2013.

Whether hiring Jones -- whom Nkemdiche raved about in an interview with ESPN -- can help bring the big man into the fold in Athens remains to be seen. In the meantime many will continue to wonder whether UGA's decision to bring on board a man who was no longer a coach or a recruiting analyst was done independently of the chance to impress one of the best young football players to hit the Georgia scene in a long, long time.

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As reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Osseo eventually eked out a 6-5 victory against Coon Rapids in 19 innings, the final three of which were played two days after the original game ran out of sunlight after 16 tense innings.

By the time it was over, the regular-season matchup had spread across more than five hours of game time and set four state records: Most at-bats by a team (Osseo came to the plate a whopping 68 times), most at-bats by a player (six hitters batted nine times), most sacrifice bunts (Coon Rapids completed five) and most strikeouts by a player (an Osseo batter tied the state mark with five Ks).

When the teams met to conclude the original game two days after it was postponed by darkness, both squads had to honor their original lineups, including all of the pitching and position switches that had come before darkness fell. That made things rather interesting.

Fitting for the drama that preceded it, when the game finally did reach its final frame, Coon Rapids loaded the bases with just one out in the bottom of the 19^th only to end the game by hitting into a double play.

Whether or not either Minnesota squad competes in a marathon match like their wild May extra-inning affair again, they can all look back fondly on what has to be one of the cleanest extra-inning games ever played at any level: In 19 innings the two teams combined to make just one error.

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As reported by the Dallas Morning News, Texas powerhouse softball program Plano (Texas) East High reached the Class 5A Region I semifinals thanks to a narrow, 3-2, eight-inning victory against area rival Flower Mound (Texas) High. Yet Plano East, which has since moved on to the regional finals, almost never even reached extra innings because it appeared that Flower Mound won the matchup with a walk-off hit, going so far as to celebrate the monumental victory until Plano East catcher K.K. Stevens walked up and tagged out Flower Mound's Kelly Powell, who thought she had just scored the winning run.

Here's what happened: With two outs in the seventh inning, Powell came sliding in to home. Stevens tried to apply a tag on Powell during a play at the plate, but she missed. The umpire gave a safe signal.

That safe signal sent the Flower Mound team into delirium as it celebrated what it assumed was a berth in the regional semifinals. That's when Plano East coach Karen Kalhoefer walked over to Stevens and told her to tag Powell. She did so, and the umpire signaled out, ending the frame and sending the elimination game into extra innings, where Plano East scored and advanced.

So, what was the umpire signaling if he threw up the safe sign? As it turns out, he was actually doing his job. According to Article 9 of the National High School Federations Baseball Rulebook, if a runner misses the plate, an umpire is instructed to hesitate slightly. If no one applies a tag, he then is supposed to signal safe. However, if the defending team then appeals the safe call and either tags the runner or touches home plate, the umpire is then to call the runner out.

The rule can seem confusing, and left Flower Mound fuming. Still, by the letter of the law, the umpire got the call right, assuming that Powell had actually missed the plate.

That in itself could be a matter of contention, but in this case there happens to be video of the play in question … though that still doesn't make it clear whether or not the runner touched home plate. It appears as though Powell did hit the bag, though that isn't conclusive or definitive, either. That may not help Flower Mound or Powell feel better about their untimely elimination, but it does at least confirm that even when an umpire appears to rule a runner safe, he or she might still end up being out.

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The decision to ban Native American-based mascots came as the result of a 5-1 vote by the state Board of Ed and will require some 15 schools to change their mascots. Additionally, all schools which refer to their teams as the Warriors will also have to scrub all references to any Native American customs from school insignia.

According to the Portland Oregonian, the decision to ban Native American mascots came after six years of debate on the subject. While there is still a five-year grace period before the rule kicks in, State Board Chairwoman Brenda Frank, who is a Klamath Tribe member, said she was emotional about what she clearly considered to be a landmark decision.

"I'm overwhelmed, but I'm holding back on my emotions -- I have a meeting to finish," Frank told the Oregonian. "It's been a long time coming."

While the decision to get rid of all Native American mascots may seem like a simple issue of political correctness, it also brings with it significant economic issues at a time of extreme financial distress for many of the state's school districts.

According to one school -- Molalla (Ore.) High -- the effort to rid itself of all insignia related to its existing "Indians" mascot could cost the school district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, Molalla principal Randy Dalton insisted that no one in the school's surrounding community took offense at the school's choice of a mascot.

"I'd be hard pressed to find somebody who would want to bring shame to the Molalla Indian Tribe," Dalton said. "There's a lot of tradition here. It's a very respectful community that wants to do the right thing."

The Oregon State Board claimed it took those significant financial concerns into consideration, but that it couldn't choose to side with those economic worries because of the potential such mascots had to offend Native American students across the state.

"There's a collective right that exists here," Board Vice Chairman Artemio Paz told the Oregonian.  These sorts of mascots produce "racism and unnecessary bullying. We do not allow that to exist for any of our populations."

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Talk about an unfair advantage.

As you might guess, Madu — who won four events at the recent UIL Class 5A state track meet — is definitely the fastest base runner in the state of Texas. It's possible that she's the fastest base runner in the entire nation. The trick, as the Dallas Morning News noted, is that she had never even run the bases until just days before her first-ever varsity game, a milestone which happened to come in the Class 5A Region I semifinals.

"She's friends with a lot of our girls, and she was like, 'When I'm done with state, I'll come out and run for you,'" Plano East coach Karen Kalhoefer told the Morning News. "I put her on our UIL roster before we even started playoffs.

"She came out [Wednesday], and I gave her a helmet and gave her some cleats. The girls, their jaws just dropped. ... She's the fastest runner I've ever had."

As it turns out, it didn't take Madu long to acclimatize to her new running surroundings. Madu, who will run for Texas A&M beginning in the fall, scored multiple times during her first weekend in the diamond in Plano East's sweep of Lubbock (Texas) Coronado High on Friday and Saturday.

In the process, she also showcased the speed that led Kalhoefer to give her a completely unique set of instructions: If she ever overruns a base, don't turn back, just beat the throw to the next one.

"I was telling her, if she ran through a bag, because she's used to running through things, then just go to the next one," Kalhoefer said.

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As reported by the Associated Press, 41-year-old Melissa Bowerman, the daughter-in-law of waffle-sole inventor Bill Bowerman, escorted an unnamed 17-year-old on the Condon (Ore.) High track team to the school's prom after the runner told her he lacked a date for the prom. Bowerman, who is married to 73-year-old co-coach Jon Bowerman and also has a son on the same team, told the AP that she offered to take the student to prom in part to motivate him to improve his grades in his English class.

"If they go on [academic] probation and suspension, then they can't go to the track meets," Melissa Bowerman told the AP. "I said, 'OK, I will go with you, but we've got to talk about English first. You're going to do better in English.'"

Bowerman insisted that she and her date only danced to "a couple" of slow songs and spent the rest of the evening playing ping pong and foosball. The student's father also said he was OK with the coach escorting his son because, "Melissa has been like a surrogate mom to these kids for years."

The handling of Bowerman's dismissal wasn't done in the most tactful manner, either. With the Condon team preparing to load a bus for the state track and field meet, the Bowermans were told that Melissa could not ride on the team bus with the athletes, her husband and other parents.

In the meantime, Jon Bowerman has said he will consider resigning from the program if his wife is not allowed to return, a stunning turn of events just weeks after the school officially inaugurated a brand new, state of the art track that was made possible by a trade of the family heirloom Bowerman waffle iron that Jon's father, former Oregon track coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, used to make running shoe soles for Nike that provided better traction.

"The only thing we've done wrong is build them a new track and get uniforms and build them a powerhouse program," Jon Bowerman told the AP. "If she doesn't come back, I'm not coming back."

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Kobi' Jordan Stephens-Sims (that's no misprint; he spells it with an 'I') may only be in eighth grade, but he already has the explosiveness and athleticism more often associated with major college prospects. He certainly proved that by pulling off the audacious dunk you see in the clip above, when he tossed the ball off the backboard to himself and finished a vicious slam on a fast break.

Keep in mind, this is a teen who has never played a game of high school basketball.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound point guard is only 14, but he's already become the featured star for the AAU Under Armour Southern Kings program in Atlanta, one of the top AAU squads in the South. Stephens-Sims was also flagged down as one of the top performers at the prestigious John Lucas International Middle School Combine, where some anointed him as the event's top point guard.

Stephens-Sims' emergence on the AAU circuit was presaged by his dominance of the Atlanta-area middle school hoops scene. As an eighth-grader, the Georgia resident averaged 36 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Atlanta (Ga.) St. Francis Middle School, and he pulled down all those boards in his true position as a point guard.

In fact, Stephens-Sims' smooth ball handling will only make him more of a handful as he grows to his expected eventual height of 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-7 … or more.

For now, the Georgia teen has his eyes firmly on a stirring prize in front of him. Trained by both his father and Mark Edwards, a legend in the Atlanta street ball scene, Stephens-Sims hopes to follow in the footsteps of Kentucky guard Ryan Harrow, a former Southern Kings player, star in the McDonald's All America Game and spend a year in college before heading to the NBA (yup, he's already planning on being a one-and-done).

Stephens-Sims may not be there yet, but he certainly has many of the skills he'll need to achieve both of those goals. And one thing is certain: He definitely has the right name to succeed in hoops.

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Franklin, who is a heavy favorite to earn spots in multiple events in the forthcoming London Olympics, has made a point of holding on to a normal teenage life throughout her early career.

As captured by Denver NBC affiliate KUSA, and followed upon by Larry Brown Sports, among other outlets, the junior at Aurora (Colo.) Regis Jesuit School was the surprise guest of honor at a senior prep rally, where fellow Regis students brought out banners wishing her good luck at the upcoming Olympic trials, and Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker exhorted the teenager to bring back gold medals.

Still, all of the speeches and well wishes faded into the background when Franklin closed the assembly with a series of impromptu dance moves, culminating in a truly solid rendition of the worm. Franklin began with the sprinkler, then quickly dropped to the floor and broke out her best worm, to the delight of her friends in the crowd.

"I'm going to try and keep it together. Honestly, I can't even tell you how much this means to me," Franklin said of the support she got at Regis' Senior Send-Off. "You are my life. I love you so much and knowing whatever happens this summer I still get to come home to you is the best feeling in the world.

"That was so much more than I could have ever imagined. I have the best friends in the world."

Franklin's dance moves might not qualify as "best in the world," but they're pretty solid nonetheless.

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As reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Veglahn's achievement set a state record for strikeouts in a single inning, topping four strikeouts, which had been accomplished 11 times in past Minnesota seasons. In fact, according to Deadspin, the feat of five strikeouts in a half inning appears to have been achieved just three times in the minor leagues, and once in the majors … in spring training.

Of course, the only way that Veglahn -- who sports an 8-1 record and 1.47 ERA in 2012 -- could have achieved the feat is with the unintentional aid of back-to-back errors by his catcher, as the Star Tribune pointed out in a batter-by-batter breakdown of the senior ace's five-K seventh.

The third batter went down swinging, but the catcher couldn't field the breaking pitch, allowing the runner to reach first.

"That should have been the third out," La Crescent coach Rick Boyer said. "Then the next one got away and I thought, 'Oh my goodness.' "

Veglahn struck out the fourth batter, but another passed ball allowed him to reach base. With runners at first and second, the tying run came to the plate.

Veglahn struck him out, too.

Fittingly, Veglahn's coach was singing his pitcher's praises after watching him close out a win with a record inning.

"I have never seen five strikeouts in an inning at any level, anywhere," Boyer told the Star Tribune.

Of course, Boyer isn't alone. Very few people have ever seen five strikeouts in an inning, and it's likely a first for all those in attendance at Veglahn's shutout of Hayfield.

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As first reported by San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO -- and first brought to Prep Rally's attention by NBC blog Off the Bench -- coaches for a U-14 rugby team in Northern California were reportedly offering up to $30 per match for injuring opponents during competition. The two men who have been accused of setting up and running the unofficial bounty program are Wesley Van Tonder Sr. and Jr., the father and son duo who established the Martinez Raptors in 2011.

While the Raptors have rugby programs for athletes as young as 8, KGO reported that there was no indication that any team besides the program's U-14 squad was involved in the pay-for-injury scheme.

Incredibly, the scandal was uncovered when one of the Raptors players brazenly turned to his coach after leveling an opponent and asked if a hit he delivered was worthy of cash.

"One of the players hit our player hard which we thought was fine and he turned to his coach and said, 'How was that coach? Is that good enough for the money?'" said president of Lamorinda Rugby, Tony McKenzie.

The Lamorinda president complained to the league's governing body, the Northern California Youth Rugby Association (NCYRA).

"It was $20 or $30, but from a kid's perspective whether it's $5 or $500, it's a motivation and that's just not appropriate," said NCYRA disciplinary chairman Matt Eason.

Disturbingly, the Van Tonders told their players not to say anything to investigators about the bounties, though that didn't stop the story from getting out; the father of one player confirmed that they had been put in place.

As one might expect, the Van Tonders have been banned from coaching in any youth rugby competitions in California, though it was uncertain where that left the U-14 program they had been coaching, or the younger divisions of the Martinez Raptors program they established.

Still, given the morally corrupt practices they were spreading to their players, one hopes that the existing Raptors players might find other rugby programs in the area if need be.

That's a small price to pay to ensure that the Van Tonders aren't anywhere near youth rugby again.

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As first brought to Prep Rally's attention by @AndyVogt on Facebook and investigated in much further detail by Deadspin's Barry Petchesky, the Rayne Independent was offering its analysis of the concluded Rayne (La.) High softball team for a recent, postseason edition. The issue was that the Independent hadn't received a trove of stats that it expected to have when compiling the look back on the season.

Evidently, after Rayne was eliminated from the Louisiana Class 3A softball state tournament in late April, the team's coach, Deserea Dunn, never submitted final statistics for the season. That left the Independent no choice but to leave "dummy text" in the place of more detailed stats in its season profile, at least until the paper could get the more accurate stats the paper's unspecified reporter desperately wanted.

The problem was that those stats apparently never came, and editors forgot to remove the filler text. The result was the publication of the line you see at the bottom of the final paragraph of the article you see above, which credits Rayne pitcher Hailey Habetz with an impressive season on the mound, but cites "the coach's bullish** and laziness," as reasons why the statistics weren't in the piece.

Clearly, the reporter in question -- who we later learned was a fellow by the name of Kade Seibold -- entered an inflammatory expletive and cited laziness in his filler text as a joke, and never intended it to be published. Or at least we hope it was all intended as a joke. Still, the fact that the dummy text was eventually published didn't mean anything good for his immediate future.

As it turns out, it meant the very rapid exit of Mr. Seibold from the Independent. Despite reaching out to the coach to apologize for the mistake -- Seibold claims that she laughed at his apology -- the 30-something reporter was officially axed from the paper's staff on Thursday, despite the fact that the weekly's general manager told Romenesko the publication only got a handful of calls about seeing the expletive in print.

For his part, Seibold claims he is now trying to get his job back and redeem himself in print. Good luck to him, as any mistake that obvious really probably isn't worth the end of a career, at least as far as Prep Rally is concerned.

At the very least, Seibold and everyone else at the Independent should be happy that Dunn has a terrific sense of humor.

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Weeks later, Bird is still reaping the benefits of her innovative prom date, most recently in the form of a gift pack from fitness nutrition products maker FRS, which included a signed Tebow jersey.

As reported by the Des Moines Register, Bird landed her special gift pack after she Tweeted FRS about Flat Tebow. As one might expect for a self-avowed Tebow nut, Bird was quite excited to receive the jersey and other goodies.

"I was so surprised," Bird told the Register. "I never really thought anything would come of [taking Flat Tebow to the prom]."

Yet, as noted by NBC blog Off the Bench, Bird's Cinderella story is still missing one final feel good chapter: The teen has still not had any direct contact with Tebow himself. Given how savvy Tebow and his PR team traditionally have been, it's a surprise that he hasn't taken the brief step to talk to Bird on the phone or in person.

Then again, if he had reached out, would Tebow have set an unrealistic standard where he was expected to personally reach out to every kid who puts together a custom Tebow jersey or writes a clever Tebow jingle?

Perhaps, though one gets the feeling that even that wouldn't be so unfair, given the lengths to which Bird went to make sure she got to take Tebow -- in one form or another -- to what is often the most special night of a teenager's still young life.

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As noted by ESPN, the goal you see above was scored by ASM-Vicenza teenager Sebastian Ashton. The teen didn't expect to get a shot on goal, yet then received the ultimate soccer gift of an errant attempt to clear the ball from the defensive zone; instead of hoofing the ball to safety, an opposing defender sent it right to Ashton's boot.

That's when the Milanese teenager stopped the ball with a first touch, surveyed his options, then unleashed a masterful 35-yard strike that eluded the goalie and landed squarely in the net, good for goal of the week honors from ESPN HS.

Yet, as good as the goal was itself, it could hardly compare with the reaction from the game's linesman, who turned to the videographer and gave off a Sacha Baron Cohen, Bruno-esque "Wow!" It may not have been ethical, but it sure was hilarious.

Of course, the unnamed lineman's humor, intended or not, takes nothing from Ashton's fantastic strike. If anything, it only adds to the goal's gusto, helping ensure that it won't be forgotten anytime soon, around the training pitches of ASM-Vicenza or anywhere else.

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As you can see in the video above, and covered by the Nanaimo Daily News, the Nanaimo Timbermen against the Coquitlam Adanacs became embroiled in a nasty fight when Cody Reed scored to give Coquitlam a nearly insurmountable 15-4 lead before halftime.

Rather than let Reed celebrate his goal with his teammates in peace, a Timbermen player attacked, in part of what the Daily News chronicled would later lead to suspensions for a whopping 15 players.

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Reed was hit by the Timberman's Jordan Kuziuk, who two seconds later was crosschecked by the Adanacs' Zachary Hartman, who was playing in his first game back after missing time to a concussion.

Those early incidents eventually led to both benches clearing, inciting a fight the likes of which the Intermediate A league had never seen.

"It's the first time this has happened to me as a commissioner," B.C. Intermediate A league commissioner Gene Regier told the Daily News. "I've seen them at senior games, but this is the first one I've had to deal with.

"Tempers are hot and fiery and someone might have said something to them and there you go. Things happen in an instant, there's a lot of testosterone flowing on the floor."

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That there had never been a fight of anywhere near this size is a fairly remarkable feat in itself. That the fight would involve nearly every member of two teenaged teams is even more unbelievable.

Given how brutal the actions of both teams were, it's fairly incredible that only 15 players received suspensions for the brawl.

For his part, the Nanaimo team governor -- essentially the team's general manager charged with maintaining contact with the league -- was "horrified" when he was made aware of the brawl while out of town with his family.

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"It has been our practice to both win and lose with dignity," Timbermen's team governor Bruce Clark told the Daily News. "Young men don't like to have lopsided wins or their noses rubbed in it. This is not an excuse. What happened was appalling and a black mark on our game."

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As the Idaho Statesman reported, due to the rules violation, Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) High should have captured the state title by a single shot over Eagle, who finished the tournament with the minimum four golfers. At least that's what the team thought.

In a bizarre move that's making headlines across the state of Idaho, the Idaho High School Activities Association decided to reverse its own decision, after noticing that the penalty for using a rangefinder during tournament play was a two-stroke penalty; not disqualification.

But there was a problem: The tournament had already ended when they came to their decision, leaving tournament officials with the unenviable task of informing Coeur d'Alene that they, in fact, weren't officially state champions just yet.

Eagle's Colby Dean was allowed to go back out and finish the final 11 holes by himself, as a gallery watched his every move. Even with the two-stroke penalty, Dean managed to fire a 2-over 72 that, you guessed it, allowed Eagle to win the state title by eight shots over Coeur d'Alene.

Of course, Coeur d'Alene didn't appreciate the ruling going in Eagle's favor. As the Coeur d'Alene Press noted, the school plans to lodged a complaint with the Idaho High School Activities Association.

"So it's another example where Idaho doesn't know the rules of golf, and should just let the USGA govern the rules of golf," Coeur d'Alene coach Bryan Duncan told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "What's unfortunate is they decided to cover up a screwup with another screwup by putting him back out on the course."

Look, I have no problem with tournament officials trying to do the right thing, but if the kid was pulled off the course with 12 holes to play in his round, I'd like to know why it took them so long to make the decision.

You can't make a decision like this after the tournament is over and expect people to go along with the ruling. It doesn't work that way.

"It's insane," Duncan said of the rules decision. "We had won the tournament."

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Now imagine trying to deal with all of that while still adjusting to a new country, without speaking English. Incredibly that's what a trio of soccer stars for Salt Lake (Utah) East High have pulled off, thriving in a new country away from the struggles of Somalia, where they were born in the midst of civil war.

As profiled in detail by the Deseret News, Hassan "A.J." Osman, his cousin Abdi Iftin and Faysal Abdi have emerged as bedrock contributors for East's impressive soccer program, which is itself led in part by another Somalian refugee, assistant coach Ahmed Hussein. Osman, Ifton and Abdi all arrived in Salt Lake City from a Kenyan refugee camp in 2005, with all three forced to feel their own way through what was at best a startling transition from near constant danger in Somalia and destitution in Kenya to a safe, near middle class existence in Utah.

According to Osman, one of the largest difficulties in that transition came from the English language. The teenager used only "yes" and "no" to communicate for the first few weeks after arriving in the U.S. and starting school, eventually picking up the language thanks to -- you guessed it -- American cartoons.

"I was just a kid with a soccer ball in my hand," Osman told the News. "I didn't know anybody. All I saw [were] white kids. I asked myself, 'what is going on? There is nobody my color here, nobody understands my language."

Now that he has settled, Osman is intent on learning as much as he can, hopefully eventually in a university setting. All three native Somalian players on the East squad hope to eventually attend college, possibly to play soccer if they are lucky enough to get attention from a college program.

Until then, they will continue to learn as much as they can while also serving as a sort of cultural emissary to other teens about what it is like to live in modern-day Africa. At one practice in May the entire team held a barefoot practice, where players competed using a ball like the one that Osman, Ifti and Abdi grew up with in Kenya: A balloon covered in cloth. The trio also hosted a team party to introduce players to African food.

Yet, no matter what the soccer ball they play with is made of, Osman made it clear that he wouldn't take his eye of the ball of his personal goal of improving his life through the highest level of education he can get.

"It's good going to school and getting a good education rather than working on the street," Osman said. "Going to college … it can change your life.

"You have to go to school and get your education. You can't just sit at home, watch TV and be lazy. I want a better life for me and I want a better life for my kids."

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Courtesy: John and Bryan O'Malley

With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lick-Wilmerding had a great chance to win the game with runners on second and third. But instead of trying for a sacrifice fly, Lick-Wilmerding tried to pull off a suicide squeeze, considered to be one of the riskiest plays in baseball.

There was just one problem: The Lick-Wilmerding batter failed to lay down the bunt. After squaring to make contact, he pulled away as the catcher went to the ground to block the ball. Assuming the ball was going to be in play, baserunner Drew Forrest enters the frame, sprinting towards the plate.

It's difficult to tell at first glance if Forrest intended to steal home or run on a bunt. But after taking multiple looks at the clip, we're confident it was merely a botched squeeze play that went in Lick-Wilmerding's favor.

You'd have to assume he'd already come down the line to the point of no return, so his two options were turn around and get caught in a potential rundown, or try his luck with the botched suicide squeeze.

Forrest, of course, chose the latter option, and somehow managed to make something out of nothing, using some fancy footwork and body contortion to tip-toe his way around the catcher's outstretched arm and score the winning run.

If you're wondering why University High was screaming at the end of the clip, take a look a where Forrest's feet are in relation to the basepath. Did he go outside the path to score? That's a tough call to make. The bottom line is the umpire didn't see anything wrong with it, which is a good thing for us, because this botched suicide squeeze is pretty impressive.

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As noted by the blog No Guts No Glory and followed upon by Deadspin, among other outlets, Favre is auctioning off a football pitch-and-catch session for an unspecified amount of time to area Mississippi teens. The "Mississippi teens" part of the prior sentence needs to be emphasized, because it turns out that only those who live in the Sumrall, Mississippi, area will be allowed to win the auction.

While plenty of other teens and their parents would likely be more than happy to travel to Sumrall for the chance to play with Favre, the very specific regulations on the auction for Favre's passing session prohibit such a committed fan from winning their football dream date with the passer.

Even more bizarrely, there is a specific time regulation for the winning bidder: One has to claim their passing prize within a calendar year or else it expires, just like old gift cards from Christmas that go lost in the bottom of the stocking.

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Those specifications might be driving some potential buyers away, but it certainly isn't scaring them all off. As of Thursday morning the Favre passing session at Charity Buzz was already up to $6,250, closing on the package's "estimated value" of $10,000. So, even though the entire charity auction would almost certain qualify for one of those MasterCard "Priceless" ads, sentimentality about Brett Favre seems to be capped at approximately 10 grand.

So, anyone interested in a big? If so, don't hesitate: The auction to play with a future Hall of Famer ends at precisely 3:16 ET on Thursday.

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There's a good reason why everyone is focused on Stolzenberg, too: The 12-year-old member of the Florida Snipers program is a quad-amputee, and is competing in lacrosse without any limbs. In fact, he's doing more than just compete. In his first tournament back playing without traditional limbs, Stolzenberg scored three goals.

It may seem impossible for someone without limbs to compete in a sport which requires both running and significant amounts of upper body finesse. Yet those limitations haven't stopped Stolzenberg, who lost all four of his limbs to a rare reaction to a bacterial infection called Chromobacterium Violaceum, related to an equally rare immune deficiency called Chronic Granulomatous Disease.

After scratching a mosquito bite while playing football as an 8-year-old, Stolzenberg contracted the bacterial infection and two days later found his body in septic shock, with the drastic step of amputation of all his limbs needed to save his life.

For most people, such a traumatic and physically debilitating event would have spelled an end to their participation in sports. That was never a consideration for Stolzenberg. Instead, the youngster opted against arm prosthetics because they seemed too limiting, and he taught himself how to exercise advanced motor skills -- writing, eating and yes, cradling a lacrosse stick -- with arm extensions called sockets.

After adding leg prosthetics that allowed him to run, Stolzenberg was ready to get involved in sports again, even though rejoining the Florida Snipers youth lacrosse program would require some rather drastic adjustments.

In fact, the sheer idea of having to run up and down the field while maintaining possession of a lacrosse ball was almost mind boggling for coaches who have watched him perform the skill, according to Lacrosse Magazine.

"It seems impossible," Pine Crest (Fla.) High lacrosse coach Doug Shanahan told Lacrosse Magazine. "But you know it's possible because you've seen him do it. He has more skill, given his circumstances, than a lot of other kids.

"His hand-eye coordination, without having normally functioning hands, is incredible. The way he moves to the ball, even with prosthetics, is more athletic than many other kids. He's mentally tough, and his work ethic is contagious. He wants to be better than his brothers."

Those brothers are both lacrosse players at Pine Crest, where the oldest, Harris, is a star junior and a legitimate Division I prospect. The middle brother, Justin, also plays lacrosse at the school and was a victim of his younger brother's rather deadpan sense of humor earlier this year, according to Lacrosse Magazine; when Justin broke his finger and complained about struggling to write, Mikey looked up at him and said, "Figure it out."

Together, the Stolzenberg family has figured out how to make Mikey feel more like any other kid at Pine Crest middle and high school, where he is a minor celebrity for, well, being so normal. Yet the expense to constantly refit the growing Stolzenberg for more sockets twice a year can cost the family tens of thousands of dollars. To help offset the cost, the Stolzenbergs and another family founded the Pockets & Sockets tournament in spring 2011, with the inaugural edition of the event raising $30,000 to help offset the cost of Mikey Stolzenberg's healthcare costs. More than 50 teams took part in the 2012 tournament, which should bring an even higher return and stoke hope of Stolzenberg eventually receiving a double hand transplant when he gets older.

Whether or not that ever happens, one thing seems certain: Stolzenberg will keep competing, in lacrosse and life, with traditional hands or without them.

"I was grateful I still had Michael," Laura Stolzenberg, Michael's mother, told Lacrosse Magazine. "We had him, now we just had to rebuild him. …

"Michael embraces his difference. We told him, 'Your hands and feet do not define who you are.'"

No, they do not. Yet, in Stolzenberg's case, the lack of hands and feet show he may be one of the most determined human beings on the planet. That seems unlikely to change in years ahead.

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As noted by ESPN.com, the biggest player in Reggie Wilkerson's support staff is his sister, Regina Wilkerson. The fellow junior is a three-sport star at North Marion, where she competes in volleyball, soccer and track and field. Of those three sports, Regina Wilkerson is a particularly strong runner, where she qualified for the 100 and 200-meter state finals as both a sophomore and junior.

That talent might be enough to justify a Division I track scholarship in Regina Wilkerson's own right, yet Reggie may not be willing to let that play out without his help. Spurred by his football coach at North Marion, Craig Damon, Wilkerson has begun touting his sister when speaking with schools recruiting him, a tactic which might land the family two college scholarships rather than just one.

"I asked him, 'Reggie, are you promoting your sister?'" Damon told ESPN. "And he asked what did I mean. I told him, 'Most track schools don't have a budget to go out recruiting like football does, so you have to be a salesperson. So if they want you, it's a package deal -- make it two-for-one. Besides your mom, she is your No. 1 fan. She is always there for you to support you.'"

Incredibly, even if Georgia and other schools pass on Regina Wilkerson and still land Reggie's signature, it still won't necessarily mean that the top prospect is by himself at his college of choice. Beginning in fall 2012, Reggie and Regina Wilkerson will be joined by their cousin, Marvin Wilkerson, who transferred in to the school from West Port (Fla.) High. An athletic wide receiver, Marvin Wilkerson has been touted as a legitimate Division I football prospect himself, albeit one who needs to receive more exposure.

"Marvin just transferred in from West Port," Reggie Wilkerson told ESPN. "This is our last year of high school, and I want to play with him before I go to Georgia. We weren't really connected when he was over there, but now we are connected. Hopefully he could come to Georgia too. We will see what happens. I have been telling schools about him."

With all the salesmanship he has been doing, it's a wonder Reggie Wilkerson has had time to keep working on his own game. However, given the role that Regina has already played in Reggie Wilkerson's life, it's no wonder that getting the person Reggie cites as his best friend to Georgia as well is seen as a major priority for everyone close to the Wilkerson clan.

"Regina is the one that looks out for him," Damon said. "She is very supportive. She is not really a football fan but she hadn't missed any of his games. It doesn't matter what is going on, she is going to be at his games. Or if he is going to a 7-on-7 tournament, she puts her stuff on hold to make sure she supports him."

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The most troubling example of that scenario arose on Saturday in California, where a father was arrested for driving 104 mph to try and get his son and his son's friend to a scheduled soccer game on time. As reported by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and San Francisco Chronicle, among other sources, 41-year-old Juan Carlos Gallegos was arrested after a Petaluma police officer recorded his Nissan Altima traveling more than 100 mph on the wrong side of the road.

While it may be stunning that a Nissan Altima could travel 104 mph without incident, the fact that any driver would do so -- and would cross into oncoming traffic to pass other slower cars -- is terrifying. That he would do so with two 9-year-olds in the backseat is even more horrifying.

It took Petaluma police officer Ron Klein a full three miles to catch up with Gallegos' speeding vehicle after he had captured his speed on radar, but when he did reach the car, Gallegos was immediately arrested on suspicion of reckless driving and child endangerment. According to the Chronicle, the father had been cited for both charges in the past.

As for the children in the car, it was clear they realized they were at risk while riding with Gallegos as well.

"I knew he was going fast because I could hear the engine and we were passing other cars," one of the two children reportedly told police.

Gallegos' Nissan was impounded for 30 days following his arrest, a penalty which should keep him from speeding quite so recklessly for at least a month. Meanwhile, Gallegos' son was picked up from the Petaluma police station by his mother, as was the other child in the car by his parents.

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In what could have doubled as an outtake from the 1993 movie "The Sandlot," an unspecified senior baseball player for Scotch Plains (N.J.) Union Catholic High was sent to bring back a foul ball which landed beyond the outfield fence during his team's senior day game against Plainfield (N.J.) High. Yet, as soon as he neared the ball, the player was attacked by the man who lived at the house, 44-year-old Michael Bennett.

According to MyCentralJersey.com, Bennett grabbed the Union Catholic player by the neck and wrist, then, "grabbed the ball and told him to get off his property."

Union Catholic baseball coach Jim Reagan Jr. quickly came to his player's defense, screaming for Bennett to let the player go.  Bennett complied. But MyCentralJersey reported that the player was left with visible scratches. Scotch Plains police were quickly called to the scene, and Bennett was arrested, charged with assault and later released from police custody.

"I recall yelling 'Sir, stop it! Get your hands off of him!'" Reagan told MyCentralJersey. "I had to run through the Plainfield dugout to get to the scene.

"He [the player retrieving the foul ball] definitely showed restraint. I think he was probably more shocked than anyone. And I want to commend Scott [Gleichenhaus, the Plainfield varsity coach] and his team and coaches, because they were excellent in this situation as well. They offered their full support."

While no additional news about future court proceedings involving Bennett were made available, Reagan said that he had never encountered any incidents remotely like the one that occurred in the Plainfield game in more than a decade at the school.

"No doubt about it: It was the most surreal experience I've had in 11 years as a baseball coach," Union Catholic assistant principal and varsity baseball coach Jim Reagan Jr. said Monday. "But the kid is fine. I think other than being shocked and surprised at what occurred, he's OK."

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All Inglis had to do to ensure history would be made was sign her scorecard. As it turns out, that's precisely what got her in trouble.

As reported by the Portland Oregonian, Inglis' scorecard actually credited her with a 4-under 68 in the final round, one shot better than Inglis' actual score. The error was the result of Inglis' playing partner hastily crediting the Churchill senior with a par on the 18th hole when she actually scored a bogey, but by the time Inglis noticed her partner's mistake, she had already signed her scorecard.

That gave OSAA officials no choice but to disqualify their rightful champion, because the state championship tournament was played under official USGA rules which call for any players signing inaccurate scorecards to be DQ'd.

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Inglis' disqualification thwarted what would have been rare history in the Pacific Northwest. Had Inglis' victory been confirmed, she would have become the first golfer of either sex to win four consecutive state titles. Ironically, the winner who took Inglis' place could achieve just such a feat now; Bend (Ore.) Summit High freshman Madison Odiorne was given state champion honors following Inglis' DQ.

"It doesn't really feel like a win, because I know Caroline really won the whole thing," Odiorne told the Oregonian.

Odiorne wasn't the only person who felt for Inglis' stunning loss. Wilsonville (Ore.) High senior Juhee Lee, who finished as the runner-up to Inglis in all three of the seniors' previous state tournaments, also called the incident "unfortunate."

Those sentiments probably do little to comfort Inglis, who could at least take solace in knowing that she'll get a chance at even greater glory ahead at the University of Oregon, where she has signed to compete in golf.

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That's precisely the scenario facing UCLA linebacker recruit Aaron Porter, one of the top Class of 2012 recruits out of La Habra (Calif.) High. While there was never any previous concern about Porter honoring his commitment to the Bruins -- and the teen followed through on that pledge by signing with the school earlier this spring -- Porter could suddenly find himself with a decision between a lucrative professional baseball career or the glory and tumult that comes with a minimum three-year college football career.

All of these opportunities come as the result of a meteoric rise on the baseball diamond for Porter, who has played both football and baseball for La Habra throughout his career. As noted by the Los Angeles Times, Porter has batted .500 during his senior season, adding five home runs and a  whopping 21 RBI to that number, proving that he can both get on base and deliver results with significant power.

As if there was any question of the merit of a .500 batting average, MLB scouts have allegedly been noticed at La Habra games, ostensibly to keep an eye on Porter's progress.

Will those scouts convince an MLB team to use an early draft pick on Porter, thereby guaranteeing him a fat signing bonus and the promise of a lucrative contract in the process? Possibly. Will that be enough to entice Porter away from what he and Bruins fans have long viewed as his future in Westwood? That's anyone's guess.

Only Porter knows what his future holds, and its possible that even he doesn't know what he'd choose if forced to pick between professional baseball and UCLA. Either way, it seems safe to say that he has a bright athletic future ahead of him, in one sport or another.

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What is surprising, however, is the sport that carries, by far, the second-greatest health risk to its young competitors: Girls soccer.

When not focused on football, media headlines about the health risks of youth sports tend to gravitate towards more traditional American contact sports like hockey or lacrosse. Yet a series of new studies prove conclusively that those sports can't hold a candle to girls soccer, which has been at the vanguard of a steep rise in pediatric concussion cases between 2001 and 2010 -- by an astounding 58 percent -- according to a study by Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, as pointed out by Off the Bench.

The logical next step is to determine what about soccer -- and girls soccer in particular -- is most responsible for the steep rise in concussions among its competitors. Researchers believe the answer to that question is more simple: Children are getting concussions from heading the soccer ball. In fact, another study by Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine has even shown that excessive heading of soccer balls can cause brain damage.

To counter that threat, one Massachusetts doctor -- Dr. Bob Cantu of Emerson Hospital -- has stepped forward with a radical solution, which he shared with the NBC News program "Rock Central": He wants to ban heading the ball altogether.

Naturally, banning headers would completely change the way soccer is played. Without headers, players would be forced to play with the ball solely on the ground, and while some purists might laud that approach -- think of it as the Barcelona-ization of American youth soccer -- it also would conceivably put the American developmental system even further behind other global competitors, as athletes would have to quickly adapt to traditional soccer rules once they reach the age of professional or international youth competition.

It goes without saying that Dr. Cantu's proposed solution to the rising number of youth concussions is unlikely to receive large-scale support.

Still, if nothing else, Cantu has helped raise awareness of a strange trend in an issue that remains on the national front burner, perhaps stoking other creative solutions that can make America's most popular youth sport safer for the masses.

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As reported by Birmingham Fox affiliate WBRC -- and noted by USA Today, among other outlets -- Jefferson County, Ala., resident Darryl Keeton was arrested after attacking an umpire following a youth softball game at Mt. Olive ballpark, the local baseball field. After a game spent heckling the official, Keeton took matters further by attacking the official in the parking lot outside the ballpark, punching him in the face and leaving him with a bloody nose.

Because Keeton was attacking a sports official and not a normal member of the public, a Alabama law stipulates that brief attack must yield Class C felony charges which could land the grandpa as many as 10 years in prison.

"A bloody nose most of the time will get you a misdemeanor, and that's wrong, but yeah, there's a law on the books that if you assault an official it's a Class C felony," Jefferson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Randy Christian told WBRC. "That's a serious crime, and it should be."

Keeton's assault on the official was limited to a first punch thanks to the timely intervention of an off-duty Birmingham police officer, but by that time Keeton -- who was released on bond shortly after his arrest -- had already done enough to land himself felony charges and thoroughly embarrass himself in the process.

"You let the kids and the coaches work that out, that's part of life," Sgt. Christian told WBRC. "But if he's not embarrassed about that, I'm certainly embarrassed for him."

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As reported by the Associated Press, Dallas Morning News and NBC DFW, among other sources, five students at Prosper (Texas) High were arrested on Monday in connection with the sexual assault of another student. One of the students arrested, 17-year-old Darius McClinton-Hunter, is the son of Angels star outfielder Torii Hunter.

McClinton-Hunter cleared a $15,000 bail shortly after his arrest on Monday and was released from jail. Shortly thereafter, Hunter was placed on the Angels' restricted list for unidentified reasons, though Angels manager Mike Scioscia reported that Hunter had left the team for "a personal matter."

If there were any question over why Torii Hunter was taking an unplanned sabbatical from baseball, they were cleared up via his personal Twitter account later Monday night.

"This is very tough for a father," Hunter tweeted. "Thanks for ur prayers and support. Be Blessed everyone!"

This isn't the first time that Darius McClinton-Hunter has gained a national spotlight, though this is the first time his actions are being scrutinized for their negative impact. Previously, the Prosper junior had gained attention for his athleticism on the football field. A 5-foot-11, 165-pound speedster, Hunter was viewed as a legitimate Division I prospect as a wide receiver, and has already received scholarship offers from Utah, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Texas Tech, among other schools.

His relationship with his father has also been well documented by MLive.com from the younger Hunter's time in Grand Blanc, Mich.

Darius Hunter is one of three Hunter brothers who have emerged as pillars of the Prosper football program. Darius Hunter's brothers, Moonshadrik "Money" Hunter and Torii Hunter Jr., are also both considered top college football recruits, with Torii Jr. in particular considered a potential difference maker in college football.

Whether Darius Hunter ever gets to that stage now remains to be seen. At the moment, he has only been charged with a crime and is innocent until proven guilty, but the troubling nature of the allegations against him -- as well as the fact that he will be tried as an adult because he has already turned 17 -- raise considerable questions about whether or not the colleges which have expressed interest in him will stick with him.

Naturally, those considerations are distinctly secondary to worries about Hunter's safety and his ability to clear his name if the allegations against him are false … and the family's ability to move on and cope with his difficult future if they prove to be true, regardless of how far from the perceived character of Hunter's sons they seem to be.

"It's cool. I've been through that process. My brothers have been through that process. Just to see this come back around with my kids, it's good. It brings back old memories," Torii Hunter Sr. told Rivals.com affiliate Orangebloods.com in a previous interview. "And they're good kids. They're not just good athletes but they're good students and characters at school. Teachers love them, players love them and coaches love them. That's what I really worry about."

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Charlton, a rising senior four-star recruit at Pickerington (Ohio) Central High, was given the birth name of Vidauntaé, but quickly adopted Taco after his grandmother bequeathed the unforgettable nickname upon him when he was young. A Michigan commitment from the heart of Ohio State country, Charlton has failed to gain some of the national plaudits he probably deserves because he spent most of his time during summers on the AAU basketball circuit.

In fact, Charlton may be almost as impressive a basketball player as he is a football star; the junior led Pickerington Central's basketball team to a state title in March.

Yet Charlton seemed to make the leap forward at the recent Nike Combine in Columbus, the heart of the territory for the archenemies of the school to which Charlton plans to attend. Rivals network site TheWolverine writer Tim Sullivan claimed that Charlton competed for defensive line MVP honors at the event and showed that -- at 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds -- he could transform into a true top-notch talent at the next level.

Rivals.com Midwest Recruiting Analyst Josh Helmholdt was similarly impressed by Charlton's performance in Columbus.

"If you just watch the on-field product, there is so much to like about him," Helmholdt told The Wolverine. "On Saturday, offensive linemen could not handle Charlton's speed, but he also surprised them with his strength. Charlton is very long and he knows how to use that length to keep offensive linemen from getting to him."

All of that skill will only bring more plaudits and media attention, with everyone sure to ask more about Charlton's nickname. Does he actually love tacos? What inspired his grandmother to turn Vidauntaé into Taco?

And, presumably, "Is there good Mexican food in Ann Arbor?" If Charlton ever reaches the true zenith of his potential and he decides there isn't a good enough Mexican restaurant nearby, someone might be willing to open one just to keep him around a little longer.

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As first reported by the East Bay Express, and followed upon by the Contra Costa Times, NBC Bay Area and other outlets, West Contra Costa School District Athletic Director Matt Stewart has been placed on leave following an expose in the Express that highlighted more than 25 of his most inflammatory emails.

Among the emails were jokes which highlight post-9/11 anti-Arab sensitivities and outright racist sentiments and some messages from Stewart which compared President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to apes and chimpanzees.

The AD also reportedly forwarded along more than 250 pornographic images and a wide variety of other distasteful material.

The fact that 85 percent of West Contra Costa School District students identify themselves as racial minorities makes Stewart's bigoted communication all the more troubling.

One former athletic director and football coach at a West Contra Costa school recalled being particularly hurt when he was shown a "Tarzan" email which attacked African-Americans.

"The thought that came through my head was: 'I'm in a school district that's predominantly minority and the district hired this guy to oversee the coaches?'" former Richmond (Calif.) Kennedy High football coach Clyde Byrd, an African-American who said he felt Stewart had bullied him when they worked together because of his race, told the Express. "I've experienced racism before, but not where it's institutionalized like this."

While any future in the district seems to be beyond Stewart's grip at this point, some are questioning whether his departure will be enough, with many who received his lewd and lascivious emails but failed to speak up against them allowed to continue in their positions without recourse.

"[Stewart] stepping down is really not enough," President of Black Women Organized for Political Action Kathleen Sullivan, whose sons play basketball in the West Contra Costa District, told the Express. "What is the public position the school district is taking on the matter? What are the consequences for the recipients of these emails who didn't come forward?"

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As reported by the Daily Mirror and plenty of British publications, 35-year-old former English National Ballet dancer Stephen Moonesamy has been arrested and charged with fraud after allegedly falsely convincing some 75 children from a dance company based out of his hometown of Northampton that they would get to take part in the closing ceremony of the forthcoming Olympics in London.

According to the Northampton Chronicle, Moonesamy choreographed three different dances for the young performers which allegedly were to be incorporated into the closing ceremony, except for the fact that the dances were never to be included in the ceremony whatsoever; Moonesamy simply made that up.

"We are appalled that these young people appear to have been misled in such a way," a spokesman for the London Organizing Committee told the Mirror. "The matter is in the hands of the police."

As it is, the police wasted little time in bringing Moonesamy up on charges, with the 35-year-old delivered four different charges of fraud in a British courtroom on Monday. While the dancer and choreographer may face serious charges in the future, that would appear to do little to console the children who were most directly affected by the scandal.

"We had been practising so hard and I was ­really looking forward to it," 9-year-old Bethany Burlin told the Mirror. "I told all my family and friends I would be dancing in front of 80,000 people in the stadium and ­millions all over the world on TV. When my mum told me it was all off, I just started crying."

Added Burlin's mother, Claire Burlin: "I think nine is just too young to learn such a hard lesson in life. It is just so cruel. … It just all looked so ­legitimate. We never thought for a second that this would happen. The ­Olympics will be ruined for them now."

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All that made for a compelling backdrop when Grendel asked Haden if he would attend her high school prom with her, a bold step taken via Twitter after her original date backed out in the days before the event. To everyone's surprise, Haden said yes, and showed up right on time to pick up Grendel on Friday in his own white Lamborghini.

As reported by Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS and Fox station WJW, Haden may have been just as nervous as his significantly less famous date. Because he graduated early from Friendly (Md.) High to enroll at Florida in time for spring workouts before his freshman campaign, Haden never actually got to attend his own senior prom. That made his Friday night experience in Independence a first for him as well.

"I am nervous, too. We were taking pictures with me and her family," Haden told WJW. "I feel this is very legit, like I was getting ready, 'Does this look cool?' when I'm getting ready. I feel like I'm very legit. This is my prom, too."

[Giants' Osi Umenyiora sent Mother's Day greetings to Eagles' LeSean McCoy]

In fact, the young Browns defensive back said he was happy to take Grendel to the prom because they have developed a friendship which started with membership in Haden's fan club and spread into a previous encounter when Haden went bowling with Grendel and one of her Independence High friends. That prior experience made Grendel's father happy to sign off on the impromptu date for his daughter's big night.

"I knew her because she tweets me a lot, and she's been a really good Haden Nation supporter," Haden told WJW. "All my autographs, all my signings, she always shows up."

Grendel's mother said that Haden's quick response and willingness to take a fan to her prom spoke volumes about how he is anything but a typical pro.

"You know, a lot of times they won't give you the time of day," Carrie Grendel told WEWS. "I think that's sad, because where would they be without the fans? For Joe to take the time to talk to them and respond back, that was huge."

As for the teen herself, she was still stunned that Haden was actually going to the prom when he showed up on Friday night.

"I was screaming, I couldn't believe it," Grendel told WEWS of when she learned Haden would take her to prom. When he arrived right on time, Grendel's reaction was even more telling. "I can't breathe," she said, before quickly greeting Haden with a quick hello.

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As reported by Miami-Ft. Lauderdale network WVSN-TV and NBC Miami, among other outlets, 50-year-old Lorenzo Green has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation in connection with what can only be described as disgusting acts involving children on his youth basketball teams. WVSN reported that police claim Green lured area boys to his house, where he played them pornographic movies and got them to partake in masturbation contests in which he would pay the winner designated prize money.

"It's very sad because indeed the parents rely on him being a role model, and that's exactly what he wasn't," Miami Police Officer Kenia Reyes told WVSN. "We would never let these kids watch pornography."

While the charges against Green are undoubtedly serious, some refuse to believe that a man who was a key component of the youth basketball scene in Miami for more than 20 years could have had such malevolent intentions for the youth he took under his wing.

Notably, multiple teenagers who were coached by the 50-year-old quickly came to his defense shortly after Green was arrested.

"We played games, pool, watched TV and that's it," former Green hoops pupil Darius Walter told WSVN. Fellow Green-program alum Laquin Walter also claimed to have spent multiple nights at Green's house without any inappropriate interactions.

Walter's father, Darrel Walter, said that Green's accusers may have had alterior motives for raising their allegations against the coach, saying that the two brothers who accused Green of the masturbation contests may simply be mad at the coach for being kicked off his team.

According to WSVN, the youth basketball coach was held on a $90,000 bond and would be confined to house arrest when released, all while police search for more potential victims of his alleged inappropriate pornographic viewings.

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As reported in detail by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and a variety of other Minnesota outlets, Roseville (Minn.) High boys hockey coach Jeff Pauletti resigned on Tuesday amidst renewed accusations of bullying and intimidation within his own program. The coach has repeatedly denied those accusations, and took things further at a school board meeting a day after his resignation by claiming he himself was bullied by a group of rogue parents who wanted him out of his job.

The unnamed group of parents succeeded, though Pauletti presented a series of emails praising him and advocating for safeguards to protect coaches from overly aggressive parental influence.

"I'm not very happy about the whole situation," Pauletti told the Star Tribune. "But in order to state my piece and keep my sanity and keep my health, I think it was the right decision [to resign].

"In order to address the issues in a public forum, I had to resign. I stepped down because I felt I needed to tell my side of the story. If I did not resign and told my story, I would be fired."

The opportunity to fire Pauletti never emerged because of his self-imposed resignation, but an internal Roseville school district investigation into Pauletti's program continues apace. Pauletti insisted that the ongoing investigations would clear his name and prove once and for all that he and his staff never did anything improper.

"I don't know if I have been vindicated, but I have been able to speak my piece to administrators, attorneys and the people of Roseville," Pauletti said. "I have spoken to them about everything. The weight of the world is off my shoulders now. I would love to coach again at Roseville, but the administration has to do something to put things in place to protect coaches and avoid these kinds of investigations where there is nothing to investigate."

Whether Pauletti gets the chance to coach again in Roseville or elsewhere remains to be seen, but the accusations he raises about parents of athletes in the program -- if true -- are troubling both for the suburban Minnesota school and other similar districts around the nation. While a heightened sensitivity to bullying and hazing are certainly proper in light of continued problems with the practice in prep sports, the idea that a group of parents could fabricate such allegations is equally troubling.

No matter what the investigation into Pauletti's seven-year rein with the program turns up, one side or the other will be left in extreme embarrassment and serious questions of impropriety to answer. And that's not a good thing for anyone in Roseville going forward.

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As reported by the Portland Oregonian, Condon (Ore.) High was in desperate need for a new track and runways for the long jump, pole vault and javelin events. Two years after the program was nearly eliminated because of budget cuts, volunteer coaches Jon and Melissa Bowerman knew they needed to do something to improve the school's facilities if the tiny combined team from Condon and Wheeler (Ore.) highs was ever going to compete at a viable level.

Yet, instead of a lengthy process of soliciting donations and trying to get public funding, Jon Bowerman dug through his family's attic and pulled out an old, beaten up waffle iron once wielded by his father, legendary Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman.

The younger Bowerman reached out to Nike, whose founder Phil Knight had once run for Bowerman at Oregon and who was inspired by his coach's innovative methods to change the way shoes for runners were constructed. Then, the younger Bowerman offered up a rather unique barter deal: The Condon coach would give Nike the waffle iron that helped set the stage for Nike's dominance in the shoe industry if Nike agreed to give Condon High's track a complete makeover.

Unsurprisingly, Nike jumped at the chance. In fact, the sportswear and shoe maker went beyond just re-doing the track facility -- at a cost of $100,000 -- to try and help the team. The Condon/Wheeler track team was given a tour of the complete Nike complex in Beaverton, Ore., where it met Mia Hamm and other Nike celebrities on-site. The teens also competed in a scavenger hunt which ended in the complex's Prefontaine building, in which the waffle iron is currently housed.

And when the track was ready to run, legendary runner Alberto Salazar and professional snowboarder and Oregon native Danny Kass showed up to dedicate the facility.

Combine those honors with the $100,000 used to revitalize the Condon track, and you have one heck of a return for an old waffle iron which just happened to re-appear in fall 2010 in a rubbish pit on the elder Bowermans' property after decades missing from action.

Now, the waffle iron is at the center of the company its use helped inspire, and a track team on the verge of elimination got a picturesque new track. If ever there was a trade that Bowerman himself would have advocated for, that sounds like it.

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Selden is among the top recruits in the Class of 2014. He has almost absurd athleticism, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound frame which will only become more pro ready in the years to come. He's already a standout stud at the Tilton (N.H.) School, and stars on the same BABC AAU squad which brought Nerlens Noel, among others, to national prominence.

As for Jefferson, the rising senior is a top-25 recruit and potential game-changing small forward who appears to be lacking only a consistent deep jump shot. Once he's perfected that, the sky will truly be the limit for the athletic game-changer.

Yet, what none of those factors can tell you about Selden and Jefferson is that they have an incredible sense of creativity. Just take a look at the contest-winning dunks they provided in the video above.

At the 2012 Mary Kline Classic, an event put on by new Rivals.com and Yahoo! partner Recruit Scoop, Selden shared the dunk contest title with the rising senior Jefferson. First, Selden stunned onlookers by throwing the ball off the wall, collecting it and somehow still completing a full 360 dunk. Needless to say, it was pretty incredible.

How could Jefferson match that? With what can only be described as a leapfrog dunk, a maneuver which he made even more difficult by choosing to leap over 6-foot-8 prospect Austin Colbert.

Which dunk was better? In terms of athleticism, it's incredibly hard to argue with Selden's self-assisting 360. Still, Jefferson's leapfrog slam was one of the more creative efforts to come around at an all-star dunk contest in some time.

Perhaps a title tie was fitting. After all, it seems likely that neither will be forgotten anytime soon.

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As initially reported by the Arizona Republic, then followed upon by a variety of other Arizona and national sources, Phoenix (Ariz.) Our Lady of Sorrows Academy's baseball team decided to forfeit its scheduled Arizona Charter Athletic Association state championship matchup rather than face off against Mesa (Ariz.) Preparatory Academy, which features a second baseman named Paige Sultzbach.

Because playing Mesa Prep would require competing against a team featuring a girl, Our Lady of Sorrows decided that playing the game would violate the school's mission to teach boys and girls separately, as the school made clear in a statement on Thursday. The separation of the sexes is a key tenet of the Society of St. Pius X, a separatist branch of the Catholic Church of which Our Lady of Sorrows is a part.

While the cancellation of the state title game is a disappointment for Sultzbach and her teammates, it was hardly unanticipated. The teenager sat out two previous games between the schools because of Our Lady of Sorrows' religious beliefs, but she was unwilling to sit out the biggest game of the season which she and her teammates had worked to reach.

[Related: Video: Watch a 6-year-old turn an incredible unassisted triple play]

That desire was only stoked by Sultzbach's absence in the prior matchups between the teams, as the teen told the Republic.

"I felt like any passionate athletic person would feel [in that situation]," Sultzbach told the Republic. "I don't want our very first high school baseball team to win the championship on a forfeit."

While the forfeit will officially make Mesa Prep the ACAA state champion, the school's athletic director made clear that her team didn't want to earn its state crown that way.

"What true athlete would want to win or lose a championship game by forfeit?" Mesa Prep AD Amy Arnold, who also happens to be the only female football coach in Arizona, told the Republic. … "I respect their views, but it's a bit out of the 18th century."

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Whether that's on the field for your high school or via the AAU circuit, getting noticed is the biggest thing. But every so often a student-athlete manages to obtain a college scholarship by going a completely different route -- like playing volleyball in a recreational league during your senior year.

As Dallas-Fort Worth's ABC affiliate WFAA-TV reported, Plano's Meredith Mounger didn't even play volleyball at Plano East (Texas) High School during her junior and senior years, after she was cut from the team.

After playing for a club squad her junior year, she ended up leaving the team to play in a recreational league at the Plano Sports Authority. And yet somehow, some way, she managed to still end up with an opportunity to play volleyball in college at Texas Wesleyan University, an NAIA school.

"To have someone tell you at a young age no, or you're not good enough, and then for you to continue to pursue and be persistent and work at it says a lot about a person," Christy Clawson-Diver, Texas Wesleyan's volleyball coach, told WFAA.

Mounger's story isn't a first, but the fact that she ended up passing on even playing club volleyball her senior year and still ended up with a scholarship is pretty rare.

While Mounger's scholarship offer is a feel-good story, The Dallas Morning News' Health Blog noted that even though her perseverance paid off, there's still a concern about whether high school sports are discouraging kids who want to play and stay healthy.

But my bigger point is: our high school sports teams are discouraging kids who want to play, exercise, work out, be healthy. Meredith, happily, had the support of her family which never stopped encouraging her and invested the time and money in getting her to club and then recreational sports competition at PSA when she couldn't play for Plano East Senior High. What about all the kids that don't have families that have the time, the money and the confidence to do that?

Honestly, I don't see a problem with what Plano East High did. Schools all over the country have to make cuts for their junior varsity and varsity squads every year to not only keep the sport under budget, but also to make sure every player has a chance to play.

It just so happens Mounger found a way to keep pushing forward, and it ended up paying off in the end. Not every high school athlete will be so lucky, but it's pretty neat when one of them manages to beat the odds and play on the collegiate level.

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As noted by Hoop Dreams Magazine -- and seen in detail thanks to video from ScoutsFocus above -- 9-year-old Kyle Ratner was the shocking star of the 2012 Mary Kline Classic, a star-studded event designed to raise funds for cancer research in honor of Mary Kline, the mother of Alex Kline.

Ratner was deemed a guest of honor because he lost his father to cancer during the winter. While it had been a fait accompli that Ratner, in a LeBron James jersey-style T-shirt, would get to step onto the court, there was no protocol for how the teen superstars would react to him.

What they did was truly heartwarming and memorable for more than just Ratner himself.

As soon as the elementary schooler was on the court, the future NCAA stars surrounded him and set him up for a drive on the hoop. Fed the ball, Ratner came in and sunk a running shot. Then, with time ticking down, Ratner was given the ball again with just enough time to shoot before the final buzzer. Fittingly, he sunk the hoop and was then given a victory ride off the court on the broad shoulders of future famous friends he never knew he had.

A perfect ending for a cancer fundraiser that raised more than $20,000 for cancer research, all organized by a teen who lost his mother to cancer.

"Alex had asked Kyle to sit on the bench with the players for that night, and he couldn't have been happier. When he was asked to go in the game in the final minute, he tried telling me from across the gym, but I had no idea what he was trying to say. When I saw what he meant, I was overwhelmed," Ratner's mother, Nancy Ratner, told Prep Rally. "His love of the game is second to none, and he definitely was not intimidated by the size of those boys on the court! He went out there and was one of them.

"And that's how they treated him. Both teams. He scored on a jump shot and then ran down the court on defense. Running back up the court, the other team passed him the ball. Not worrying about the score or their own numbers, all that mattered to every young man on that court was Kyle during that minute."

After the game, Ratner was still a bit starstruck, waffling on whether he had ever played against so many star players before. Yet he hardly hesitated in explaining why the game was important to him.

"It meant a lot [to play in the cancer fundraiser]," Ratner, who agreed that the game was one of the most enjoyable things he'd ever done, told ScoutsFocus. "People with cancer are really, really sick and people want to help."

Clearly, the Ratner family won't forget what everyone did for them and for cancer research anytime soon.

"[Kyle Ratner] was 8 when his father passed away," Nancy Ratner told Prep Rally. "It was more than just a basketball game to those boys. Kyle will forever remember how he was treated by them and how they made him feel.  He was a rock star for one night ... and I have Alex and those amazing young men who also play some amazing basketball to thank!"

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Now those 15 baseball statistical icons have been joined by a 6-year-old. Really.

The video you see above -- which was brought to Prep Rally's attention by Deadspin and originally circulated on Reddit -- comes from a youth baseball game in Georgia, where the league's Dodgers and Braves teams in the first-grade division were facing off. With a Dodgers player at-bat, a pop-up floated directly to shortstop Ross Bernath, who nabbed it cleanly, raced back to touch third base and then chased down the advancing runner from second, all without enlisting the help of a single teammate.

And just think: He had to pull off those feats even quicker than they do in the bigs since he was playing on a diamond with basepaths significantly closer to each other.

Of course, those teammates hardly seemed to register what was going on. In fact, Bernath himself seemed to be confused about everything that was going on. For a guy who had just achieved a feat which is practically the unicorn or blue bear of baseball statistics, he had an awfully puzzled look on his face.

Then again, it's not every day that anyone, at any level, pulls off an unassisted triple play. Maybe Bernath just forgot there were only three outs in a half inning, or he lost track of how many outs he earned on the play.

No matter what the reason, thanks to YouTube, this youngster will never get to forget the day that he turned a triple play by himself. Bernath may never land another one-man triple play again, but that only makes his achievement -- and the adorable puzzlement it left the entire field of players in -- even more special.

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How does Franklin keep all of that under control without breaking down completely? One word: Mom.

Now, on Franklin's 17th birthday Friday, and two days before Mother's Day, the teen has released a video -- seen first here on Prep Rally -- dedicated to her mother, D.A. Franklin, and her mother's own dedication to the teen's success. The video was filmed as part of the U.S. Olympic Committee's 'Raise Our Flag' campaign, in which anyone can donate $12 to purchase a stitch of a national Olympic flag of support which is designed to help support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

In Franklin's case, she almost certainly wouldn't be a world class swimmer if it wasn't for her mother, and her mother's own struggles with the water.

"My mom actually started me swimming when I was very, very young because she's afraid of the water," Franklin said. "She wanted me to be comfortable in the water, wanted me to enjoy being in it, and ever since I was a baby, being in the water has been like my second home."

The importance Franklin's mother has had on her life should come as no surprise, given the lengths to which the Centennial (Colo.) Regis Jesuit School junior has had to go to compete at the highest level from such a young age. As perhaps the most important non-Missy member of "Team Franklin", D.A. Franklin is helping her daughter push away the media pressure and deal with her own expectations, which -- according to a terrific profile from the Denver Post -- focus on not letting down anyone around her.

"When I go to a meet, I want to swim fast for everyone who came out to see me swim and see the whole meet and see everyone else," Franklin told the Post. "I want to put on a good show for them. If I do the best that I can, no matter what, it would be hard to disappoint myself.

"I'm completely ignoring [media expecations]. I'm not even thinking about it. I love all the support I'm getting and all the good- luck wishes and everything from everyone. But you know what? They can expect anything they want to, but the only thing I need to focus on is myself and what I want to do and what my expectations are. That's all that matters."

That, and family, of course. The comfort that Franklin has in her own skin, despite all the pressure around her, is a testament to the role they have played in her life. And, given her mother's motivation for starting Franklin at such a young age, one even wonders if any of us would know about Missy Franklin if not for D.A. Franklin's very direct influence.

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As reported by Prep Rally's brotherly Canadian Junior Hockey blog Buzzing the Net, the Portland Winterhawks and Edmonton Oil Kings are sharing a plane which has been chartered by the Western Hockey League when traveling between the two cities in different countries that comprise the sites for the WHL final.

While that might not seem like a bad idea during cool-headed times, it can lead to some second guessing when one considers that the two teams of teenagers and 20-somethings have already engaged in a series of NHL-quality fights during their series.

To whit, Portland's Brad Ross and Edmonton's Jordan Peddle fought and were ejected for game misconduct (for that fight) on Sunday, before the teams were scheduled to fly back to Edmonton after Tuesday's game. Portland defenseman Joe Morrow also fought Edmonton's Keegan Lowe in that game.

Even the coaches aren't happy with each other, with Edmonton's Derek Laxdal reportedly carping about an alleged cheap shot leveled against Edmonton star Mitch Moroz following Edmonton's key third goal in a 4-3 loss.

According to the Portland Oregonian, while the initial shared flight from Edmonton to Portland led to "not a lot of socializing," the WHL has stepped in to create a questionable buffer between the teams for the return flight back to the Oil Kings' home rink: A midsection of the plane filled by media members and league officials.

As Buzzing the Net's Neate Sager noted, that arrangement might just work, so long as there are bathrooms at both ends of the plane. If not, the league might want to make sure to put a couple extra air marshals on board just to be safe.

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As reported by NBC New York, the New York Post, CBS New York and other outlets, former MLB veteran Rosendo "Rusty" Torres was arrested on Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse. Torres, who played as an outfielder for the Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Royals and Angels across a nine-year career, is now 63 and lives in Massapequa, N.Y., though he has worked for a variety of youth baseball programs in nearby Oyster Bay.

It was in that capacity that Torres allegedly abused an 8-year-old girl inside a town-issued van, with law enforcement officials telling the press that Torres inappropriately touched the young girl on April 30 and Monday, after which the girl told her parents, who then alerted police.

Torres was immediately suspended without pay from his position with the town of Oyster Bay, but those in the surrounding Long Island community were left stunned by the accusations against him.

"No way! Rusty arrested? What?" one of Torres' neighbors, Gus Galatatzis, told the New York Post. "I'm floored right now. He even coached my son. He's great. He knows everyone in the neighborhood and everyone knows him. He's such a well-known, well-liked guy. I'm speechless.

"Rusty is such a friendly, outgoing guy, I pray to God it's [the allegations] not true."

Another 10-year neighbor of the former major leaguer, Janice Catalano, was similarly stunned by the allegations against the longtime outfielder.

"I'm at a loss for words," Catalano told NBC New York. "And I think anybody in this neighborhood would say the same thing. He did programs in the town to keep kids on the right track. I just don't believe it."

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Any of those reasons would be enough to engender plenty of extra attention for Jones, but the budding hockey prospect is used to it, for a rather surprising reason: He's the son of longtime NBA player Popeye Jones.

Now, the son of an NBA lifer -- the elder Jones is an assistant coach for the Nets now that his 11-year playing career is in the past -- is getting attention for turning his back on the more traditional American route of NCAA hockey to play for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, a respected franchise which is currently competing for the WHL title in the league's championship series. While others have made similar decisions in the past, few have had the pedigree and name recognition of Jones, who some have pointed to as the future face of an even more-integrated sport on skates.

It's not unusual for the progeny of great athletes to follow in the footsteps of their fathers (or mothers for that matter), but it is odd for a longtime basketball star to precede a hockey superstar in a family tree. For the younger Jones, who spent most of his formative years in Colorado before moving to Dallas with his father, hockey was a natural fit because of the success of the Colorado Avalanche while the Jones family was in Denver.

In fact, Seth Jones was so taken with the likes of Joe Sakic that he committed to take a full year of skating lessons before he ever started competing on a rink. As noted by USA Hockey magazine, that skilled skating foundation has set the stage for Jones' emergence as one of the top American hockey prospects in years.

Throughout all those years of development, Jones continued to get one question in each interview: What is it like to be a hockey player as the son of an NBA player?

"You know, it's typical," Jones told USA Hockey. "If I were a reporter, I'd probably ask the same thing. I don't get sick of it, but it definitely comes around a lot.

"It'd be awesome, however far I go in my career, to eventually be known as 'Seth Jones' and not 'Popeye's son.'"

The day when Jones is known simply for being a great hockey player may not be far away. In addition to Jones' skating skills, his size, vision and self-awareness of what he does well (and what he doesn't) puts him in a nearly one-on-one competition to be the top overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft with fellow junior hockey star Nathan MacKinnon.

"I move the puck well," Jones told Yahoo! partner the Hockey News. "I make the first pass and my skating is a huge part of my game -- I try to focus on my stride.

"Nothing comes easy. Nothing is going to be handed to you on a platter. It's what people don't see -- the practice, the workouts -- that matters."

Spoken like a prospect who has been taught well by a parent who went through the rigors of professional training himself, even if his training came in a different sport.

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As reported by Arkansas Matters and USA Today, among other sources, Teresa Bloodman, the mother of a Maumelle (Ark.) High freshman, filed suit against the school, district and state after her son was replaced on the school's basketball team following a third set of tryouts for the team that re-incorporated members of the school's football team.

Bloodman's son, who is a minor and was not named in the suit, spent two months as part of the team after qualifying through two tryouts in August only to be replaced three months later by a member of the football team, as were nine of the team's 11 original players.

While those replacements might stoke claims of favoritism, the lawsuit filed by Bloodman goes much further, claiming that her son has a constitutional right to participate in school sports, as you can read in the excerpt from the suit directly below.

"…the deprivation of the right to a full and complete education which includes competition in sports and consequently athletic scholarships impairs John Doe of a property right guaranteed under both the U.S. and State Constitutions."

The suit further alleges that the sheer lack of an orderly appeals process for students who were cut is also a violation of due process.

While the case itself could serve as a watershed in how schools hold tryouts for varsity sports, the attorney for the Pulaski County Special School District is confident that it will be seen as groundless once it is further examined in a court of law.

"The simple issue here is whether or not a student has a right to participate in extracurricular activities; be it band, choir or whatever," Pulaski County Special School District attorney Jay Bequette told Arkansas Matters. "There is no clearly established right of parents to have their children compete in interscholastic athletics."

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Yet it's what Fuller conceals underneath his baseball uniform that makes his case so special: Fuller was born with -- and still suffers from -- spina bifida. As reported in an excellent feature from the Chicago Sun-Times, Fuller has to wear custom braces on both of his legs whenever he pitches, and has had to overcome a lifetime of physical struggles to reach his current healthy lifestyle.

To say that the physical challenges facing Fuller were daunting is an extreme understatement. The 18-year-old has had 10 surgeries over the course of his life. He has to live with leg braces every day, but -- thanks in large part to playing a variety of sports at a young age -- Fuller has never had to be fully confined to a wheelchair, as are many who suffer from spina bifida.

In fact, it's difficult to detect Fuller's limitations when he's on the diamond. The senior currently sports an impressive 3.06 ERA and has a shutout victory to his name. That ERA becomes even more impressive when one learns that Fuller had never been a starting pitcher before the 2012 campaign, always working out of relief in prior seasons, not to mention the fact that his lack of lower body strength forces Fuller to get more torque from his upper body and greatly limits his ability to field balls hit back to the mound.

To find the most stirring testaments to Fuller's adaptability to his condition, one need only ask those who have faced him, like the coach of the powerful Glenbrook (Ill.) North program, which eked out a 2-0 victory against Niles North in a game in which Fuller pitched seven sterling innings while taking a loss.

"I'm even more impressed," Glenbrook North coach Dom Savino told the Sun-Times. "He shut down our lineup and did an outstanding job of changing speeds, and that's why he got the best of our hitters. My first thought [on hearing of Fuller's spina bifida] was, 'What an unbelievable sense of personal courage.'

"We have a sign in our dugout, and the first word is 'perspective.' If you go out and strike out or walk somebody, you feel like you have it so rough. [Fuller] competes with such bravery. All our players could benefit from him."

A number of Niles North players and classmates have learned plenty from Fuller, who has also been a standout member of the school's golf team and competes on a wheelchair basketball squad.

"I've never had a huge problem with it," Fuller told the Sun-Times. "But I've come to realize that there are things I'm not going to do. I'm not going to run a marathon -- fine. But it's gotten easier over time. The reason I can play sports is luck, and it's gotten me to push my boundaries."

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According to MLive.com, the Detroit Free Press and other news outlets throughout the state of Michigan, Curtis is under investigation for allegations of improperly touching four female students at Lakewood Schools. The former major leaguer spent the past year as a substitute teacher and volunteer in the weight room at the high school.

He's since been suspended from his current job as the school investigates the incidents. The allegations are very serious and could end up not only costing Curtis his current and future job, but could lead to legal action, if true.

When asked to expound on where the school was with things, Lakewood Schools Superintendent Michael O'Mara told MLive.com, "I'll have to leave it at that."

This isn't Curtis' first job in the high school ranks. He was the athletic director at NorthPointe Christian Schools, in Grand Rapids, from 2007 to 2009, but was dismissed for unspecified reasons. The job at Lakewood would have been his first head-coaching position.

It's important to remember that Curtis is innocent until proven guilty. While he may end up beating the allegations, one does have to wonder if the fact he was accused in the first place will force Lakewood into looking for another football coach.

All schools take inappropriate touching allegations seriously, and the fact that Curtis is even under investigation in such a public way isn't a good sign. For the moment, it looks like Curtis' future in the high school ranks is in dire jeopardy.

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As reported by the Miami Herald, Mesa has emerged as a legitimate ace and overpowering talent for Miami (Fla.) Charles Flanagan High. The senior sports an impressive 1.03 ERA, boasts a Broward County-best 127 strikeouts and has walked just 36 hitters in nearly 75 innings.

Even more impressive is Mesa's performance against one of his squad's biggest rivals, West Broward (Fla.) High. In two games against the Bobcats, Mesa has thrown two no-hitters. He'll even get a shot at a third no-hitter against the same team on Tuesday, when Flanagan faces West Broward in the regional semifinal round of the playoffs.

On Thursday, Mesa tuned up for his big regional semifinal face off by striking out 12 batters in a 6-1 victory against Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Stoneman Douglass High, a win which pushed Mesa's season record to 9-1.

Regardless of how Mesa's fourth outing against West Broward turns out, the teenager has done more than enough to raise the eyebrows of plenty of professional scouts. At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, the younger Mesa already has the frame of a Major League pitcher. Combine that with his pedigree, and it's likely that someone in the forthcoming MLB Draft will be interested enough in his services to make him a relatively high pick.

"He's probably right now, in talking to most of the scouts, he's definitely the best [pitcher] in Broward County," Flanagan baseball coach Ray Evans told the Herald. "He's got four pitches and we don't even use one. There's no reason to use the changeup when he's throwing that hard. That's a pitch they could actually hit.

"I haven't seen a guy [grow] from his 10th grade year to his senior year like he has, the strides he's made. He's gotten to a point where he for the last couple weeks he was sort of stagnant. He was throwing and they weren't hitting him, but he wasn't getting better. But this game tonight proved a lot. He got stronger as the game went along, sharper with his breaking ball, sharper with his slider. He took command. I think he's one of the best, if not the best."

If that doesn't materialize, the Flanagan senior will attend Seminole State Community College, where he'll keep trying to improve while chasing the heights his father once reached.

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The diplomatic cheerleading melee occurred at Colleyville (Texas) High, where only 19 girls were picked to serve as cheerleaders for a school with a massive 2,400 student population. According to ABC News and Dallas Fort Worth network WFAA, the severe numbers cutback was the result of tougher tryouts for the 2012 squad, leading to some existing varsity cheerleaders being dropped from the squad.

[Also: Texas baseball playoffs postponed due to umpire groups' feud]

Those dropped cheerleaders and their parents in turn argued vociferously against the tryouts at school board meetings, leading to further discussion of the school's tryout standards and comparisons with the tryouts at other area schools. After comparing Colleyville's standards, the school board eventually agreed with the parents and ousted cheerleaders, stepping in to overrule the original results of the tryouts and more than double the size of the incoming 2012-13 squad.

"The district administration made the decision to place all of the candidates who passed the required tumbling certification and participated in tryouts onto the Colleyville Heritage High School cheer squad for 2012-2013," a statement released by the district read. "The administration's decision allows for more student participation at both the freshman and junior varsity levels, and provides the ability to field three squads at CHHS as we traditionally have offered."

Incredibly, the changes ushered in by the divisive tryouts don't stop there, either. The Colleyville school district said it was establishing a district committee to investigate the current tryout process and attempt to overhaul it going forward.

That move has received further appreciation from the Colleyville parents, who cited vast differences in the number of rejected cheerleaders from tryouts at Colleyville and Grapevine (Texas) High -- despite the same judges presiding at both schools' tryouts -- as proof that Colleyville's standards need to be changed.

"This is a sport and the girls are athletes," Colleyville cheerleading parents Crissie Tatum told ABC News. "It's changing for the better and looked at like a sport to make it more fair for the girls that are involved.

[PrepRally: Jose Mesa Jr. lives up to family name]

"They did a really good job of really working to look at the big picture and trying to see what would be the right thing. We are happy that they decided to make that change."

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Roughly a month after a shocking transfer to a basketball powerhouse which plans to close following the 2012 school year, Baltimore prep hoops sensation Aquille Carr has transferred back to his original school, Baltimore (Md.) Patterson High, so he could be closer to his infant daughter Averi, who had come down with an illness.

The news of Carr's second transfer in as many months was first delivered by HoopGroup.com, which spoke with the junior sensation -- who was offered a $650,000 professional contract in Italy while just 16 years old -- about his surprising decision to return to Baltimore so soon after leaving his home city for Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick School.

"I was away from my daughter too long. She had gotten sick so I wanted to come home and take care of her," Carr told Hoop Group. "And I just wanted to spend the first year of her life there, and be there for her.

"I just wanted to come home to feel better…It wasn't a basketball or school issue."

While Carr's motivations are certainly understandable, some might question why he transferred out of Baltimore in the first place given his concerns about his daughter, who was just two weeks old when he first left Baltimore for the school uniforms and New Jersey climes of St. Patrick.

There were widespread rumors in the basketball recruiting community that Carr's transfer was academically motivated, with St. Patrick offering the chance to take care of a handful of credits that would move the player closer to graduation and qualifying for the scholarship to Seton Hall which he has committed to accept, should be qualify for it.

Where Carr will take up that pursuit in the 2012-13 school year remains to be seen. Carr openly said he had no idea where he would play his senior season when asked by Hoop Group, but his desire to be close to his daughter might indeed make the home comforts of Patterson a likely landing spot, even if others have speculated that Carr could wind up at Las Vegas (Nev.) Findlay Prep or Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy for his final high school season.

Then again, in the world of Carr, it's always hard to tell what is coming next. Just ask the folks at St. Patrick, which must be truly puzzled after a stint at the soon-to-close school which Carr himself described as successful.

"They taught me a lot at St. Pat's," Carr told Hoop Group. "They showed me more ways to study and they helped me out a lot in school. I give them a lot of credit."

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As reported by the Detroit News and a variety of other sources, including Off the Bench, Hersh often wears Verlander t-shirts. Her friends on her baseball team all call her Verlander, and Hersh claims "they say I throw like him." Her father insists that his daughter even knows more about Verlander than the pitcher knows about himself.

Yet all isn't entirely sunny for Hersh. The Huntington Woods elementary schooler has lived her entire life with cystic fibrosis, the debilitating disease which affects Hersh's lungs and poses a threat to her life every day. Hersh also lost her mother to an unspecified disease in 2011.

Those traumatic setbacks haven't slowed Hersh's commitment to baseball or, notably, to Verlander. The 11-year-old has been writing letters to Verlander for multiple years, and the pitcher took note, eventually helping organize a trip for Hersh and her father to see the Tigers play at Yankee Stadium.

Throughout that trip, Shayna Hersh didn't know that Verlander had set up her trip … until he surprised her while she was filming a segment about the trip in MLB's Fan Cave, as you can see above.

The 11-year-old was clearly touched, but she never lost her cool while in the presence of her hero. "I stayed for the whole game," Hersh said when Verlander asked her about the prior evening's matchup at Yankee Stadium.

As for the ace, it was clear that he got almost as much out of the encounter as Hersh did herself.

"It was such a touching story and, you know, I thought what an amazing opportunity to really surprise this young girl and bring her up here to watch a couple of games," Verlander said in the MLB video, which was posted on YouTube.

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Wait, what? Umpire dispute? Incredibly, in Texas that's precisely what happened.

As reported by the San Antonio Express-News, two different high school baseball playoff series had to be delayed because of an injunction filed in relation to a dispute between two different groups of baseball umpires. While the Texas Collegiate Umpire Association was scheduled to work the San Antonio (Texas) Madison High vs. San Antonio (Texas) Judson High series and the Boerne (Texas) Champion High vs. Buda (Texas) Hays High series, a suit from the San Antonio branch of the Texas Association of Sports Officials forced the opening of both series to be delayed.

The two groups of officials don't necessarily play well together, so it was not particularly surprising that one would be upset when the other was chosen to officiate a prestigious playoff series. Rather, the issue may be why the decision to pick one over the other was considered a major surprise.

As the Express-News noted, the San Antonio North East Independent School District used TASO-San Antonio officials throughout the regular season only to choose TCUA officials for the playoffs. That upset the TASO members, who then filed an injunction claiming that they had a right to work the playoffs because they were the officials working that region during the regular season.

With no quick resolution in sight, athletic directors from the effected schools decided to postpone their playoff series rather than scramble to find other officials to work the game on a moment's notice, even though Champion was actually en route to Hays for their game when they first learned of the umpire snafu.

In what may be a fitting twist to the feuding officials groups, the injunction filed between the two may actually keep either group from being able to officiate either playoff series.

After having a team from one of his schools waste an afternoon trip up the road only to turn around without a game, Boerne Independent School District Athletic Director Stan Leech asked the state's governing body for athletics, the University Interscholastic League, to provide officials for the Champion vs. Hays series. While it was unknown whether UIL officials would be used for the Judson vs. Madison series, the ongoing injunction between the umpire groups made that a likely possibility.

While it seems extremely unlikely that officials from either group entered their fray hoping to make both irrelevant for the remainder of the San Antonio baseball playoffs, they may have accomplished just that with their untimely feud.

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In 2011, Stolz struck one of his team's goals of the season -- if not the goal of the season in the state -- when he connected on an overhead bicycle kick to score in a tight playoff matchup. There was just one problem: The goal in question was wiped out by a rather ludicrous yellow card handed to Stolz for accidentally kicking his opposing defender on the follow through of his kick.

When you watch that 2011 wonder goal, it is almost impossible to understand how Stolz could have received a card for the kick. Clearly the junior felt the same way, as his instant protestations about the discipline indicate.

It would be understandable if Stolz chalked the lost goal, one which might be a once-in-a-lifetime strike, to simple bad luck. If he did, he never gave up on the idea of scoring such an audacious goal again.

That is now certain because, incredibly, Stolz scored an almost identical goal almost exactly a year later, again in the playoffs. Deadlocked 2-2 against Woodward (Ga.) High, Stolz found an inbounds pass taking a lucky bounce in his direction, headed the ball up and set himself up for an almost identical bicycle attempt.

This time, there was no one around to possibly keep the goal from counting, and the strike eventually gave Harrison a 3-2 victory.

Just how similar were the two strikes? Similar enough that if you didn't notice Stolz's knee wrap in the 2012 version, it might be hard to tell the difference between the two.

Both goals came on Harrison's home turf. Both came in the playoffs, but only the second counted.

Could the second goal be the result of random chance? Sure. Could blind luck have played its part? Absolutely. Still, it's nice to think that karma may have played some role in Stolz's incredible second goal. After having his first wonder goal ruled out, he certainly deserved to have one just as good count on the official score sheet.

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According to the Houston Chronicle and YourHoustonNews.com, among other outlets, the frightening incident occurred during a matchup between Katy (Texas) Cinco Ranch High and Houston (Texas) MacArthur High. During the second inning, first base umpire Ricky Scearce Jr., collapsed of an apparent heart attack on the field. He was immediately taken to nearby Memorial Herman Northeast Hospital, but was pronounced dead approximately an hour later.

"We are in utter shock," Scearce's daughter, Cara Smith, told Your Houston News. "He was a healthy man. All he needed was a knee replacement. We are in absolute shock and there is a lot of sadness.

"That was one of his loves. He dedicated his life to being an umpire."

While concern immediately focused on the welfare of the 60-year-old Scearce, the umpire's collapse also led to the postponement of the playoff series between Cinco Ranch and MacArthur, with the postponed game rescheduled for Saturday. Cinco Ranch eventually won the rescheduled Saturday matchup and followed that with a second victory to advance to the Texas Region II quarterfinals with a 2-1 series win over MacArthur.

Immediately after Scearce's collapse, both the Cinco Ranch and MacArthur teams gathered together in a prayer circle for the fallen umpire, as you can see in the picture above from the Twitter account of MacArthur senior pitcher Alyssa Perez, who later noted that paramedics on the scene told the players and fans at the game that Scearce had died while he was on the field.

"It really was [crazy]!" Perez Tweeted on Friday. "Just happened out of nowhere!

"They didn't want to put him in a body bag in front of everyone so they just took him inside the ambulance."

There may have been little comfort for the Scearce family on Friday night or Saturday as they adjusted to life without the Katy resident, but Cinco Ranch coach Jerry Miller expressed a sense of peace in knowing Scearce died doing what he loved.

"This is about him and his family," Miller told Your Houston News. "As much as he liked umpiring, he loved his family. When he retired from Katy ISD, the first couple of times I saw him after that, that's all he could talk about is the opportunity to spend more time with his family and his kids and grandkids. That's all he talked about. He was as happy this year as I've seen him and he's always happy.

"I really feel Rick is in Heaven. The good book says that man was created in God's image. He did perfectly by Rick. He was the personification of a perfect man. I've never heard him cuss. I never saw him smoke or drink. I never saw him say ill will about anyone. Anyone, ever. He was a constant professional. He was an outstanding father and dad and grandpa."

[Also: High school football player excels with unique talent]

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According to NJ.com and CBS New York, among other sources, 28-year-old Wood-Ridge (N.J.) High softball coach Jillian Clementi was arrested and charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child for holding an ongoing sexual relationship with a former male Wood-Ridge student.

The softball coach allegedly met with the student at her house on multiple occasions while he was still a student at the school, though he has since graduated, according to Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.

Clementi, a former all-state softball player at Washington Township (N.J.) Immaculate Heart Academy, had returned to teach social studies at the school since 2008. The Archdiocese of Newark which is in charge of Sacred Heart officially suspended the coach and teacher indefinitely shortly after she was arrested.

"She's out of the classroom and she's not part of the faculty now," Jim Goodness, the Newark diocese spokesman, told NJ.com. "We view these as very serious accusations."

While there was no immediate word of any prospective court dates for the 28-year-old, the Newark diocese had already acted quickly to minimize damage from her incident, notifying parents about the allegations against the teacher and former star athlete.

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