There are blowouts, and then there are the type of beatings that Refugio (Texas) High has delivered the past two weeks. First, the Class 2A power set a school record for points in a game in an 82-6 drubbing of Riviera (Texas) Kaufer High. That record lasted for exactly seven days, at which point Refugio rocked Freer (Texas) High, 91-6.

Refugio football

For those of you keeping score at home, that's a two-game total score of 173-12. The Bobcats could have spotted each of their opponents 75 points and still pulled out a win.

"We've really grown together as a team and as a family this past week." Refugio football coach Jason Herring told MySouTex.com after his team's 82-6 victory. "That's the most balanced game we've played since I've been here."

Evidently the Bobcats were even more balanced a week later. Still, the team's lopsided victories raise serious questions about whether those dramatic scores are really necessary. Refugio is the top-ranked team in the Associated Press Texas Class 2A poll and is at no risk of losing that position. The Bobcats certainly didn't need to score 173 points in two weeks to maintain it.

Yet Herring has never exactly held back from racking up big scorelines, either. Maxpreps.com reported that the school's 2010 squad scored more than 70 points in a whopping seven of its victories. In addition to the Bobcats' 82 and 91 point outings, Refugio has also scored 64 and 72 points in two other 2011 victories. The 72-point win was particularly galling, because it was a shutout against Robstown (Texas) High.

With a plethora of NBA stars gaining attention for signing professional deals overseas, former number two overall pick Michael Beasley -- now of the Minnesota Timberwolves -- has been making headlines for playing in high profile pickup games in the greater Washington D.C. area with a handful of other NBA stars and for being surprised at his relatively high ratings in new video games.

Some might attribute Beasley's play in D.C.'s Goodman League as simply a way to stay in shape (and maybe it is), but the Wolves forward's grassroots competition also speaks to his roots, as his father still coaches in prep hoops camps across the country on most weekends.

As you can see in the video above, the elder Michael Beasley's experiences with local talent bring much more mixed results than his son's. After all, it's hard to imagine anyone ignoring the more famous Michael Beasley if he told them to hang up the phone during a game.

The player in question at the end of the bench -- the one who sheepishly told Beasley that he was talking to his pastor -- is a junior guard from Roanoke, Va. named Christopher Wright. It's possible that Wright was talking on the phone because he was disappointed to not be starting in the ScoutsFocus scrimmage.

Of course, it's also possible that Wright just wanted to chat with a female companion, as he later admitted to the videographer capturing the scrimmage. You can hardly blame him for lying about the ear on the other end of the line; after all it's a lot harder for anyone to get mad about a teen speaking with a religious figure than a teen speaking with an undisclosed teenage girl.

Once in awhile, a high school program comes up with a cool idea that should stand as a tradition for a long time to come. Here's hoping the campus-to-campus walk by Westlake (Calif.) Oaks Christian School to Westlake (Calif.) High on Thursday night becomes one of those events.

With two of Southern California's top football programs situated just a peaceful, 20-minute walk from one another, longtime Oaks Christian coach Bill Redell thought it would be a good idea for his team to walk the distance between the two campuses rather than take the traditional buses to the game.

On Thursday, Redell and Oaks Christian put the coach's plan into action, donning their team-issued sweats and following two Oaks Christian banner holders on the brief hike between the two schools.

The pedestrian trip may not live up to the legendary stadium entrances of Notre Dame, Alabama or Tennessee, but it definitely had an aura to it, complete with honking fans, a sheriff's car and a flag wielding spirit guard.

"I don't want to hear any talking," Redell told his team before it started the walk. "This is a business trip."

If the serene silence during the video clip you see above is any indication, Redell got what he wanted.

There's no real reason why Oaks Christian needed to walk to the game, but doing so may have made the Lions realize what a special matchup they were heading into. Hours later, Westlake's offense would reinforce that perception when it jumped to a 37-14 lead in the third quarter. Oaks Christian would eventually get buses back to their own campus after a 43-21 loss.

Coaches and players often talk about "going out on top." It's rare that someone is able to cherry pick a perfect moment for such a departure, but New York (N.Y.) Stuyvesant High volleyball coach Philip Fisher might get precisely that opportunity, for one primary reason: His team has never lost in the regular season. Ever.

Stuyvesant volleyball coach Phil Fisher

By default, that means that almost any time could be a perfect time for Fisher to "go out on top." According to the New York Daily News, Fisher has decided that time is coming soon, with the 13-year coaching veteran announcing that he plans to step aside at the end of the 2011 season.

The reasons for Fisher's retirement aren't unlikely, or even unusual. At 57, the physical education teacher decided he wanted to spend more time with his new wife. That inspired him to choose between the two sports he has long coached at Stuyvesant, volleyball and boys basketball.

Fisher eventually chose boys basketball, even though that ensures that his personal run at the helm of one of New York City's prep sports dynasties would come to an end.

In particular, Fisher's retirement will bring an end to 13 consecutive regular season campaigns without a loss for the Vixens under his guidance. Stuyvesant is currently 5-0, and could conceivably lose a match during the current regular season, but that seems unlikely. Why, you ask? Because the Vixens haven't even lost a set in a regular season match in nearly a year.

Though their longtime leader will be gone, Fisher's players insist that they'll be ready to move on without him come 2012.

"Even after he leaves next year, I'm confident that we can still uphold the streak," junior Natalie Kozlova told the Daily News.

Olivier "Oliver" Everts is like a number of teens at Conestoga (Pa.) High. The 13-year-old is a lanky 6-foot-2 and 160 pounds, and he has burst onto the scene of one of his school's athletic teams, dominating in a way no one could have anticipated.

Conestoga field hockey player Oliver Everts

The trick, as pointed out by the Philadelphia Inquirer, is what sport he dominates in: Field hockey, which is traditionally played only by girls in the United States. The freshman with a nose for the goal starts at forward for the Pioneers, and has emerged as the most dominant player in the region, in all likelihood.

Having a boy compete with girls in field hockey is not revolutionary, of course. As Prep Rally has covered more than once in the past, the topic is a highly controversial one, particularly since many boys who play field hockey against girls have been impressive scorers.

That's certainly the case with Everts, who has scored 15 goals in Conestoga's first 13 games. Clearly, Everts has taken to American field hockey like a duck to water.

Male field hockey player Oliver Everts in the background during a Conestoga game

There's a reason for that: This isn't the teenager's first time playing the sport. Everts and his family arrived in the Philadelphia area this summer from Amsterdam, where Everts had grown up playing field hockey.

"I wasn't used to playing with girls, but it's fun," Everts told the Inquirer. "It's the same thing."

Now, he's playing and traveling with a crew of 40 girls, not 20-30 guys. All those girls are speaking in a foreign language -- though Everts' English is reportedly excellent, as is the case with most Dutch natives -- and speaking for lengths of time that might drive some lesser teen boys crazy.

Luckily, that isn't the case for the recent American arrival, according to his teammates.

Jawahn Preston is 4-foot-11. That's a fact. He is also a varsity football player, which is precisely where that first fact seems to elicit bug eyes from competitors and the fans they bring with them to Washington (D.C.) Spingarn High football games.

Springarn football player Jawahn Preston at a team practice

Despite that height, there is little question that the Spingarn sophomore belongs on a football field somewhere. His heart is completely invested in the game. His body is invested, too, there's just not enough of it to make his coaches confident he won't be crushed if he lines up against opponents weighing 200 pounds or more.

Jawahn Preston of Springarn at a team practice. Preston stands just 4-foot-11

According to the Washington Post's James Wagner in this terrific profile, these are Preston's official measurements: 4-foot-11, 93 pounds. He's only 16. Clearly, Preston belongs on a junior varsity squad.

Yet, because Springarn hardly has enough players to field a varsity football team -- and has nowhere near enough equipment to outfit two squads -- Preston has no choice but to play with the big boys … all of whom are much, much larger than himself.

"I would love to have a junior varsity team because I've got junior varsity kids playing varsity football," Spingarn coach Charlie McKie told the Post. "It helps the varsity in one aspect but it doesn't help the kids in some aspects. They get some varsity time but they'd do a little better if they were playing JV."

Preston's sheer size disadvantage has severely limited the amount of times he gets to touch the ball, even though coaches and teammates attest to his speed and skill as a running back. As a freshman, Preston was handed five carries. Thus far in 2011, he has one.

Yet none of those tough statistics can dent the spirits or confidence of a player who claims he loves to play against larger players because, "They can't really see me." He definitely has the bravery to compete, too, as he showed in the video clip you see above, which was taken from a Springarn practice.

"I want to be the best running back to be known from D.C. to go to Virginia Tech and go to the NFL and break records," Preston told the Post. … "To go to college, I'm going to have to play high school football because they don't recruit from Pop Warner."

She's not quite blind, but there's little doubting the fact that Shelby Kappler has serious sight problems. In fact, the people who might not be convinced of that are the people she beats in the pool.

Skyview swimmer Shelby Kappler

The trick is, there are plenty more of those these days, a testament to a remarkable achievement by a high school junior still coming to grips with the effects of severe Stargardt disease, an ocular disorder that leads to severe, acute loss of vision.

That vision is precisely what Kappler is missing, but according to Matt Calkins, a reporter for the Columbian, that has hardly slowed the teen at all. After she decided to go out for the Skyview (Wash.) High swimming team during her sophomore year, Kappler hardly hesitated, waffling on her commitment to the sport in her first day after struggling with staying afloat in the deep end, then pushing full speed ahead.

Eventually, the inspiring teen evolved into a talented butterfly and breaststroke specialist for the Skyview swimming team. In addition to those speciality strokes, Calkins reported that Kappler won her heats in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle races at a recent meet.

All of that success comes despite constant struggles with flip turns, a natural side effect of Kappler's lack of depth perception. Still, that has hardly dimmed Kappler's love of the sport, or her view on life. Her happy demeanor tends to cheer her teammates up … and inspire her head coach.

Officially, there is no stipulation for where a coach of one team must stand or sit when scouting a future opponent in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools handbook. A San Antonio (Texas) Central Catholic assistant coach recently challenged that theory, watching part of a future opponent's game from a prime location … alongside their bench. The fallout since has been extraordinary.

First, Central Catholic defensive coordinator John Jennings was kicked out of the game between San Antonio (Texas) Antonian Prep and San Antonio (Texas) St. Anthony School. When he left, Jennings was confronted by the Antonian athletic director, who then collaborated with his staff to file an official report against the Central Catholic coordinator.

The incident -- which some in the San Antonio media have taken to calling "Benchgate" -- was first reported by the San Antonio Express News, which included a photo taken by an Antonian student that shows just how close Jennings got to the Antonian sideline. As you can see right here, the Central Catholic assistant was almost close enough to overhear the team's sideline huddles.

Days later, a TAPPS board handed down one of the most drastic measures in recent Texas prep sports history: Jennings is to serve a suspension for the rest of the 2011 season and the entirety of the 2012 campaign. Central Catholic head coach Chris Roberts was also handed a probation for the remainder of the 2011 season, though he will not have to miss any time on the sidelines.

"We feel that he was a little bit overzealous and made some people uncomfortable," Roberts told San Antonio news network KENS 5 of his assistant's behavior at the Antonian game. It was one of those deals where we've got kind of a gray area in scouting. There's a gray area. When you get into TAPPS, what we're all learning and finding out is that when you go scout, there's not a designated area like there is in the UIL world.

"The press boxes aren't as big. Everything tends to be a little bit small, and so you go by the policies of the stadium and the procedures that they have. As everyone knows, at Antonian you're allowed to walk around the field and walk on the track in kind of a free flow, and that's kind of what happened."

As one might expect, that is not at all how Antonian officials categorize the incident.

"That's not an excuse," Antonian football coach Van Fuschak told KENS 5 of Roberts' 'gray area' defense. "Holy Cross, St. Anthony, every one of them have bleachers. If you're going to scout, you can stand outside the track. We've got a fence here they can stand outside of.

"But when a team is playing, I don't care what league it is, you don't stand right next to the team that you're playing. When they're right behind you in your players' box, then I think that crosses the line."