It seems unlikely that he received any monetary benefit from it, but a California teenage basketball player has suddenly found himself as a local star thanks to a cameo in a glossy new Nike ad.

As noted by the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena (Calif.) Maranatha High rising senior Jeremy Major is getting some -- pardon the pun -- major attention after he served as the vertical leap demonstrator in a new television ad for Nike's Nike+ training technology.

The high school hoopster -- who averaged 26 points per game for an impressive 21-6 2011-12 Minutemen squad as a junior -- is featured putting a Nike+ chip in his shoe and then testing his vertical leap, which checks in at an impressive 31.9 inches. His name then flashes across the screen with his result, which the Nike+ technology automatically transmits to his iPhone (or at least that's how it's supposed to work).

Major's contribution to the ad begins around the 0:50 mark above.

It appears that Major pops up again in a large group of teens and 20-somethings gathering around Nike's testing gear, though he isn't immediately identified.

While the television ad may be the most high-profile attention Major has received so far in his career, it isn't likely to be the last time he shows up in lights. The teen is committed to Pepperdine, where his scoring touch could come into play almost from the moment he arrives on campus.

Less than three years after boosters at a California school helped circumvent a school district's tight budget to construct a new baseball storage and locker room costing $36,000, that very facility may itself be torn down because it can't legally meet building code, essentially because it fails to meet American with Disabilities Act access standards due to a lack of planning behind its construction.

The 2012 Canyon baseball team, some of whom threatened to chain themselves to the "Champions Room" — Canyon Baseball

As reported extensively by the Orange County Register's Eric Carpenter, Anaheim Hills (Calif.) Canyon High finds itself mired in a battle between booster club members and school district officials, who pledged to demolish the structure once it was determined it did not meet state regulations for campus buildings. According to Carpenter, school officials investigated the possibility of retrofitting the dugout complex -- called the "Champions Room" -- to make it meet state standards, but such a procedure would cost approximately $200,000, more than six times the initial $36,000 construction cost which was ponied up by the Canyon High baseball booster club in fall 2009.

It probably isn't a surprise to learn that those booster club members and their children, many of whom are still part of the baseball program, were left infuriated by the decision to knock down the facility so soon after its construction, even if there are valid reasons to do so. Current Canyon Hills baseball players even threatened to chain themselves to the Champions Room or stand in the way of demolition crews if that was the only way to save what they see as a key part of their stadium.

"This is a room that means a lot to these players and to what has been a very successful program," R.J. Knutson, the former president of the boosters' club, told the Register. "We just want them to delay it so we can talk this through and find a way to keep this building standing."

While the parents and players almost certainly would have been upset with any destruction of the facility, their fury was further stoked by a pretty deplorable lack of communication regarding plans to demolish it. The Register reported that the decision to bulldoze the Champions Room was made months ago and scheduled for July 11, but the booster club only learned of the destruction plans a week before it was set to go ahead.

An Illinois high school made the surprising but touching decision to forever retire the number of a player who never even suited up for the school.

As reported by the Geneva Patch and the Oswego Ledger-Sentinel, the Oswego (N.Y.) High Panthers retired the number 2 before a game against the Oswego East (N.Y.) High Wolves in a nod of respect to 12-year-old Eric Lederman, who was wearing the number when he died following a freak accident when he was hit in the neck by a pitch during an April baseball game.

Oswego sixth grader Eric Lederman, who was killed in a freak baseball accident — Facebook

While Lederman never got close to attending Oswego High, he was known throughout the city, which rapidly rallied behind the Lederman family after their son's tragic passing. The Kane County Cougars, one of the nation's most successful minor-league baseball teams which is based in Geneva, led a fundraising drive to help the family, just one of a number of civic measures that have popped up to honor Lederman since his death.

Still, Oswego High's decision to retire the number 2 may be even the most touching gesture of all, with a group which Lederman was never a part of honoring him as one of its own forever.

"From this moment on, the Oswego Panthers baseball team will dedicate the No. 2 in Eric's memory, and the number will not be used," a Panthers announcer at the ceremony honoring the departed middle schooler. "The No. 2 will represent Eric, and thus he will forever be a Panther."

Terry Smith was a lock to keep his job at Gateway (Pa.) High when the year began. The athletic director and football coach single-handedly turned an under-performing program into a perennial powerhouse during his 10 years at the school. Not only that, Gateway went 92-28 with six WPIAL conference titles, and the school churned out 40 Division I college scholarships.

Gateway High's athletic director/head football coach Terry Smith. — Pittlive.com

Smith's sterling resume had him in the upper echelon of football coaches in the state, juggling two different jobs and making $95,000 per year as the district's athletic director. It seemed like the perfect situation for Smith, who graduated from Gateway in 1987, but after this season the dream could be coming to an end.

As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, the district, citing state-wide budget cuts, was forced to consider whether it made financial sense to retain Smith. After taking it to a vote, the school board approved a resolution that would prevent Smith from having a supplemental contract as the school's football coach.

The new policy, which takes effect after Jan. 1, means Smith will no longer be able to hold the AD and head coach position past this year. Not only that, for the upcoming school year he'll be forced to work two jobs at only 50 percent of what he was making in 2011.

School budget cuts are going on around the country, but as CBS affiliate KDKA in Pittsburgh pointed out, Gateway's decision to give Smith only one season, and potentially let him go at the end of this year, may have more to do with a power struggle than a balanced budget.

Smith's aggregate salary for the past academic year did top six figures, and a demotion would cut it roughly in half. Still, even if he were to maintain his full-time status, that salary would comprise less than one percent of the district's total 2012-13 budget.

If Smith's salary only comprises "less than one percent of the district's total 2012-13 budget," you have to wonder who's driving the budget bus. KDKA reported there are rumors it could be Mitch Adams, the boys basketball head coach at Gateway, and one of Smith's biggest enemies.

Prep Rally doesn't know who this young soccer stunner is. We don't know where he plays, or even if this kick definitively occurred within the past couple months. What we do know is that we can't remember the last time we saw an 8-year-old bend a ball the way he does.

As first noted by Deadspin after the video was posted on July 4, the ball really does swerve up and over a young, elementary school wall with an arc that is pretty befitting of the label bestowed upon it by the video's uploader; it looks like a shot by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Don't believe us? Just check out this Ronaldo free kick goal for Real Madrid.

If those two goals don't bare some aerial similarity, we're not sure what will. Naturally, one free kick goal by an 8-year-old hardly indicates that he's on the way to being the next Ronaldo — of the Cristiano or Brazilian type — but it can't hurt.

A group of Wisconsin high school football players have been suspended for doing something thousands of other teens across the country do every single day: Drinking an "energy drink" they picked up from a local store.

The Menomenie football team in action — YouTube

As reported by Eau Claire Leader-Telegram and WEAU.com, among other Wisconsin news sources, 10 players for the Menomonie (Wis.) High football program were suspended for the first three games of the 2012 season on Wednesday after they admitted consuming a pre-workout energy drink that they purchased from a local athletic nutrition store. The drink that the students bought, a Creatine Nitrate product called C4 Extreme manufactured by the pro workout supplement company Cellucor, unknowingly contained Synephrine, a substance that is considered "performance enhancing" and is banned by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

That violation of WIAA code carries with it an automatic Menomonie-district imposed three-game ban, meaning the students who were drinking C4 will now be forced to sit out the first three games of the forthcoming campaign.

Menomonie district officials announced the suspensions shortly after being in contact with the WIAA about the violations. Still, the unnamed banned players claim that they had no idea that the drink included any banned substances at all, and assumed it would be safe because it was legally purchased at a local store.

C4 Exteme Creatine powder — Cellucor

While Menomonie football coach Joe LaBuda lauded the students for stepping forward and admitting that they had purchased and consumed the illegal substance unknowingly, both the Menomenie superintendent and a WIAA official offered little sympathy for the students' suspension.

"I think if the boys would have read the label they would have known," Menomonie Superintendent Chris Stratton told the Leader-Telegram. "This product is being promoted commercially."

To say that DaCarlos Humphrey waited until the absolute 11^th hour to pick his college destination is a bit unfair. Rather, his eventual destination just waited until the last minute to decide that they needed Humphrey now.

"It's been a long process," David Humphrey, DaCarlos Humphrey's father, told the Dallas Morning News. "A long road."

As reported by the Morning News, DaCarlos Humphrey finally landed a spot at Nebraska-Kerney in July, ending a years-long saga that had previously earned Humphrey promising looks from Ivy League schools, RICE, SMU and Tulsa, among other schools. Humphrey is scheduled to play halfback for Nebraska-Kearney.

Still, before Nebraska-Kearney, the only school to actually offer Humphrey an official spot was Dartmouth. Given Ivy League schools' inability to offer scholarships — they can only help gain acceptance, after which all financial aid is determined by need, not extracurricular activities — Humphrey, who starred for Mansfield (Texas) Legacy High in a wide variety of positions for the past two seasons, was left in a tough spot.

Luckily, Nebraska-Kearney came along just in time, despite the fact that many student athletes are already on campuses across the country beginning offseason training for the forthcoming season. That may leave Humphrey at a disadvantage as a freshman.

A Wisconsin high school girls basketball coach has been arrested and charged with assault and battery after a disturbing incident in which he allegedly punched one of his own players despite his own daughter's attempted intervention.

Wisconsin girls basketball coach Fred Freeman — Fishers Police Department

As reported by the Indianapolis Star and the Associated Press, Fred Freeman was arrested in the town of Fishers, Ind., after a 17-year-old at a basketball tournament in the town reported that Freeman grabbed her, threw her to the ground and punched her. Further investigation by Fishers police determined that the incident began with a verbal spat between Freeman's daughter and the coach's victim, sparking a violent outburst from the 47-year-old.

A nearby parent from another team at the tournament, Jean Washington, witnessed the entire event and offered a statement to police that ran in direct contrast to Freeman's own claims to police that he was initially attacked by the teen. Rather, the basketball mother's statement painted a disturbing picture of the event, which was released in the subsequent police report of the incident.

"The suspect … grabbed the victim tightly around her torso. (Washington) heard the victim tell the suspect to get off of her and witnessed the victim start to punch the suspect," the report states. "The two fell to the ground, and the victim continued to resist the suspect. The suspect and victim made it back to their feet, and the suspect grabbed the victim again and slammed her back into the ground.

"Ms. Washington observed the suspect's daughter yelling, 'No, Daddy.' The suspect then got up and threw the victim's badge into (a) tree,"the report states. "Ms. Washington then escorted the victim back inside the building as the suspect left the area with the other team members."

The unnamed victim is a Milwaukee resident and was brought to the Indiana event by Freeman himself. The coach drove his summer league squad to the high school girls basketball tournament at the Indiana Fieldhouse Sports Complex.