Usually, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is geared solely toward helping children and teenagers realize dreams of meeting celebrities, athletes or attending big events before debilitating diseases fully set-in to take over their lives. Yet for one day last week, the organization was focused on handing out a free lunch to some 1,900 students, all because a high school senior football and basketball player decided that it was more important to thank people who have helped him than it was to hang out with LeBron James at the NBA All-Star Game.

Middle Creek senior athlete and cancer survivor Rayshawn King — News & Observer

As reported in exquisite detail by the News & Observer's Tim Stevens, the magnanimous North Carolina player in question was Middle Creek (N.C.) High football and basketball star Rayshawn King, who returned to play his senior season while fighting leukemia. The teen's cancer has since gone into remission, though he still has to take some 24 pills per day and has chemotherapy sessions once a month until he reaches September, at which point he can discontinue them if he is deemed to be cancer free.

Because of his battle with cancer, King had been targeted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and he quickly accepted their offer to make one of his dreams come true. The teen had hoped to meet James, and a chance to meet him at the All-Star Game would clearly be a trip of a lifetime.

Yet, after King had sent in a request for that trip, he thought better of it.

"I had made a selfish wish," King told the News & Observer. "I had a chance to really touch people and I was missing it. Why not give back to the people who had cared for me. They helped me. Why not say 'Thank you.'

"Some of these people say that I'm an inspiration. But they are my inspiration."

Among those who were clearly inspired by King's decision to host were Make-A-Wish officials themselves, who had simply never had anyone ask to use their wish on providing a free Chick-fil-a meal for an entire school, or anything else nearly as generous.

"We've never had a wish like this," said Kristen Mercer Johnson, Make-A-Wish president. "We've never had anyone who wanted to share his wish with this many people."

Yet for King, that kind of generosity simply fits with his broader giving personality. The teenager who once starred in both football and basketball at Middle Creek returned as a senior to be more of a role player, adjusted expectations that were brought on by the dramatic physical effects of fighting through the cancer that had left him bedridden and which he once assumed would end his life.

Instead, it has inspired him to become a nurse, a pursuit he will start when he attends North Carolina Central beginning in the fall, when his academic scholarship to the school will begin.

Remember the climactic scene in "The Natural" where Robert Redford's character drills the lights with one of the great cinematic home runs of all time? An Oklahoma teen provided his best daytime facsimile of the memorable scene with one of the most impressive moonshot home runs you'll see, albeit it without the convoluted love life that plagued Roy Hobbs.

The player slamming the grand slam you see above -- courtesy of Oklahoma High School Sports Express -- is budding Yukon (Okla.) High slugger Landon Eason. Yes, the player who has provided the best on-field Roy Hobbs impersonation since who knows when even has a name befitting a Roy Hobbs impersonator.

But wait, it gets even better. Eason's homer was a grand slam, delivered against rival Midwest City (Okla.), which is fittingly known as the Bombers. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Eason's Yukon squad has the mascot of the Millers.

So, just to recap: Yukon Millers slugger Landon Eason hits a mammoth home run over the right-field fence that smashes into the floodlights. The blast is a grand slam, and it comes against a team called the Midwest City Bombers. If this plot isn't directly from central casting, well, someone tell Prep Rally what is.

Only the circumstances of the game take away from the drama of the high school light-shatterer; Yukon drilled Midwest City, 14-0, in the contest in which Eason delivered his grand slam.

A middle-aged assistant youth football coach in Hawaii has been arrested for assault after attacking a 12-year-old player on an opposing team in the latest disturbing event to hit the youth sports ranks.

As reported by Hawaii News Now, among other outlets, 45-year-old Ionatana Alualu -- the uncle of NFL player Tyson Alualu -- was arrested and charged with third degree assault for striking a 12-year-old player in the head so hard that the child was sent "flying" to the ground. The incident in question occurred during a Hawaii State Junior Prep Sports Association Football League game at Leilehua High School, where Alualu's Rock Solid Crusaders were playing the Wahiawa Lancers.

The Hawaii State Junior Prep Sports Association Commissioner, Robert Faleafine, immediately suspended Alualu indefinitely, a penalty which appears to eliminate the Crusaders assistant coach from ever returning to coach his team, or another in the association.

"I was taken by surprise by the incident itself. You can call it ugly if you want to," Faleafine told Hawaii News Now. "I mean it hurts. It really does. I put this [league] together for kids, that's why and it hurts me to see something like this happen."

According to witnesses cited by Hawaii News Now, Alualu attacked the player in an attempt to break up an impending fight between the 12-year-old who was struck and a Rock Solid Crusaders player. Alualu's daughter told the news organization that her father hadn't intended to hurt the child, but was only trying to keep the two from fighting.

Chris Lewis had a big day on Monday. In the span of just a few hours, Lewis received college basketball scholarship offers to New Mexico and Memphis, both perennial NCAA tournament programs.

For most teenagers that might not be too shocking. For Lewis it is, for one reason: He hasn't even stepped foot on a high school campus yet.

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other sources, Lewis -- who is a 14-year-old student at Northwestern Middle School in suburban Atlanta -- earned the offers after a standout weekend of performances for the Georgia Stars 15-and-under AAU program, the latest in a long line of stirring, highlight-reel games for the budding talent. Lewis, who plans to play at area powerhouse Milton (Ga.) Academy, will likely get more scholarship offers down the road, but the fact that he received two offers before he even reached high school speaks volumes.

[Also: Epic NFL draft bust gives advice to incoming rookies on how to succeed]

Wondering what kind of game Lewis possesses? Here's how Basketball Spotlight News, which covers many of the nation's top middle school prospects, described Lewis' performance at the Converse Elite event in May 2011:

Standing 6'6 Lewis is still in project form offensively but the big body clogged the lane and rejected or altered several shots. In the post his main concern should be improving his footwork and elevation at this point.

That review may be promising, but it isn't exactly overwhelming, which speaks to the ever escalating recruiting wars for young prospects. Think about it: Lewis hasn't played a single, meaningful minute of high school competition, yet he already has scholarship offers to two major Division I programs. Why is it happening, and how can these colleges justify extending scholarship offers so early?

Georgia middle school hoops star Chris Lewis — BballSpotlight.com

"They love the fact that he's 6-7 at 14 years old, and has been playing at a high level on the AAU circuit for the last three years," Milton coach David Boyd, who will likely serve as Lewis' high school coach, told the Journal-Constitution. "He has an outstanding athletic pedigree with his father's football accomplishments.

"I have been waiting for that first offer to arrive … and it finally came today. I knew it was coming because Chris is that good, has that much upside and that much potential."

The father to which Boyd alludes is former Georgia football star and 13-year New York Jet Mo Lewis, a pedigree which gives Lewis an extra layer of allure. Still, for Lewis to have sold serious college coaches on his future so young is rather remarkable, particularly since he won't sign a college scholarship for another four years … at the earliest.

Ulises Garcia is one of the top young decathletes in the nation, a status he cemented by winning the AAU junior national decathlon championship at the ESPN RISE games as a sophomore. Normally, that would make Garcia a shoo-in to earn a state title in his chosen event. There's just one problem: Garcia's state doesn't even offer a high school decathlon competition.

Calvary Christian decathlete Ulises Garcia — YouTube

As reported by the Miami Herald, Garcia finds himself in the unique predicament of being a national-caliber talent in a sport in which he can't even compete in on an everyday basis. Now a senior at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Calvary Christian, Garcia instead has to hone his decathlon talent by focusing on improvements in contributing events, focusing mainly on the 110-meter high hurdles and 300 hurdles during his final high school season.

"It's very disappointing I won't be able to compete for a high school state title in the decathlon," Garcia told the Herald. "Other states have it during the high school season but not Florida. I feel like there are countless athletes in Florida who passed through that could have been great decathletes. A lot of kids in Florida don't even know what the decathlon is."

Not only does Garcia know what the decathlon is, he knows what it takes to excel in the sport. He first competed in the decathlon on the high-profile AAU circuit following his sophomore campaign, when he won the ESPN RISE title and finished in fourth place at the AAU Junior Olympics. As a junior he finished fourth at the RISE games and sixth at the AAU Juniors.

Those results turned the heads of college recruiters, with Central Missouri eventually offering Garcia a scholarship for an event he can't even compete in for his own school.

According to the Herald, Garcia's versatility has been in the cards since his freshman season, when he was a star linebacker for the Calvary Christian football team. Without a decathlon title to shoot for, Garcia has instead become his school's record holder in a whopping seven different events: the pole vault, triple jump, 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 800 meters, 1,600 relay and 3,200 relay.

In an illustrious high school baseball career, Cherry Hill (N.J.) West High pitcher Brenden DelMonte has thrown a no-hitter and led his team to numerous key victories. Still, what he achieved on Monday may be hard to top: DelMonte struck out 17 consecutive batters in leading Cherry Hill West to a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory against Pennsauken (N.J.) High.

Cherry Hill West High pitcher Brenden DelMonte — Philly.com

According to Philly.com, DelMonte -- who will pitch for Navy in 2013 -- didn't record a strikeout against the first couple batters he faced. He did, however, strike out the third and fourth batter, then proceeded to strike out the side in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth inning.

DelMonte struck out one more batter in the seventh -- he finished with 18 total strikeouts in a complete-game, seven-inning performance -- but he also gave up a surprising run, setting the stage for his teammates to launch a furious, two-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to land DelMonte a well-earned victory.

The win came just more than two weeks after DelMonte's first career no-hitter, a gem he spun in a rivalry game against Cherry Hill (N.J.) East High. For a prospect who had never pitched before his freshman year, that's one heck of a month.

"It was a great atmosphere," DelMonte told the Inquirer after his no hitter. "To throw a no-hitter against our biggest rival with a lot of fans here in this stadium, it was something special.

"I really didn't pitch until freshman year. I didn't even realize I had a no-hitter until the last inning, and then I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it."

LostLettermen.com is a college football and men's basketball website. Today LostLettermen's Anthony Oliveri takes a look at 10-year-old quarterback phenom Daron Bryden for Prep Rally.

Daron Bryden is a young quarterback that patterns his game after Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger and likes to work out five times a week honing his skills.

10-year-old quarterback Daron Bryden — Talcott Photography

That's nothing new for a QB prospect on the verge of stardom -- except that Bryden is in the fourth grade.

A native of Enfield, Conn. -- located near the Massachusetts border -- the 10-year-old has been playing football with this type of fervor since he was 6 years old and has a personal QB coach, Todd Krueger, a former Buffalo Bills draft pick who runs the website
playqb.com.

[Related: Ex-NFL QB Troy Aikman dating former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader?]

Daron's father, Craig Bryden, said via email that his son has been a prodigy from the start when he attended a New York Giants football camp in Connecticut as a 6-year-old, during which Daron received great feedback about his play.

That's when Craig Bryden contacted Evan Bowen, Daron's first QB mentor, who also saw potential.

"After his first QB training with Evan, Evan told me that Daron [pronounced "Dar-in"] would be a great quarterback down the road because he was impressed [with] the way he was throwing the ball," wrote the elder Bryden, who is deaf along with his wife. "So
I started to have Daron to work weekly with Evan and started to attend QB camps/competition[s].

"He was beating older kids -- two, three years older than him. He was making a lot of noise by winning a lot of QB competitions or best quarterback in the camps. That is when I started to realize that he has a lot of potential as a quarterback."

[PHOTO: The new Stifler's mom? Kalil's model mother shines at Draft]

The younger Bryden, who also speaks sign language, certainly has received plenty of publicity already. He became a web sensation with a trick-shot video that went viral in 2011 and his parents started a blog, daronqb.blogspot.com, in honor of his football skills. The blog also contains praise from those in and around the game.

"Daron is the man fa real," ex-Colorado and NFL QB Kordell Stewart is quoted as saying on the site: "Accurate, good technique, can take a hit. … That's just the beginning for Daron. Tell him I said keep it going. Go DB go!"

Bryden has been mentioned by ESPN.com and sports blogs such as Deadspin. He was also featured on the TV station HDNet, which aired Daron rocketing balls that dwarf his head to teammates in practice and showing off trick shots:

[Related: Where is Cody Paul, YouTube's "White Reggie Bush", now?]

Bryden even has a fan in Florida who requested a signed picture and autograph.

Yes, he's 10 going on Tebow.

And Daron is even sounding like a pro already with the media, saying by phone that he loves his teammates, "especially my wide receivers, Joey Colon, A.J. Alibrio and Logan Tomlinson. I love playing for my coach Aaron Alibrio. He has a lot of confidence in me. He runs perfect offense for my team."

He might already appear on his way to the 2023 NFL draft, but there are many cautionary tales of childhood phenoms that were pushed too hard too soon and couldn't handle the enormous pressure of being a child prodigy at such an early age. Former NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich was raised from the womb to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame but flamed out of the league and struggled with substance abuse problems for years.

When Kingsley-Pierson (Iowa) High senior Rachel Bird reached out to Tim Tebow about having the quarterback serve as her prom date, the newly minted Jets passer never responded on Twitter. While that might have ended most teens' pursuit of the playmaker, it just got Bird's creative juices flowing.

Rachel Bird with her Tim Tebow cutout — Twitter

Eventually, Bird did arrive at prom with Tebow in a suit, it was just that the Tebow she showed up with was made out of cardboard, and he provided a perfect partner for her walk down her school's annual prom grand march.

As first reported by the Sioux City Journal -- and quickly followed by the likes of the Des Moines Register and Sportress of Blogitude, among other outlets -- Bird's quest to take Tebow to prom began when Bird's Kingsley-Pierson classmate, Travis Neumann, told her that he'd happily pay $50 if she could walk into the school's prom with Tebow. Spurred by the challenge, Bird reached out to Tebow on Twitter and tried to track him down through his agent and the Jets.

When she heard nothing back, Bird got a bright idea. She found a photo of Tebow in a suit, took it to a Staples store and learned that the store was planning a sale on giant color photos like the one she wanted made of Tebow; in late April, she could have a life-size Tebow photo created for just $19.99.

Armed with $20 and a keen sense of humor, Bird had the photo made, then fished a piece of cardboard from the trash behind a local hardware store and glued the photo to the cardboard, creating custom-made supports of wood to ensure the fake Tebow would stand upright all night.

[Related: Paul Pierce channels Tim Tebow in important win for the Celtics]

Days later, she showed up at her friend's house with her date and immediately became the hit of the Kingsley-Pierson prom.

"It was awkward, but people asked me to stop for photos during the grand march," Bird told the Journal. "Believe me, this isn't something I ever thought I'd be doing.

"He was a cheap date, and he didn't talk much. And when I asked him to stand in a corner, he did. I don't think it even hurt his feelings."