Ho ho whoa there! It's Christmas -- and Hanukkah (or Chanukah, depending on your preference) and Kwanzaa, for that matter -- already? How could we be through half of the scholastic sporting season this early? Amazingly, it seems we are, which means that InterTubing will feature almost entirely slam-dunk-and-three-based highlight programming in the coming months. Still, for the moment even those great dunks have to take a back seat to more festive offerings, complete with the first ever Prep Rally entry into youth animal sports. Really.
• Santa Claus, some high school gym somewhere: Boom! See that? That's Santa flexing some game, son. If there was ever any question of what St. Nick does between organizing a massive round-the-globe present gifting exhibition and breaking down elven labor work stoppages, now you know: Homeboy has game.
• Santa Claus' youthful imposter, a playground court somewhere: See, we told you he could hoop it up. Wait a minute ... that isn't Santa Claus! Still, this particular would-be Santa is seriously devoted: He filmed this hoop-it-up effort on June 19 ... while wearing the full, fur pants.
• Santa Claus, Portage La Prarie (Manitoba) vs. Dauphin (Manitoba): Who said Santa only focuses on basketball! He also steps in to do his good samaritan duty and break up potential Canadian hockey brawls. Who knew he could skate?
• Santa Claus, Danville (Ala.) vs. Pennington (Ala.): And he delivers footballs in helicopters? Boy there are so many things that you never knew Santa did in his free time (though, in all reality, did he really need to helicopter in a football for an Alabama state playoff game? Seems like a busy time of year for old St. Nick ...
• Baby reindeer (possibly Rudolph kin), Norrland (Sweden): Leave it to Laplanders to help instill a love of soccer in the progeny of Santa's sleigh power. Hey, if they're only working one day a year, they have to stay fit somehow, right?
• Teenager playing Santa and earning spot on naughty list, Glen Rock (N.J.): First off, if Santa was a quarterback, he would be far more accurate than this character. Secondly, he definitely wouldn't be tossing presents at the good boys and girls. Clearly this is a boy from the naughty list who somehow got away with a bit too much ...
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