On Jan. 7, the Middleton (Wisc.) High hockey team routed local rival Madison Memorial (Wisc.) High 9-1. While that final score might be notable on its own, a goal from the one-sided matchup has earned headlines across hockey cyberspace, and for good reason, as you can see below, thanks to video from Patty Loew and the Middleton High School hockey program.

As first highlighted by both local outlets and Yahoo!'s own inimitable Puck Daddy, the prep "Michigan goal" put up by Middleton's Todd Koritzinsky is practically a shoo-in for high school goal of the year. What may be more impressive is that the likely future NHL draftee -- who has also earned headlines with previous statement goals -- might have put together an even better Michigan goal than the original, scored by Michigan's Mike Legg back in the 1996 NCAA Regional Finals.

Not only does Koritzinsky score an almost identical flip-wraparound goal (though his comes from the right

Over the holidays, Prep Rally mentioned that the Texas Class 5A state championship game between Pearland and Euless Trinity at Cowboys Stadium actually outdrew the first three bowl games of the holiday season.

As it turns out, that memorable Texas title tilt performed just as well against much of the college bowl slate. By the time all the paid attendance at Monday night's title tilt between Auburn and Oregon was tabulated, the Pearland-Trinity matchup's 43,321 fans beat out 16 of college football's 35 bowl games.

While none of the strongest traditional bowl games were among those 16, three notable college games beaten were the Independence Bowl and the debutant Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium and TicketCity Bowl, held at the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. Despite the TicketCity Bowl including a Texas team (Texas Tech) at a historic stadium, it still fell short of the state 5A game's numbers.

Perhaps equally amazing, there's no reason to believe that the Texas high school attendance

According to Park City (Utah) High hockey coach Mike Masquelier, his program's decision on whom to nominate for the High School Hockey All-Star Game led to a near unanimous vote, with all the team's coaches voting for Kubicki. Yet, as the Salt Lake City Tribune reports, there's something strikingly different about Kubicki and the rest of the Park City team: the All-Star nominee is a girl.

The ponytail that sticks out of Laura Kubicki's helmet isn't a fashion statement so much as a way of fitting in with her non-hockey friends, most of whom just happen to be female, too. Yet these days, Kubicki gets even more attention for her leadership on the ice than she does for her gender. The captain started following hockey as a 5-year-old at her brother's games in Ohio, then grew on the ice herself in Michigan, where girls hockey is much more prevalent than it is out West.

Her hockey savvy and skating ability instantly helped eliminate any lingering teen sexism when she arrived in Park City, and

"He's a 50-year-old midget."

That's what Columbia (Ga.) High basketball coach Phil McCrary says about his most important player, point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen. Don't get McCrary wrong, he loves the 5-foot-8 mighty mite, who quarterbacks the team's offense on the court. He just has one of the country's most quotable nicknames as a measure of his gratitude, as the coach explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"It's a compliment, not at all meant in a derogatory way. It's just that most kids his age make simple and minor mistakes on the floor. It's rare for Tahj because he's more mature than most of the point guards he plays against.

"How many 15-year-olds do you know that are constantly looking up at the clock, knowing the situation they are in? How many always know where to go with the basketball? Know when to shoot? When to slow it down? And when to take over a game?

"All that stuff, Tahj has already learned. That's why I call him a ‘50-year-old midget' because his knowledge

The football season may be over, but some top highlights are still trickling out on to ye ole Internet, as we were alerted to earlier this week by a loyal reader. In this case, the highlight in question had to be one of the more impressive touchdown leaps of the 2010 season.

The player you see vaulting into the end zone on the video above is Pearland (Texas) High defensive back Myles Kanipes, who picked off a pass from West Brook (Texas) High quarterback Bruce Reyes and returned it 46 yards for the opening touchdown in Pearland's 51-22 rout in the second round of the Texas state playoffs.

"We win every game and they always say it is because our offense scores more," Kanipes told the Houston Chronicle of the touchdown return. "Since playoffs started, our defense has gotten a lot better."

Of course, the Pearland defense kept getting better, eventually culminating in a Class 5A title game shock victory over national title contender Euless Trinity (Texas) High.

While most of Kanipes'

The University of Oregon may not have won a national championship, but it can feel secure knowing that it made an impact on the American sports zeitgeist thanks to the program's giant, oversized play boards for audibles.

Three days before the Ducks fell just short of wresting the NCAA football championship from the SEC, the girls basketball program from Oregon City (Ore.) High used giant cue cards for its huge Three Rivers League face-off with Clakamas (Ore.) High. According to the Portland Oregonian, the high school hoops cue cards were almost identical to their college football counterparts, with the exception that the images were quite a bit more appropriate for the quick-fire memory of teenage girls.

Each of the three cards featured four icons. They included The Little Mermaid (one player's favorite Disney character), SpongeBob SquarePants, a cat, a team picture, numbers and colors.

The cards were necessary because of loud crowd noise at Clakamas, which is known for hosting

Forget Boise State's blue turf. That's been done. New Braunfels (Texas) Canyon High wanted to make a statement with the school's new turf field, so it went with the Cougars' school color: Bright red.

As reported by TheOldCoach.com and the Dallas Morning News, Canyon officially unveiled the school's new bright red turf with a soccer scrimmage between the Cougars and Hays (Texas) High on Tuesday. While that scrimmage was the first chance for any teams to compete on the cornea-blazing surface, the first officially recorded games will come on Thursday, when both the Canyon boys and girls soccer teams kick off the Comal Cup Soccer Tournament, beginning with the Cougars girls squad's game at 9:00 a.m.

To get a sense of just how bright the red turf is, at the left of the photo above, check out the end zone, which is black, in honor of Canyon's other school color. It certainly makes the red surface pop, doesn't it?

[Related: See Oregon's crazy new basketball floor]

Of course, the brand-new

It's not rare for a high school wrestler to acknowledge a crowd if he or she receives significant applause, stopping to look around at the fans in the stands. Dayton (Nev.) High's Danny Alcantara doesn't do that, for a perfectly justifiable reason: He's blind.

According to a story in the Reno Gazette-Journal, Alcantara has entered his first season of competitive wrestling despite being completely blind. The 14-year-old developed retinoblastoma and lost all of his eyesight by the age of 3, leaving him and his family to cope with a lifetime without vision.

Alcantara said he isn't envious of those that have sight, or angry with the cards that life has dealt him. Instead, he said that he turned to wrestling to try and improve his self confidence, which he said has always been low because he couldn't do so many of the daily tasks his friends and family can.

"I really don't mind that I'm blind," Alcantara told the Gazette-Journal. "It's given me a better life in a lot of ways, I think. I