On Wednesday, the National Women's Law Center filed complaints against 12 different school districts, citing a participation gap in high school between male and female students as proof that the schools are in violation of Title IX. Later that day, athletic directors and coaches from the districts cited struck back, questioning whether the statistics cited are at all indicative of the equality of opportunities facing boys and girls in their respective districts.

"There are equal opportunities for girls to participate in our school district and it is something that is really important to us," Irvine's assistant superintendent Cassie Parham, a former athlete, told the Associated Press. "The opportunity to be an athlete certainly exists."

Still, a spokeswoman for the NWLC said that the data used in the organization's survey, which looked at participation numbers between 2000 and 2006, painted a clear picture of widening participation gaps, which the NWLC insists is an accurate indication

Wednesday RivalsHigh and other sources reported on a disturbing story out of Jackson, Miss., where three high school basketball players filed a lawsuit against their basketball coach and the school district alleging they were whipped in practices.

Now disturbing video proof of the whippings has emeged, as you can see below.

As reported in the Clarion-Ledger, Murrah (Miss.) High boys basketball coach Marion Dorsey previously admitted to whipping his players with a weightlifting belt, citing a desire to improve their attitude as the primary motivation behind his corporal punishment.

"I took it upon myself to save these young men from the destruction of self and what society has accepted and become silent to the issues our students are facing on a daily basis," Dorsey said in a statement to the Clarion-Ledger. "I am deeply remorseful of my actions to help our students."

Dorsey, who is in his first year leading the Murrah program, has reportedly been suspended without pay. The

You know the old adage about playing until the final whistle? It's never been more apt than when seen through the prism of this play.

As first reported by OrlandoSentinel.com, Winter Springs quarterback Garrett Etheridge scrambled right in an attempt to run out the clock in regulation during Monday's district football tiebreaker between Winter Springs (Fla.) High and Oviedo (Fla.) High. With the job seemingly done and time expired, Etheridge slowed up and stopped while still standing, failing to drop to a knee on the turf.

That was a big mistake.

Practically as soon as Etheridge stopped in the open field, he was slowly surrounded by a convoy of Oviedo defenders who approached slowly as if the play had been whistled dead. However, instead of trotting off the field, Oviedo's Jack Redding raced in and tore the ball from Etheridge's hands, returning it for a 20-yard touchdown with no time remaining on the clock.

"As soon as he rolled out and stopped running, I knew the play wasn't dead,"

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October was all about the color pink, even in sports. MLB players wore pink wristbands. NFL teams wore pink wristbands and pink-edged hats, and in some cases, pink cleats. Everywhere you looked, pink was in vogue.

Evidently Mendenhall (Miss.) High School football coach Chris Peterson missed the memo.

According to the Associated Press, WLBT.com and USA Today, among other outlets, Peterson kicked 17-year-old placekicker Coy Sheppard, above, off the Mendenhall football team when Sheppard attempted to wear pink cleats in a practice following a game in October. As Sheppard explains in the video above, courtesy of WLBT.com, coaches ridiculed the kicker for wearing the shoes during the prior game, but he showed up for the team's Monday practice wearing the pink cleats regardless. Now the senior, who relied on academic credit from playing football to help fulfill graduation requirements,

Everyone, meet Alexis. We don't know Alexis' last name, or even what state she resides in. What we do know is that she's a hurdles runner for a school called Central Catholic Junior High (there are 36 different Central Catholics in the U.S.), and she is one of the most determined track and field athletes on the planet.

How do we know? Because of the video below, which depicts one of Alexis' hurdles races with music that is either motivational, unintenionally hilarious or possibly both. In fact, definitely both.

By our count, Alexis was beaten out of the blocks by three of the four runners competing against her. She fell flat after hitting three hurdles, tripped on two others and went around one after coming off a tough slip up. Undeterred, Alexis finished the race, in last place (behind another runner who also fell on multiple hurdles) crossing the line at roughly 39 seconds (we didn't have a stopwatch), but with a lot more pride than most have.

As the videographer wrote, that

Marching bands hold a special place in high school football's weekly presentation. After all, bands traditionally play both to back the team and provide halftime -- and sometimes postgame -- entertainment. In Los Angeles, there's no game bigger than the annual East L.A. Classic between Roosevelt (Calif.) High and Garfield (Calif.) High. While Roosevelt finds itself in hot water for using illegal uniforms, a prominent Garfield band member suffered an ignominious sort of uniform moment of his own when he struggled to perform his traditional baton toss during his school's halftime performance.

The video you see above shows Garfield's drum major trot out in front of his own band and some 22,000 fans to start the Bulldogs halftime show. Unfortunately, he dropped his first catch attempt, a serious embarrassment for the face of a school's band program.

Still, undeterred the drum major lined up again and fired off another majestic toss ... which he promptly dropped as well. While Roosevelt

Earlier this year, Prep Rally wrote about New York's Lehman High School, which has to play all of its games on the road because it only has an 80-yard field. As bad as that is, another New York City school would trade it's facilities for Lehman's field any day.

At Erasmus (N.Y.) High, the Dutchmen have been forced to spend the entire season practicing on the school's courtyard, a tiny, 45-yard piece of grass, because of renovation construction that took over the school's traditional field before the school year began. According to Mark Lelinwalla of the New York Daily News, there were no remaining unused city parks with permits available, so Erasmus had to find some site on campus to hold practice.

Thus, the school's courtyard -- usually a pristine site used for special occasions -- has been transformed into a muddy pit of golf-like divots in desperate need of a re-sodding.

"The school's principals and custodial engineers were nice enough to let us use this, when we have nothing else,

The Needham (Mass.) High school senior girls soccer players called it an "initiation ritual." Needham Principal Jonathan Pizzi called it hazing, and suspended them. When the father of one of the girls who was hazed stepped up to point out that the suspension would force the girls to miss the MIAA state soccer tournament for an act the hazed girls agreed to participate in, Pizzi wouldn't budge.

Those were the string of events that brought Pizzi and the aforementioned father to a Massachusetts court room, where on Tuesday a Norfolk (Mass.) County judge faced a decision that would determine whether five Needham seniors would get another crack at the state soccer playoffs.

[Rewind: Player seriously hurt in cream pie attack]

Justice Barbara Dortch-Okara quickly decided they would not, as reported in the Boston Herald.

In a two-page decision filed this morning in Dedham Superior Court, Justice Barbara A. Dortch-Okara said Principal Jonathan Pizzi "has complied with or is in the process of