Perfect games are more common in high school than college or the major leagues, but they’re still notable, once-in-a-career experiences. That’s why a major controversy has erupted in Georgia, where a sophomore recorded a complete-game no-hitter that would have been a perfect game, if not for the uber-rare call of an illegal pitch.

Coahulla Creek pitcher Zack Glines, who missed a perfect game by 2 pitches Dwayne Maynard Photography

As reported by the Dalton Daily Citizen, Dalton (Ga.) Coahulla Creek pitcher Zack Glines tossed a no-hitter during the Colts’ 8-0 victory against Gordon (Ga.) Central High. In the process, Glines allowed just two batters to reach base, both on walks.

According to both Glines’ coach, Coahulla Creek's Michael Bolen, both of the walks were the direct result of illegal pitch calls, both due to Glines’ inability to keep his foot flat on the rubber of the mound.

Bolen chalked the mistake up to Glines’ relative lack of pitching time early in the season, though he also hinted that more terrific performances from Glines could be on the way.

“He wasn’t able to get on the mound much at the beginning of the season, so he had been in relief through the non-region schedule as we built his arm strength back up,” Bolen told the Daily Citizen.

“He threw 78 pitches tonight, and his location was working all night.”

Sabrina Southerland, Armory Track Girls Athlete of the Year and sister of James Southerland — Armory Track

It’s been a very good month for the Southerland family.

First, on Thursday, Sabrina Southerland, a senior at Queens (N.Y.) Benjamin Cardozo High, was named the 2013 Girls Athlete of the Year by the Armory Track & Field Center, an honor won on the back of one of the most versatile track repertoires around. Two days later, her brother James was a key factor leading Syracuse to the Final Four.

Not a bad three days, eh?

“It feels really great,” Sabrina Southerland told the New York Daily News. “I worked hard for it. I know [Cardozo coach Ray James] is happy. I just trained hard, and I guess it paid off.”

The same can be said of Southerland’s brother, the Syracuse sharpshooter who turned a standout Cardozo tenure into a launching pad for a career at Syracuse that has finally taken flight in the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Throughout that late season ride, Sabrina Southerland has been there, as she was when the Orange topped Marquette to earn a berth to the Final Four on Saturday.

Syracuse star James Southerland in the Elite 8 — AP

“I’m so proud of him,” Sabrina said in a phone interview while en route to Thursday night’s game. “It’s been great to see him grow from his freshman year to his senior year.”

Naturally, the male Southerland sibling would echo those sentiments, even if he couldn’t claim to have as much in person experience of her accomplishments as his sister has with his. The pair's success is also the dominant similarly between their athletic careers, with James Southerland a distinct distance shooting specialist for Syracuse while Sabrina Southerland is a do-everything runner for Cardozo who has shined in each event she tried.

The baseball season can often feel like it comes too soon, on the heels of winter and snow. Yet, with winter stretching ever later in recent years, and with high school baseball seasons required to start in March to finish by the end of the school year, some schools in the upper Midwest have found it neigh on impossible to find fields ready and available to host baseball and softball games.

To get time on an actual field, D.C. Everest High rented out the Metrodome — Everest Baseball

Enter the Mall of America Field, formerly the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

Re-named for the nation’s largest monument to capitalism, the Metrodome still hosts baseball games in the Spring, except now they don’t involve the Twins, following the team’s move to nearby Target Field.

Instead, as reported by the Wausau Daily Herald, any teams can rent out the field for $750 per hour. Despite the steep rate, the demand for the facility is so fierce while snow still covers fields across the region that schools have been forced to schedule games at ridiculous times like 3 a.m.

[Fantasy Baseball 2013: There's still time to join a league today!]

That was the case for Schofield (Wis.) D.C. Everest High, which “hosted” a game against Middletown (Minn.) High. While the game will officially count as a scrimmage, it was an important opportunity for both schools to get on the field and compete against another live, competitive squad on a diamond rather than inside a gym.

D.C. Everest coach Dave Langbehn, who proposed the idea to play in the Metrodome — Everest Baseball

And no, this is not an April Fool's joke. The game really took place at 3 a.m.

“It was nice to see live pitching and hit off that," Everest outfielder and pitcher Zach Finnegan told the Daily Herald. "Also, it was the first time we saw flyballs this year. It was different. It was like a game."

That’s probably because it was a real game … and the fourth since 6:35 p.m. on the field that day alone. Incredibly, it wasn’t the last, either, with back-to-back doubleheaders featuring a pair of high school teams and two small colleges, all to be wrapped up by 3 p.m., 12 hours after Everest and Middletown took the field.

The “Missy Franklin really is a good person” crusade continues apace. Now that the teen phenom is finished swimming competitively, at least on the high school level, she’s taking to the water for a meaningful awareness campaign.

As reported by Denver TV network KUSA, Franklin recently completed her SCUBA training at the Denver Aquarium. She finished the course alongside best friend Abby Cutler, and was filmed by filmmaker Kurt Miller for his project entitled “The Current”, which aims to raise awareness about how water can serve as a level playing field for people with disabilities.

According to Franklin, she was drawn to the project by her belief that everyone can feel the same under water.

"For water to be such a great way for everyone to be equal," Franklin told KUSA. "As soon as you get down there everyone is exactly the same. It doesn't matter if you have an amputated arm or a leg or you have all four limbs. We are all exactly the same."

Things are not going well in Birmingham, Alabama. On March 18, a 15-year-old boy was shot dead at Railroad Park in the city’s downtown section. The teen, Jarmaine Walton, had been shot in the head in an apparent teenage gun battle that raised alarms about gang activity and youth violence in the Southern city. The death was just one of 13 violent deaths that took place in Birmingham over the course of a single week.

Among many things, Alabama is high school sports obsessed. So, facing a need to get through to the teens who were allegedly involved in the fracas, Birmingham officials turned to precisely the people most likely to get through to those pulling the trigger: High school basketball stars.

As reported by MaxPreps, among other sources, Birmingham enlisted the help of three stars from the state champion Birmingham (Al.) Wenonah High basketball team. All State selections Justin Coleman, De’Runya Wilson and Isaiah Maston were all among the Wenonah players to film community service messages, calling for an immediate end to the escalating violence that appeared to threaten safety throughout the city.

It’s obviously far too early to judge the success of the Wenonah High stars’ message. Still, the effort is a notable one because of the focus it puts on the teenagers themselves. While it is widely acknowledged that prep athletes are silent role models for some of their peers, this video actively positions four different teenagers as thought leaders who could bring about a better chance for peace.

Whitney Young star Jahlil Okafor, the victim of constant mispronunciation — Rivals.com

Jahlil Okafor is the nation’s top junior basketball prospect, a Chicago phenom waiting to ascend the national hype throne once Jabari Parker departs for college once and for all.

Yet, for all Okafor’s talent and the attention he gets on the court, none of the coaches who recruit him pronounce his name correctly. Not Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. Not Kentucky coach John Calipari or Marquette coach Buzz Williams or North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

“I mean, most people pronounce my name wrong in general,” Okafor told USA Today. “But it’s even funnier when a coach that wants me to come to play for him in college says it wrong.”

For the record, Jahlil told USA Today that he pronounces his first name Jah-LEEL, not Juh-LEEL, as most coaches try to sound it out. The teenager has consistently taken the high road when it comes to his name, noting that he hardly feels justified in trying to stop living legends of college basketball and ask them to pronounce his name with a slightly different sound.

“It’s funny because I’ll be talking to a legend like [Michigan State Coach Tom] Izzo or somebody and they might say it wrong and, I mean, what am I gonna say? They’re legends,” Okafor told USA Today. “It doesn’t bother me at all. I’m used to it. I’ve got family who says it wrong. I will say that I do notice when coaches get it right. Which almost never happens.”

One of the key in-state recruits from Penn State’s incoming class finds himself in serious hot water for what can only be considered a truly, truly dumb decision: He tried to pay with fake money at fast food restaurants.

Central Daupin star Zayd Issah, PSU recruit and alleged bill forger — Rivals.com

As reported by the Harrisburg Patriot News and a variety of other sources, for the sake of saving a few bucks Harrisburg (Pa.) Central Dauphin High senior Zayd Issah now faces felony charges of forgery and conspiracy to forgery, as well as other misdemeanor charges related to using fake money at mutliple fast food restaurants.

Issah was caught by employees at a McDonald’s, who recognized that the money Issah gave them to pay for food bought by the Central Dauphin star and two of his friends. The McDonald’s employees wrote down the license plate on Issah’s car and reported it to police, who tracked down the football star and arrested him.

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While the teen is innocent until proven guilty, like all who are charged, a series of Facebook messages between Issah and a friend that were obtained during a police investigation allegedly indicate that the Penn State recruit was fully aware the bills he was using were forged versions of the authentic article.

There has been no word out of State College about how the trial facing Issah will affect his status with the Nittany Lions, though from a logistical standpoint it appears likely that he could still be a part of the 2013 team.

The Dauphin County District Attorney’s office told the Patriot News that Issah would likely avoid jail time and could even be eligible for a program called the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program, which would allow the athlete to serve out his sentence via probation and community service alone.

Call it invigorated empathy or love with lacrosse. Whichever, two schools in Colorado and Connecticut find themselves inextricably bonded by the most horrific of ordeals: A tragic school mass shooting.

The Columbine lacrosse team visited Newtown to offer its support — Facebook

Now, months removed from the Sandy Hook tragedy in Newtown, Conn., the boys lacrosse team from Columbine (Co.) High will visit its counterpart at Newtown (Ct.) High to share their support as the sleepy Connecticut community continues to heal following Adam Lanza’s rampage in December. The story of Columbine’s side trip to Newtown was reported by the Journal-News, which touched on the relationship that the school’s coach has with nearby Westchester County in New York.

Naturally, if any community in America can understand the shock, grief and transformative trauma that Newtown is living through, it’s Columbine. In 1999, two teenagers walked into the Columbine High cafeteria and opened fire, killing 12 students.

Though those dark days in Colorado occurred more than a decade ago, Columbine boys lacrosse coach Matt Plitnick said that the actions of suicide shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is still a prevalent part of the town’s fabric.

“It’s still a part of this community,” Plitnick, a native of Scarsdale New York, told the Journal News. “It’s part of our fabric. It’s something that is brought up constantly, something we don’t forget.”

Knowing that Newtown wouldn’t be able to forget was what inspired Columbine to reach out on its own. The school’s lacrosse team was already scheduled for a spring break trip to play against traditional New York powers Yorktown (N.Y.) High and Cross River (N.Y.) John Jay High.