There are a number of new recruiting rules that should have a profound effect on how colleges are able to connect with athletes in the future. While most press attention has focused on the ability of coaches to connect with athletes via phone and social media much more frequently, there’s a more insidious change that could have an even larger impact on the future of college basketball and football.

As of now, the previous disincentives intended to keep colleges from hiring top prep coaches as a means of landing top recruits are gone. And as a result, some of the nation’s most impressive high school basketball coaches are becoming the nation’s newest assistant college basketball coaches.

Specifically, two of the nation’s most notable coaches departed to join collegiate staffs in the past two weeks alone. First, new UCLA coach Steve Alford hired Indianapolis (In.) Park Tudor High coach Ed Schilling as one of his assistants with the Bruins. The connection between Alford and Schilling is as simple as their geographic background; both Alford and Schilling grew up in Indiana.

The connection between Duncanville (Tx.) High coach Danny Henderson and Boise State is significantly more tenuous. The coach, who previously molded superstar Marcus Smart as the coach at Flower Mound (Tx.) Marcus High, jumped at the chance to become Boise State’s newest assistant coach when he predecessor with the Broncos, Dave Wojcik, was named the new head coach at San Jose State.

The shift from prep hoops to college is a notable one because of the ethical issues it raises. While no one can fault a longtime high school coach for trying to get ahead, any advantage they receive in trying to bring their former charges on board at their new schools would be seen as outside the bounds of appropriate contact and conduct.

Perhaps that’s why the NCAA is due for a new look at putting recruiting restrictions on former high school coaches and their former prep programs, at least for a year or so.

There has been no word about whether the NCAA would consider such a move, though an influx of Duncanville stars to the likes of Boise State would almost certainly be a significant enough flag to stir some kind of action.

There’s no telling if that will follow Henderson’s move, though one thing is certain: If they do, they better be ready to bundle up the way Henderson will have to.

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Words like “travesty” don’t usually apply to a high school baseball game. They do when the final score of that game is 65-0.

As first noted by the Newark Advocate, a newspaper in Ohio, and followed upon by Sporting News columnist Bill Bender, the Licking County (Oh.) Licking Heights High baseball team routed Columbus (Oh.) Harvest Prep High by a final score of 65-0. The game was halted after three innings, by which point Licking Heights already had accumulated 48 hits, 13 walks and a troubling 11 hit batsmen.

The Hornets scored 16 runs in the first inning, 18 runs in the second and 31 in the third. Harvest Prep scored no runs at all.

"It's the most awkward I've ever felt in 34 years of coaching," Licking Heights coach Jeff Boyer told the Sporting News. "I didn't know what to feel. I wasn't happy. I felt bad for their kids and didn't know what to tell our kids."

Before anyone blame the state of Ohio for not having a mercy rule to halt such a game, it’s worth noting that it does. However, that rule calls for games to end abruptly if one team holds a 10-run lead after five innings and does not have provisions for games that get far out of hand earlier. In the case of Licking Heights and Harvest Prep, the game was called after three innings because of encroaching darkness, not the astounding 65-0 score.

While there is no defending a 65-0 final score, it appears that Boyer tried – or offered to try -- just about every alternative at his disposal to minimize the damage. At one point Boyer claims he went to the game’s home plate umpire and offered to have his players bunt and then step on the plate to guarantee an out.

The umpire’s response to that possibility? Boyer made that clear, and hinted at its irony.

“… he said he didn't want it to be a travesty of a game. And I'm thinking, 'We're already there.' "

While the two teams will meet again on April 22, Boyer has made it clear that Licking Heights is committed to avoiding the kind of embarrassment that resulted from the teams’ first encounter. That’s all for the best for both teams, regardless of how responsible Licking Heights could possibly be for the eye-popping lopsided final score.

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Cecil Bratton will spend the 2013 football season lining up along the defensive line for Missouri State. For now, he’s still the big man on campus at St. Joseph (Mo.) Central High, and he’s making sure to take advantage of that status to do a few more good deeds before he picks up a diploma.

Now, Bratton’s most recent act of kindness has earned him major attention, after Bratton accepted an invitation to his senior prom from a special needs student, and the pair was voted as Central’s prom king and queen.

As reported by the St. Joseph News-Press, Bratton took 4-foot Breyonna Nelson to the pair’s senior prom after another special needs student rejected Nelson’s request to go to the dance. Rather than be daunted, Nelson walked right up to Bratton, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound football star who she had met as a junior. Nelson, who has bright pink hair, flipped the script and asked Bratton to the prom, and he immediately accepted.

“I said I'd be honored. I said it right away,” Cecil told the News-Press.

Bratton’s decision was a touching one that made sense for a number of reasons. Because the senior’s girlfriend is only a sophomore, she is not eligible to attend his prom, leaving him open to another date.

And while Bratton could have taken someone else, he said that if he hadn’t agreed to escort Nelson, he almost certainly would have spent the dance hanging out with his friends.

As for matching up such an odd-couple, the personal helper who looks after Nelson at Central High said that she felt the duo was a perfect pair.

“He sets such a good example, and I love Breyonna," Dianne Slawson told the News-Press. "She's got the guts of a bear.”

Now she’s a prom queen alongside a fellow student who is nearly the size of a bear himself.

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Alan Hern is a strong man, and a football coach of principle. Now his entire universe is being challenged due to an event that has forever changed one of America’s proudest cities.

When two explosions erupted on Boylston Street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Hern, who serves as the football coach at Martinez (Ca.) Alhambra High, was there. In fact, he and his two children, son Aaron and daughter Abigail, were just feet away from where the first bomb exploded at the Marathon Sports location on Boylston.

According to this terrific feature by MaxPreps, the Herns were there to cheer on Aaron’s mother and Alan’s wife, Katherine Hern, who was running her first Boston marathon.

Katherine Hern was 200 yards from the finish line when the bomb exploded, with her son standing by with a camera to snap congratulatory pictures. Alan and Abigail were feet away. Alan and Abigail Hern escaped unharmed, as did Katherine, who didn’t see her family members before the chaos ensued as she neared the finish line.

Aaron was not so lucky. The 11-year-old was struck by shrapnel from the bomb in his left thigh. His father found him laying on the street with his wounds, but was unable to accompany Aaron in the ambulance as he was rushed to the hospital. He was sent to Boston Children’s Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition, but even figuring out where Aaron was sent was a challenge.

Eventually, after the family arrived at Boston Children's, they were relieved to find that Aaron had undergone successful surgery and was upgraded to stable condition. While he has a struggle ahead and the family expects to be in Boston for another week while he awaits follow up surgery, they are relieved that their lot has not been worse.

“It wasn’t bleeding heavily, but it didn’t look very good, like a war wound,” Alan Hern told NBC’s Today Show. “Luckily, they got him on an ambulance pretty quickly.

"He’s been through a lot. A couple of times yesterday he opened his eyes. He knew we were there. His mother and I were with him,” Hern said. "We figured out that he was worried about the breathing tube. He wasn’t sure what that was all about. We told him that everything was all right.”

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Alan Hern would know plenty about war wounds. The football coach is a graduate of the Naval Academy and spent five years serving in the Persian Gulf. He was awarded with the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for superior performance for his time on duty.

That helped steel the father for the trauma that now befallen his son, though it hardly makes the experience any easier.

Aaron Hern, who is a pony baseball player and a standout student at Martinez Junior High, should be receiving plenty of “get well soon” cards from his classmates, who have spent the previous two days writing cards for the 11-year-old to send to him in Boston.

When the family eventually returns home, the Herns will be greeted with the most enthusiastic welcomes possible, whether they are viewed as neighbors, friends, coaches or all of the above.

“You expect someone to be rattled and scattered in a situation like that. Who wouldn’t be?” Alhambra athletic director Pat Ertola told MaxPreps. “But Alan was so cool and calm and collected. He had things handled. It’s just sort of what I’ve come to know about him. Even though he described what transpired as something out of a war scene.

"Our only thoughts and wishes right now is to get Alan and his family back home safe and sound."

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A longtime New Jersey football coach and athletic director tragically passed away while doing precisely what he preached to his athletes: Working out and staying in shape.

As reported by the Asbury Park Press, Jackson (N.J.) Liberty High football coach and athletic director Tim Osborn died suddenly after collapsing while working out at a location of the Bally’s Total Fitness gym franchise. Brick Township first responders reportedly attempted to revive Osborn but were unsuccessful, and the coach was pronounced dead at nearby Brick Hospital shortly thereafter.

In the immediate aftermath of Osborn’s passing, school officials quickly issued statements of support in memory of a coach who was referred to as a, “mentor and father figure.”

“Tim Osborn was a man beyond a head football coach, but a mentor and father figure for so many students, not only here at Jackson Liberty but the entire Shore community,” Liberty principal Maureen Butler told the Press. “He went above and beyond for everyone, especially our students and staff and was an integral part of making Jackson Liberty what it is today. Our Liberty family is so deeply saddened by his passing and will miss him more than words can express.”

While Osborn has made his name at Liberty, his roots in the Jersey football community go beyond his most recent employers. He was formerly an assistant coach and former player at his alma mater, Brick Township (N.J.) High and also served as an assistant coach at Toms River (N.J.) High.

Now, with Osborn gone, all three schools feel his absence acutely.

“I love him like a son,” Brick Township football coach Warren Wolf, who both coached Osborn on the field and served as a mentor, told the Press. “God only takes good people. I know he’s in good hands with our heavenly father.

“He did everything I asked him to do. If there’s such a word as perfect, he was that type of guy, steady and dependable.”

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Katlyn Gilbert is a wildly talented girls basketball player. That much is not in question. What is surprising is what she's been up to lately. Unlike her seventh grade classmates, Gilbert has been weighing up her collegiate future even though she hasn't even set foot in high school yet.

In fact, according to the Indianapolis Star, Gilbert has even made up her mind. The Indianapolis (Ind.) Heritage Christian School youngster committed to play for Evansville after her college decision was cleared by her mother.

“It’s a long time away but there is a couple of reasons I allowed her to commit,” Gilbert's mother Stephanie Roach, the junior varsity coach at Heritage Christian School told the Star. “We run a basketball program so we are around college coaches all the time. We particularly like the college coaches at Evansville. So if everything is still the same as it now and those coaches are still at Evansville, we would love her to play for them.”

Of course, assuming everything will be the same at Evansville in six years is a significant leap of faith, which is precisely why Gilbert's early commitment feels so ludicrous. Add to that the fact that the 13-year-old has yet to compete at the high school level, let alone prove that she is ready for collegiate competition.

Heck, there's a reasonable chance she might burn out on basketball long before she even reaches college.

Nevertheless, Gilbert's mother and the Heritage Christian varsity coach both claim that she is on pace to achieve remarkable things, even if her commitment will almost certainly bring major attention from others that she might not have anticipated.

“She would have been competitive within our high school program,” Heritage Christian coach Rick Risinger told the Star. "She’ll be a nice well-rounded player. Nice attitude and has a good work ethic, those intangibles that are so important for good players. She develop as gets older and continue to get stronger and stronger. Her potential is exciting.”

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When Greg Hauck joined Cal Ripken's youth baseball league in the Baltimore area 12 years ago, the Orioles legend noticed the then 6-year-old's immobile right arm and encouraged him to look up Jim Abbott -- the famed one-handed Major Leaguer.

Now, as a North County (Glen Burnie, Md.) High senior, Hauck matched Abbott's greatest career accomplishment -- albeit at the prep level -- pitching a no-hitter despite an injury at birth that limited the use of his right arm.

Hauck's incredible journey from nearly having his arm amputated as a child to preseason All-State recognition from Maryland's baseball coaches association is detailed in a magnificent feature by The Washington Post's Brandon Parker.

Hauck struck out 10 and didn't surrender a hit over five innings in a 17-0, mercy-rule win over rival Southern (Harwood, Md.) High on Monday. Also an outfielder, he's batting .500 with five RBI, four stolen bases and three runs scored in his team's 8-2 start.

“From the beginning, I could tell what type of athlete Gregg was and he’s never let his (birth) injury be a factor,” North County baseball coach Wayne Feuerherd told The Post. “It’s there, but once people find out, they are always amazed because you can’t really tell, and he’s still become one of the county’s best all-around athletes.”

Indeed, Hauck amassed 16 goals and seven assists in leading the Knights' boys soccer squad to a county title this past fall, capturing First Team All-Met honors from The Post and a scholarship from the University of Maryland Baltimore County along the way.

Obviously, baseball was the bigger obstacle for the 18-year-old phenom. He hesitated to take up the sport, and when he did, Hauck got some strange reactions from umpires as well as opposing parents and fans, as detailed in Parker's fantastic piece.

“I had second thoughts about playing high school baseball because I was afraid people were going to make fun of me,” Hauck explained to the paper. “But my soccer coach told me to at least try it out so I would know what it was like and not regret my decision. I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did because I would have regretted not playing.”

Same goes for the Falcons, who are reportedly off to their best start in five seasons, and every other 1-in-1,000 child who faces the same affliction. Just as Abbott inspired so many, Hauck, who has worked hard to increase motion in his right arm after almost losing it at birth, told The Post he plans to study physical therapy at UMBC.

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It’s fair to say that Richard Samudio is not a power hitter. The San Pedro (Ca.) High senior first baseman entered the recent San Fernando Baseball Tournament with a grand total of zero career home runs.

A few hours later, he had four.

As noted by the Torrance Daily Breeze, Samudio experienced what can only be considered one of the great prep power surges of all-time, hitting a total of four home runs in the same game that he hit his first. The deep balls came in a 24-7 San Pedro victory against Woodland Hills (Ca.) Taft High.

"I never thought that was going to happen," Samudio told the Daily Breeze. "After each one I was just thinking `Hopefully I'll get another one" and I just took my hacks and hit some."

That the homers came all at once was surprising, but were even more so considering the fact that Samudio’s coach didn’t consider him a likely candidate for a single deep ball, let alone four.

"He's been hitting all year,” San Pedro coach Lefty Olguin told the Daily Breeze. “He's a line-drive hitter. But I've personally in my 30 years of coaching never seen anyone hit four home runs."

As it turns out, those four home runs were just part of a truly remarkable day for Samudio. The first baseman notched two other hits to finish 6-for-6, another hard to accomplish feat at any level.

And to get six hits and four homers in the same game? That’s a relative shot heard round the world, or at least the California prep baseball world.

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Matt Hasselbeck will get to wear his traditional number 8 when he joins the Colts, yet he is not the true winner of the debate for number 8 in Indianapolis. Rather, that honor would belong to Norwell (In.) High.

The story behind that benefit revolves around a unique basketball trick shot contest and a bet between two new teammates, all with the best intentions.

As first disseminated by the two athletes themselves on Twitter, Hasselbeck and Chandler Harnish, the existing Colts number 8, decided to have a competition to determine who would get to wear number 8 during the 2013 season.

Eventually, the pair agreed on a single test: A halfcourt shot from Harnish. If the existing number 8 connected on the deep effort, he would agree to give up his jersey number to Hasselbeck in exchange for an $8,000 donation to the charity of Harnish’s choice.

Harnish lined up the shot, connected, and immediately selected the recipient for his $8,000: A scholarship program at Norwell, his alma mater.

[Also: Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel is ready for his encore]

Specifically, Harnish gave the money to the Norwell High School Dollars for Scholars campaign, and gave the funds in honor of Heath Bumgarner, a Norwell High student who passed away in March.

The video depicting the entire challenge is fantastic, as one might imagine of a one-shot contest for $8,000 and the rights to a jersey number. As soon as Harnish hits the shot, he, Hasselbeck and everyone else in the general vicinity explodes with excitement.

Naturally, the entire episode is a terrific statement for the Colts, Hasselbeck and Harnish, not to mention anyone who has dreamed of solving a dilemma since that first Larry Bird-Michael Jordan McDonald’s commercial.

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Forget tough pitching matchups, the Valencia (Ca.) West Ranch High baseball team has much more harrowing concerns. Rattlesnakes, for instance.

Yes, rattlesnakes. The West Ranch field is apparently full of them. In fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, the team has discovered 11 rattlesnakes on or near the team’s diamond since school started in August. That’s more than one per month, a significant increase from the grand total of 17 that had been discovered in the general vicinity in the past seven years.

In fact, the snakes have been so prevalent that West Ranch’s coaches, brothers Casey and Brady Burrill, have become impromptu experts at removing them from the scene while protecting their athletes.

"We've had them on the field, in the dugouts, on campus," Casey Burrill told the Times. “The strategy is sneak up behind with a long landscape rake, pin him and the other gets the head with a shovel. It's definitely a two-person event."

The William S. Hart School District, of which Valencia is a part, claims that the district is concerned with its students’ health above all else and is focused on ensuring that the snake problem is eradicated, even if they have absolutely no idea what is causing it at the moment.

For their part, the Burrill brothers are finding clever ways to make sure that the district doesn’t forget about the snakes on the field, even adding a rattlesnake counter on the team’s website.

And, as the Times’ Eric Sondheimer notes, the brothers might even have a side venture in television if they think entrepreneurially. If not a “Snakes on a Plane” spinoff made-for-tv film, an Animal Planet serial would certainly seem to be in the Burrill’s wheelhouse.

After all, who else could wield a shovel so expertly without official training?

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Tiger Woods may not have realized his drop on the 15th hole would cost him a couple strokes and a better shot at a 15th major championship at this past weekend's Masters, but plenty of high school golfers from New York City did.

Catholic High School Athletic Association golf coaches ingrain United States Golf Association rules in their players from an early age, so when Woods illegally dropped his ball 2 yards from where he should've, their charges took note.

“If we didn’t know the rules, we shouldn’t be out here in the first place, to be honest,” St. Francis (Fresh Meadows, N.Y.) Prep junior Jacob Virginia told the New York Daily News in a feature story on the issue. “Tiger, he just messed up the rule.”

Added Terriers senior teammate Brian McGowan: “In that situation, you have to play the ball from where it was. You can’t go as far as he did away from the spot.”

Woods wasn't the only supposed golf expert who failed to grasp the complicated ruling. Masters officials also missed the original error, and it wasn't until a viewer called in the violation to Augusta National Golf Club that the Rules Committee revisited the issue.

Maybe one of Archbishop Molloy (New York, N.Y.) High boys golf coach and CHSAA golf chairman Bill Niklaus' players made that phone call.

“The kids said, ‘We spotted it, but why didn’t the marshals?’” Niklaus told the Daily News. “In their minds, they were thrown off by, ‘Is it favoritism?’”

Even a middle school kid should've known what Woods didn't, Niklaus said.

“We tell the kids in eighth grade: When you come into high school, we don’t have time to teach you (the rules). You have to know the basics,” Niklaus added. “When you come in, it is full USGA rules, plus the local rules in CHSAA. When you put it all together, we’re bound by (many) rules. I’ve had kids call rules that average golfers would go, ‘Huh?’ But it’s real. They’re not just learning the basics. They have to play real golf.”

Real golf. Not that fake stuff Tiger Woods apparently was playing over the weekend.

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Ted Williams is one of the best hitters of all time, at any level. Is it possible that one California teen may be even better? By at least one statistical measure, Woodside (Cal.) High junior Brad Degnan has the legendary number 9 topped; only Degnan hit three home runs in a single inning.

Of course, Degnan is the only player in history to hit three homers in a single inning. The shots all came in the first inning of a 24-6 victory against Westmoor-Daly City (Cal.) High, and all were impressive blasts. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Degnan’s first homer was a line drive shot down the right field line, his second a 375-foot bomb to right field and his final a homer that just escaped the bounds of the center field fence.

"I've never seen anything like it," Woodside coach Tim Faulkner told the Mercury News. "All three of Degnan's homers were legit.

"Brad Degnan is the best hitter I've coached in my nine years at Woodside."

As previously mentioned, according to the Cal-Hi State Sports Record Book, Degnan is the first player to hit three home runs in a single inning. The aforementioned Williams hit two in an inning for San Diego (Cal.) Hoover High in a victory against South Pasadena (Cal.) High back in 1936, before he went on to a Hall of Fame career in Boston.

Degnan also tied the existing state mark for most RBI in an inning, totaling eight via his three home runs.

The three single-inning round-trippers brought Degnan’s season total to nine and his career total to 15. With more than a year of his career still to come, its likely that number will swell, perhaps significantly.

For now, Degnan will have to be content with three homers in a single inning.

"It's awesome," said Degnan when informed he is the new homers-in-an-inning state leader. "I never dreamed of a day like this."

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Throughout the fall season, Erin Dimeglio captured the nation’s attention as she boldly went where no girl had gone before, lining up at quarterback for a Florida varsity high school football team. In the process of her final high school season Dimeglio completed a pass, was named homecoming queen and, more significantly, earned the respect of all her teammates and foes.

Now, the soon-to-graduate South Plantation (Fla.) High senior is earning financial benefits where plaudits had come before. As reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Dimeglio was awarded a $20,000 scholarship presented by Foot Locker’s Scholar Athlete Program and the social change website DoSomething.org. DiMeglio was one of 20 national recepients of the award, chosen from among nearly 26,000 applicants.

"I was speechless. I had no idea what was going on," DiMeglio told the Sun Sentinel. "I didn't read the paper at first. I just wanted to know why all these people were staring at me. It's exciting to win this, to know that someone picked you out of all those people. It's really going to help out my parents."

DiMeglio will use the scholarship at the University of Central Florida, where she hopes to walk on the girls basketball team. The three-sport standout -- she also stars as the quarterback of the flag football team -- was recruited by a handful of smaller girls basketball programs, yet decided that she would rather take her chances at walking on with the Knights.

Given the obstacles and preconceptions she’s already overcome, it’s hard to find any fault in her self confidence.

Her football teammates have little doubt that Dimeglio will achieve what she puts her mind to, at Central Florida and elsewhere thereafter.

"Girls can do anything we can do," South Plantation starting quarterback John Franklin, who signed with Florida State in February, told the Sun Sentinel. "Hard work trumps any gender. She went through everything we went through. Everything we had to do, she had to do and she did."

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Over the course of a full season in any sport, Prep Rally tends to note some fairly remarkable statistics. Few, if any, can match what hit the radar in Mississippi. That's where Silento Sayles, a senior shortstop for Port Gibson (Ms.) High, stole 103 bases in a single season.

Unsurprisingly, the 103 stolen bases mark an all-time national record, according to National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) records. According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the previous NFHS mark was 96 steals as set by Vincente Rosario of New York (N.Y.) George Washington High in 1996. Sayles' 103 steals were also an incredible 26 more than the previous Mississippi mark, which was shared by two teammates at Natchez Trace (Ms.) Academy in 1991.

The senior has signed to play baseball for Chipola College, though it's likely that those plans would take a backseat if he were selected in the MLB Draft.

“I really didn’t set any goals,” Sayles told the Clarion-Ledger. “I just wanted to go out there and get as many as I could get.”

What he got were more steals than anyone in history, and he did so by running every single time he got on the base paths. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Sayles averaged 3.5 steals per game, but had a single-game high of 12. He stole seven bases during his team's 10-0 victory against Jefferson County (Ms.) High to cap off his record single season performance.

While the successful numbers behind Sayles record are enough to make one's head spin, his unsuccessful number is just as remarkable. En route to 103 stolen bases, Sayles was thrown out exactly one time, while trying to steal third base late in a game that Port Gibson trailed.

Sayles told the newspaper that he shouldn't have even attempted the steal, but felt obligated to try and make something happen for his teammates.

The one caught stealing didn't do much to diminish the senior's remarkable stolen bases success rate; with 103 successful steals, he was still successful more than 99 percent of the time.

With that kind of success, its remarkable that more major scouts didn't come see Sayles play. The senior was also a star quarterback and free safety for Port Gibson in the fall, but his baseball accomplishments were far more out of this world.

His coach made it clear that if they had, they would have little trouble believing in the authenticity of his remarkable record.

“The only thing I can tell them is to come watch him play,” Port Gibson baseball coach Dan Smith told the Clarion-Ledger. “Get a clock because the stopwatch doesn’t lie.”

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The battle is on for Cordell Broadus, the son of Snoop Lion, nee Snoop Dogg. After a strong sophomore season in which he earned attention from the likes of Florida State and bona fide scholarship offers from Cal, Oregon State and UCLA, Broadus now has a USC scholarship offer in his back pocket as well.

According to Rivals.com, the USC offer came out of the blue for the 6-foot-3 wide receiver, who still plans to play through his final two scholastic seasons before committing to any football program.

"They stopped by the school," the younger Broadus told Rivals.com. "Coach Cregg was video recording practice and he brought it back to USC to show coach [Lane] Kiffin and coach Kiffin said he liked what he saw.

"They invited me to their junior day and they seemed kind of interested. I was surprised they gave me an offer though because they don't usually offer sophomores. I was in shock."

Broadus has yet to notify Snoop Lion of his scholarship offer, though he gave a strong indication that his father would be plenty excited by the Trojans offer. After all, the elder Broadus is a longstanding Trojans fan.

"That offer means a lot because growing up my family loved USC and that is one of the best schools in the nation with the education and the football program," Broadus said.

Hear that Jim Mora Jr. and UCLA? It's your move. The two Los Angeles schools have two years to battle it out for Broadus and hope that they aren't outmaneuvered by the likes of Washington, Florida State or Tennessee.

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The conflict between club and country has long been a major flashpoint in European professional story. Now, it appears that it may be matched here in the U.S., where at least one school that was a legitimate contender for a state title had its progression held up by their star goalie’s sudden departure for the U.S. Women’s U-20 national team training sessions.

As noted by the Dallas Morning News, the San Antonio (Tex.) Johnson High girls soccer team reached the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 5A largely on the back of top goaltender Morgan Stearns. There’s good reason for that; Stearns happens to be one of the best girls goaltenders in the entire nation, even if she is still a high school senior.

That has earned Stearns a series of call ups to different levels of the national squad, with the most recent – a trip to train with the U-20 national team – coming at a particularly unfortunate time: According to the Dallas Morning News, the training camp, where Stearns is competing against two other goalies, is all but certain to keep Stearns from playing any part in the state championships.

Johnson reached the Class 5A semifinals, thanks in part to the playoff stability provided by Stearns in the cage.

So far, the national team has gotten the lion’s share of Stearns’ time when the two teams are in conflict, though the teen is insistent that she is committed to both her school and country, even if she has thus far prioritized her nation.

That’s even true when one team is competing for a state title and the other is only holding practice sessions.

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Seventh Woods is 14 years old. His name is awesome, and so are his basketball skills.

If there's a better prep freshman in the nation, Prep Rally would like to see him. At 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, Woods has to be the best pound-for-pound boys basketball player in the Class of 2016. Need convincing? You won't after watching his uber-athletic mixtape (h/t Deadspin).

Woods averaged 19.3 points, 4.3 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game this past season, leading Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School to a 22-5 record and the South Carolina Independent Schools Association Class AAA state championship game.

He scored a season-high 47 points on 17-of-21 shooting in an 87-66 victory against Cross (S.C.) High two days after Christmas, and it's pretty easy to see why he shot better than 50 percent from the field for the season. The kid can jump over just about anybody.

Based on the internet views it has already received -- more than 3 million views in just four days -- it's clear that others are taking notice of Woods' ability as well. Some have even called him "the next LeBron", though such a pronouncement is clearly hyperbolic and flat out preposterous for a 14-year-old.

[NBA postgame fashion showdown: Westbrook vs. LeBron]

Based on his highlight video, the kid can do just about anything. Here are five things he can do that fly off the screen right away.

5) Reverse tomahawk dunk like Dominique Wilkins (0:02). Hello, Seventh Woods.

4) Throw down missed free throw put-back dunks like Michael Jordan (0:35). The kid got to the rim before his teammates and opponents even flinched. Even they watched in awe.

3) Drain over-the-backboard shots like Larry Bird (0:57). We highly recommend not attempting to play Seventh Woods in a game of horse. Unless you bet against yourself.

2) Chase down blocks like LeBron James, especially when Woods comes away with the ball (1:16). Of course, it helps when you can get your head over the rim.

1) Pick pockets like Chris Paul (2:00), eliciting the best crowd reaction ever. Good times.

[Also: Nike pulls 'Boston Massacre' shirts from its shelves]

It's no surprise Woods already has an nbadraft.net profile. Maybe he'll be picked seventh.

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Dream Chasers from Yahoo! Sports:

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In a move that absolutely defies belief, the Steubenville (Ohio) School Board decided to buck public pressure and agree to a new two-year contract with longtime football coach Reno Saccoccia with regard to his teaching position. That might not seem too out of the ordinary, except for the conditions surrounding Saccoccia. He was the town's football coach during a time when two of his players were convicted of rape in a trial that received widespread attention.

The disturbing case that embroiled the Steubenville football program captivated the nation's attention at multiple points in recent months, never more prevalently than on March 17, when teenagers Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old classmate.

Saccoccia was not implicated in the case and it remains unclear if he'll be mentioned by an upcoming grand jury that is investigating the possibility of wrongdoing by others in the town.

But many have blamed Saccoccia for ruling over a football-mad culture that held its players to a different standard. Consider this text from Mays when asked about his coach's reaction to the rape charges.

"[Saccocia did] Nothing really. Going to stay in for awhile. LOL. And next time (someone is) into something, suspended for three games.

"But I feel he took care of it for us. Like, he was joking about it, so I'm not worried."

And yet another text bombshell from Mays: "I got Reno. He took care of it and (expletive) ain't going to happen, even if they did take it to court."

To say that the Steubenville school board's decision is profoundly tone deaf is a remarkable understatement. More than 134,000 activists from across the nation and world have signed an online petition at change.org calling for Saccoccia to be fired. Considering the fact that the entire population of Steubenville is just more than 18,000, that's a startling amount of public outrage aimed at a public employee from a small town.

For his part, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine sounds absolutely committed to bringing closure and justice to the Steubenville community at all costs. If Saccocia happens to be collateral damage for that crusade, so be it, even if that directly undercuts the assessment made by the Steubenville School Board.

"We want to bring finality so the community feels that justice has been done — that nothing has been swept under the rug and everyone has their day in court," DeWine told the press shortly after the verdict against Mays and Richmond was handed down.

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Few athletes in history have been on the kind of roll that Ashley Thompson finds herself in the midst of.

A senior at Connell (Wash.) High, Thompson has thrown six consecutive no-hitters – and seven in the season – in one of the most impressive runs of consecutive pitching starts at any level in baseball or softball history. According to MaxPreps, Thompson is just the third person to toss as many no-hitters back-to-back.

Connell is 13-0, with 10 of those 13 wins coming behind Thompson’s rather prodigious arm. She has thrown 70 innings, allowed a grand total of 8 hits and struck out 172 batters over that period. Thompson’s totals were boosted on Saturday when she threw no-hitters in two consecutive games, both victories against Kiona (Wash.) Benton High. Four of her no-hitters have also been perfect games.

If the BYU signee’s achievements in the circle weren’t impressive enough (and they certainly are), her feats at the plate are equally stunning. The senior is batting .710 with 7 home runs and 32 RBI through Connell’s first 13 games. She’s also homered in four consecutive games, all of which have been her own no-hitters. Her career marks are arguably more stunning, with the senior already holding the state records for home runs in a single season (23) and career (46) and RBI in a career.

And to think: those batting records came with a good half of her senior season still to come.

While Thompson may seem completely untouchable, it’s important to note that Thompson has been beaten … just not very much. She is 72-6 in her four seasons at Connell, and is just 102 strikeouts away from the all-time Washington career high school strikeout mark with 944.

Given that Connell has won the past two straight titles, it seems extremely likely that they’ll be in the driver’s seat to win again, provided Thompson remains healthy. After all, no one appears able to hit her at the moment, no matter who or where she’s playing.

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Why did walk-up music become a thing in high school baseball? Because it's great.

Most songs selected by Nokesville (Va.) Patriot High ballplayers when they step into the batter's box are what you might expect, as detailed in a Washington Post feature on a new prep tradition that has long existed in Major League Baseball.

Kenny Chesney, Dropkick Murphys, Toby Keith, Kanye West, Drake, Lil Wayne, Rage Against the Machine, Eminem, The White Stripes and Wiz Khalifa. The Police's "De Do Do Do" is a little strange, but to each his own.

But not everyone's playlist is as traditional as Patriot baseball announcer Eddie Kesler's cuts.

Take another great tradition at Briar Woods (Ashburn, Va.) High, for example. BWHS senior captains handpick the song selections for their freshmen teammates, according to The Post; hence frosh Caleb Barnes' intro song: Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” In case you're unfamiliar, that track includes these lyrics:

He'll never see you cry
Pretend he doesn't know
That he's the reason why

Similarly, former Centreville (Clifton, Va.) High star and current assistant coach J.P. Nicholas strode to the plate to Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" when he forgot to hand in his own song choice on time, the Post said.

Prep sports encapsulated, if you ask me. But not everyone is pleased with a walk-up music movement that has popped up at a number of D.C. area schools like Blake (Silver Spring, Md.) High and Westfield (Fairfax County, Va.) High over the past couple years.

“I think walk-up music is yet another example of promoting the individual over the team,” Thomas Stone (Waldorf, Md.) High coach Bob Marcella told The Washington Post. “I think it continues the ‘SportsCenter’/NBA mentality of ‘I’ll get mine first, and if it helps the team, well, that’s just a bonus.’”

Maybe someone should get the Debbie Downer sound effect next time he coaches against a school that welcomes walk-up music. You know, because prep sports can be fun.

“This isn’t anything other than some of these kids won’t get to play college baseball,” Patriot coach Sammy Serrano told the paper. “But we want the atmosphere for them to be college- or pro-like. I want them to remember this. I want the fans to understand that there’s an atmosphere. This is entertainment.”

Just as long as nobody pulls a Manny Ramirez and enters to Styles P's "I Get High."

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