The Union City baseball field, four stories above Union City, N.J. — Newark Star-Ledger

Usually, when an outfielder runs through or over the fence in pursuit of a potential home run, they are greeted with gusto when they return to the dugout. If an outfielder attempted to do that on the diamond at Union City (N.J.) High, they would end up in a hospital, or possibly worse … a funeral home. There’s a good reason for that: Union City plays its games on what is almost certainly the only baseball field in the country that is four stories above ground level.

As noted in a terrific profile piece in MaxPreps, Union City’s baseball field sits on top of Union City High in the midst of the most densely populated town in the nation. The baseball field is part of the school’s multi-purpose athletic field, part of a $173 million capital development project.

Despite the sticker shock that comes from any $173 million high school facility, the Union City field is a sight to behold. The capital project spans 366,000 square feet in total and features both a three-acre football field that includes bleachers for 4,500 and a state of the art gym that can seat 1,800.

The Union City baseball field is built into the football field on the roof, leaving plenty of room for home runs and foul balls to do significant damage to cars parked four stories below.

Fittingly, Union City High also probably features a more robust insurance policy guarding against damage from baseballs, too. According to MaxPreps, the school’s policy includes coverage for any foul balls that do any damage to school or private property. The policy would also likely cover physical injury should any bystander be struck with a foul ball below the field, but Union City has been lucky enough to avoid such a scenario so far.

That’s a remarkable feat in itself, given the fact that Union City is home to more than 66,000 New Jersey residents in the space of just 1.283 square miles, making it the most dense location in the nation.

Courney Jarrell, a teacher and coach, was charged with object rape — Jordan Sherriff's DepartmentCourtney Jarrell was placed in two positions of strong authority at Jordan (Utah) Riverton High: teaching math and leading the sophomore team in the girls basketball program. In a disturbing turn, it now appears clear that Jarrell used that authority to violate one of the very students she was charged with protecting.

As reported by the Associated Press and a variety of other outlets, the Salt Lake Tribune among them, Jarrell was arrested on charges of object rape and felonious sexual abuse in connection with a disturbing sexual relationship she had with one of her 17-year-old female students. The Tribune reported that the object rape charge against Jarrell counts as a first-degree felony while the sexual abuse charge is weighted as a second-degree felony.

Jarrell is 22 years old while her alleged victim is 17.

According to Jordan School District officials, Jarrell was suspended from her positions with the school when allegations of the student affair first arose in March, with the school board turning the case over to police. When more specific details of the relationship between the two arose, including the degree to which the two participated in sexual acts at the coach's house, Jarrell resigned permanently.

"We immediately looked into it, and within hours of the complaint, she was suspended, and everything was turned over to Draper police," Jordan School District spokesperson Sandra Riesgraf told the Tribune. "We felt that it was something that rose to that level [of police involvement]."

The police clearly agreed, though Jarrell's attorney insisted that the departure was mutual, and that his client had left the school specifically to prepare to defend her name.

Connell softball pitcher Ashley Thompson has thrown 6 straight no-hitters — Softball Showcase

Few athletes in history have been on the kind of roll that Ashley Thompson finds herself in the midst of.

A senior at Connell (Wash.) High, Thompson has thrown six consecutive no-hitters – and seven in the season – in one of the most impressive runs of consecutive pitching starts at any level in baseball or softball history. According to MaxPreps, Thompson is just the third person to toss as many no-hitters back-to-back.

Connell is 13-0, with 10 of those 13 wins coming behind Thompson’s rather prodigious arm. She has thrown 70 innings, allowed a grand total of 8 hits and struck out 172 batters over that period. Thompson’s totals were boosted on Saturday when she threw no-hitters in two consecutive games, both victories against Kiona (Wash.) Benton High. Four of her no-hitters have also been perfect games.

If the BYU signee’s achievements in the circle weren’t impressive enough (and they certainly are), her feats at the plate are equally stunning. The senior is batting .710 with 7 home runs and 32 RBI through Connell’s first 13 games. She’s also homered in four consecutive games, all of which have been her own no-hitters. Her career marks are arguably more stunning, with the senior already holding the state records for home runs in a single season (23) and career (46) and RBI in a career.

And to think: those batting records came with a good half of her senior season still to come.

In a move that absolutely defies belief, the Steubenville (Ohio) School Board decided to buck public pressure and agree to a new two-year contract with longtime football coach Reno Saccoccia with regard to his teaching position. That might not seem too out of the ordinary, except for the conditions surrounding Saccoccia. He was the town's football coach during a time when two of his players were convicted of rape in a trial that received widespread attention.

Steubenville football coach Reno Saccocia, who was given a 2-year extension but could face charges — Change.org

The disturbing case that embroiled the Steubenville football program captivated the nation's attention at multiple points in recent months, never more prevalently than on March 17, when teenagers Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old classmate.

Saccoccia was not implicated in the case and it remains unclear if he'll be mentioned by an upcoming grand jury that is investigating the possibility of wrongdoing by others in the town.

But many have blamed Saccoccia for ruling over a football-mad culture that held its players to a different standard. Consider this text from Mays when asked about his coach's reaction to the rape charges.

"[Saccocia did] Nothing really. Going to stay in for awhile. LOL. And next time (someone is) into something, suspended for three games.

"But I feel he took care of it for us. Like, he was joking about it, so I'm not worried."

And yet another text bombshell from Mays: "I got Reno. He took care of it and (expletive) ain't going to happen, even if they did take it to court."

To say that the Steubenville school board's decision is profoundly tone deaf is a remarkable understatement. More than 134,000 activists from across the nation and world have signed an online petition at change.org calling for Saccoccia to be fired. Considering the fact that the entire population of Steubenville is just more than 18,000, that's a startling amount of public outrage aimed at a public employee from a small town.

The conflict between club and country has long been a major flashpoint in European professional story. Now, it appears that it may be matched here in the U.S., where at least one school that was a legitimate contender for a state title had its progression held up by their star goalie’s sudden departure for the U.S. Women’s U-20 national team training sessions.

San Antonio Johnson keeper Morgan Stearns — Johnson Jaguars Sports

As noted by the Dallas Morning News, the San Antonio (Tex.) Johnson High girls soccer team reached the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 5A largely on the back of top goaltender Morgan Stearns. There’s good reason for that; Stearns happens to be one of the best girls goaltenders in the entire nation, even if she is still a high school senior.

That has earned Stearns a series of call ups to different levels of the national squad, with the most recent – a trip to train with the U-20 national team – coming at a particularly unfortunate time: According to the Dallas Morning News, the training camp, where Stearns is competing against two other goalies, is all but certain to keep Stearns from playing any part in the state championships.

Johnson reached the Class 5A semifinals, thanks in part to the playoff stability provided by Stearns in the cage.

So far, the national team has gotten the lion’s share of Stearns’ time when the two teams are in conflict, though the teen is insistent that she is committed to both her school and country, even if she has thus far prioritized her nation.

The battle is on for Cordell Broadus, the son of Snoop Lion, nee Snoop Dogg. After a strong sophomore season in which he earned attention from the likes of Florida State and bona fide scholarship offers from Cal, Oregon State and UCLA, Broadus now has a USC scholarship offer in his back pocket as well.

Cordell Broadus, the son of Snoop Lion, received a scholarship offer from USC as a sophomore — Rivals.com

According to Rivals.com, the USC offer came out of the blue for the 6-foot-3 wide receiver, who still plans to play through his final two scholastic seasons before committing to any football program.

"They stopped by the school," the younger Broadus told Rivals.com. "Coach Cregg was video recording practice and he brought it back to USC to show coach [Lane] Kiffin and coach Kiffin said he liked what he saw.

"They invited me to their junior day and they seemed kind of interested. I was surprised they gave me an offer though because they don't usually offer sophomores. I was in shock."

Broadus has yet to notify Snoop Lion of his scholarship offer, though he gave a strong indication that his father would be plenty excited by the Trojans offer. After all, the elder Broadus is a longstanding Trojans fan.

Over the course of a full season in any sport, Prep Rally tends to note some fairly remarkable statistics. Few, if any, can match what hit the radar in Mississippi. That's where Silento Sayles, a senior shortstop for Port Gibson (Ms.) High, stole 103 bases in a single season.

Unsurprisingly, the 103 stolen bases mark an all-time national record, according to National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) records. According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the previous NFHS mark was 96 steals as set by Vincente Rosario of New York (N.Y.) George Washington High in 1996. Sayles' 103 steals were also an incredible 26 more than the previous Mississippi mark, which was shared by two teammates at Natchez Trace (Ms.) Academy in 1991.

The senior has signed to play baseball for Chipola College, though it's likely that those plans would take a backseat if he were selected in the MLB Draft.

“I really didn’t set any goals,” Sayles told the Clarion-Ledger. “I just wanted to go out there and get as many as I could get.”

Silento Sayles, center bottom, stole 103 bases during his senior season — Fort Bend Texans

What he got were more steals than anyone in history, and he did so by running every single time he got on the base paths. According to the Clarion-Ledger, Sayles averaged 3.5 steals per game, but had a single-game high of 12. He stole seven bases during his team's 10-0 victory against Jefferson County (Ms.) High to cap off his record single season performance.

While the successful numbers behind Sayles record are enough to make one's head spin, his unsuccessful number is just as remarkable. En route to 103 stolen bases, Sayles was thrown out exactly one time, while trying to steal third base late in a game that Port Gibson trailed.

Sayles told the newspaper that he shouldn't have even attempted the steal, but felt obligated to try and make something happen for his teammates.

Throughout the fall season, Erin Dimeglio captured the nation’s attention as she boldly went where no girl had gone before, lining up at quarterback for a Florida varsity high school football team. In the process of her final high school season Dimeglio completed a pass, was named homecoming queen and, more significantly, earned the respect of all her teammates and foes.

Erin DiMeglio after her historic football debut — ABC News screen shot

Now, the soon-to-graduate South Plantation (Fla.) High senior is earning financial benefits where plaudits had come before. As reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Dimeglio was awarded a $20,000 scholarship presented by Foot Locker’s Scholar Athlete Program and the social change website DoSomething.org. DiMeglio was one of 20 national recepients of the award, chosen from among nearly 26,000 applicants.

"I was speechless. I had no idea what was going on," DiMeglio told the Sun Sentinel. "I didn't read the paper at first. I just wanted to know why all these people were staring at me. It's exciting to win this, to know that someone picked you out of all those people. It's really going to help out my parents."

DiMeglio will use the scholarship at the University of Central Florida, where she hopes to walk on the girls basketball team. The three-sport standout -- she also stars as the quarterback of the flag football team -- was recruited by a handful of smaller girls basketball programs, yet decided that she would rather take her chances at walking on with the Knights.

Given the obstacles and preconceptions she’s already overcome, it’s hard to find any fault in her self confidence.

Her football teammates have little doubt that Dimeglio will achieve what she puts her mind to, at Central Florida and elsewhere thereafter.