A small Texas town is grieving after the loss of a promising high school freshman from what was both a true freak accident and every track coach's worst nightmare.

As reported by the Associated Press and the Amarillo Globe-News, among other sources, Hereford (Tx.) High freshman Joshua Ramirez was buried on Thursday after he passed away from complications connected with a bizarre discus accident at an area track meet.

Hereford's Joshua Ramirez — Courtesy photo via Amarillo Globe-News

According to the Globe-News, Ramirez was stretching before one of his events at a track meet on March 8 when he was struck in the hip with an errant discus through. The teen was too injured to participate that day and was encouraged to ice the injury and keep a close eye on its swelling.

A week later Ramirez was pronounced dead, with everyone stunned with the sudden loss of a teen described by all as a vibrant student athlete. No cause of death has yet been promulgated by either the hospital or the Ramirez family, and his uncle told the Amarillo newspaper that the family was as confused as it was saddened by the loss of Ramirez's loss.

"We’re not sure exactly what happened," Jesse Ramirez told the newspaper.

The Globe-News reported that Ramirez was first checked into the hospital on March 10, two days after the initial injury. At first, Ramirez was kept in the emergency room but was only subject to loose oversight. Then, a follow-up exam including x-rays the subsequent day inspired doctors to transfer Ramirez to the intensive care unit of a nearby hospital, where he died days later.

The only possible explanation of Ramirez's passing to date has come from the Hereford coaching staff itself, which told Amarillo CBS affiliate KDFA that the discus strike could have split one of Ramirez's muscles, which then would have released toxins into his body as he stretched.

That's a plausible explanation, but it remains a pure guess to this point.

There are very few people in the world who are talented enough to play keepy-uppy with Brazilian soccer pinball wizard Ronaldinho. Evidently one of them is an elementary schooler.

As noted by the always terrific 101 Great Goals and The Big Lead, Ronaldinho was captured during a pregame workout playing keepy-uppy with the young son of Alecsandro, a teammate at his club Atletico Mineiro.

There's no doubt that the tyke, whose name has yet to surface, has plenty of skills. He may not be at the Ronaldinho level yet, but then again, who is? What's perhaps even more impressive, however, is his confidence in playing alongside a legitimate global star. No only does he freely go back-and-forth with Ronaldinho, he also hijacks the session to work in a bicycle kick at one point.

Well played little man, well played.

While Alecsandro's offspring is clearly a long way from the big time, he already is tipping his hand about who he supports in the larger global football sphere. The marketing executives at AON will be thrilled to see that their sponsorship of Manchester United is earning them valuable time in Brazil, at least during soccer pregame kickarounds. Why the kiddo wasn't decked out in Mineiro gear is a true question that begs answering, both from Alecsandro himself and the Mineiro staff.

Crete-Monee (Crete, Ill.) High's school board voted to replace its longtime AD after he posted a Chicago Tribune article outside his office about a Twitter photo prank played by football star Laquon Treadwell while on a college visit, according to the Tribune.

These are the photos Laquon Treadwell posted to his Twitter account -- via Chicago Tribune

While visiting his future campus in late January, the Ole Miss-bound wide receiver posted pictures on his Twitter account of a couple coeds kissing him on the cheeks and what turned out to be his hand holding a stack of $100 bills. Naturally, Treadwell's photos -- similar to those posted by former Clemson recruit Will Bellamy in 2011 -- served up a dish of speculation that the internet ate up willingly.

"It was really nothing," Treadwell admitted in a February Tribune article about the ordeal. "I never took money from Ole Miss or anything. That (goofing around) was all it was."

Crete-Monee athletic director Gene Cahan, who has held that position for eight years and also served as the Warriors' baseball coach for the past 26

If the time has come for Aquille Carr to leave amateur basketball forever, let the record show that he did so in perfectly appropriate fashion.

In what can only be described as a show-stopping performance, the teen nicknamed "The Crimestopper" scored 52 points in his final high school game for Laurel (Md.) Princeton Day School in a 121-82 victory against New Jersey’s Each One Teach One Academy. The performance from the mighty-mite guard was as comprehensive as any he has put together during his senior season and was capped with Carr officially announcing that he plans to play professionally in Europe rather than attend Seton Hall, for whom he had signed.

“I got a responsibility, taking care of my daughter, so that’s why I picked to take the route overseas,” Carr told the Washington Post, which attended the game along with other media outlets. “I’m ready to make basketball my career and be responsible for my family.”

Carr may be moving to Europe, at long last, but not before he put on a final show for his fans in the Baltimore area. En route to his 52-point total, Carr did everything but work the concession stand. He sliced to the hoop for layups. He hit outside jumpers. He broke free in loose ball situations. He dished out a healthy share of assists.

And, as has always been the case, he broke a couple of ankles along the way.

By game’s end, Carr had the second most points he’d ever accumulated in a single game, behind a 57-point performance while he was still competing for Baltimore (Md.) Patterson High. Yet it was the ease with which Carr scored them, and led his team, that made his coach say afterwards that the heralded, Iverson-esque guard was ready to make the professional leap.

“I think this year has really prepared Aquille for the next step, bringing some needed discipline and structure to his game while playing the toughest schedule that he’s played with a talented collection of teammates,” Princeton Day coach Van Whitfield told the Post. Whitfield added that he had been in contact with teams in both Germany and Italy, as well as apparel manufacturers who might sponsor Carr.

The poster advertising the St. Helens softball raffle — St. Helens Girls Softball

Earlier in March, Prep Rally brought you the story of Atwood-Hammond Little League in Illinois and the association’s bizarre decision to raise funds by raffling off an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. While the attention generated here at Prep Rally and other outlets brought additional scrutiny to the raffle, the fundraising was steadfastly defended by league officials because of the money generated by raffle itself.

Of course, part of the success of that raffle came from parents’ willingness to support and buy tickets for the raffle itself. Now that dynamic has been flipped on its head in Oregon, where a youth softball league planned to auction off a similar AR-15 assault rifle only to have the fundraiser openly criticized by parents themselves. Now the planned fundraiser may not go ahead, even though all the raffle tickets have been sold.

As reported by The Oregonian’s Stuart Tomlinson on Oregon Live, the St. Helens girls softball league will hold a public hearing to decide whether or not to hold its scheduled DPMS Panther Oracle A-TACS AR-15 assault rifle raffle, which was not reported to the Oregon branch of the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) until Tuesday.

“I was shocked,’’ Oregon ASA Commissioner Mike Wells told the Oregonian. “Apparently a good samaritan offered the gun up for the raffle. When it came up the board probably should have asked for approval.”

As it turns out, Wells and his staff may not need to issue an official ruling on the raffle themselves, because parents of league members may veto the fundraiser on their own. A letter that was sent to The Oregonian by “concerned parents and citizens of Saint Helens” pointed out just how troubled they felt by having a league that serves children aged 8 to 16 profit on a semiautomatic weapon.

Austin basketball player Tommy Olmstead- Half man, half beard, all amazing — Packer Fast Break Club

From the very strange but true file comes the remarkable photo you see at right. No, that man is not 30. No, he’s not a lumberjack. He’s a high school basketball player who happens to be in the midst of the winning streaks to end all winning streaks.

The teenager in the photo happens to be a senior at Austin (Mn.) High. His name is Tommy Olmstead, and he hasn’t taken a razor to his face since November, when he took part in a “No Shave November” fundraiser.

That type of dedication would certainly lead to a sizable beard on its own, but by the end of November, Olmstead and his teammates were already in action on the basketball court. Yet, according to the Austin High School basketball blog, called Packer Fast Break Club, after some prodding, Olmstead agreed to keep the beard as long as the team was winning. Naturally, he assumed that he’d get a chance to shave soon enough.

He was very, very wrong.

“I was just going to go through no shave November and then shave,” Olmstead said in a YouTube interview. “But then like halfway through the month the team decided that I should shave once we lose. Obviously we still haven’t lost.”

Now, three months later, the Austin Packers are 28-0 and Olmstead is sporting the best beard in basketball since … Baron Davis? Or James Harden?

To be fair, Olmstead’s bear is clearly better than Davis’ strongest effort (Davis groomed, which is almost a sign of weakness with monster beards, after all), though the senior has borrowed Davis’ classic calling card from his Warriors days, or Harden’s today, with the Austin squad rallying behind the “Fear the Beard” mantra.

Much has been made of the dramatic one-year dip of the Kentucky Wildcats’ basketball program, from a national champion to a first round departure from the NIT. While the emphasis in that final chapter has been focused on Kentucky’s poor play at Robert Morris -- which hosted the game because the Wildcats had already booked their own home arena -- perhaps it should start a bit earlier.

Kentucky stars peruse the halls of Moon Area High — Twitter

Like where the Wildcats had their final shootaround, for instance.

As brought to Prep Rally’s attention by MaxPreps, the Wildcats were forced to hold their pre-NIT practice Moon Township (Pa.) Moon Area High, the alma mater of one John Calipari. The Wildcats were pictured entering the school by students, all of whom were gawking at the top recruits in the class of 2012 just as those recruits were in turn staring at the trophies in the Moon Area hallways.

What happened next was a brief practice in the Moon Area gymnasium. What happened after that was more befitting the Moon Area varsity squad heading out to face off against a college team, as Robert Morris rolled to an early lead and then held off the Wildcats for an upset of epic proportions.

Naturally, Kentucky’s showing won’t necessarily encourage other top flight programs to make an impromptu pit stop at Moon Area. Then again, if Kentucky hadn’t assumed that it would be a shoo-in for the Big Dance, it probably would have enjoyed home comforts and a much more favorable build up to what should have been a relative stroll in the postseason park.

There were plenty of top notch names signing on to be a part of Florida State’s latest football recruiting class, but few may have a bigger initial impact than Levonte “Kermit” Whitfield. The four-star wide receiver prospect isn’t on campus in Tallahassee yet, but when he gets there he couldOK turn out to be a virtual clone of former Florida Gator standout Percy Harvin from day one.

Levonte Whitfield ran the fastest 100-meter dash in Florida history — Rivals.com

In fact, he’ll have a leg up on Harvin for a very clear reason: He’s already even faster.

Whitfield set a new state record in the 100-meter dash, crossing the finishing line in just 10.15 seconds to win the prestigious Bob Hayes Invitational title in Jacksonville. The 10.15 time topped the previous state record which was set by another former Sunshine state prep standout: Jeff Demps, who went on to play football and run track at Florida.

Whitfield’s 100 time is the top in the nation at the prep level so far in 2013, though the Orlando Sentinel reported that it came under wind-aided conditions, with gusts blowing up to 2.4 meters per second. While that might make true track aficionados jot an asterisk next to Whitfield’s time, the athlete himself was more than happy with his March Saturday, on which he also set a new Central Florida record for the 200-meters, crossing the finish line in 20.66 seconds.

That 200 time was only the second best at the meet, behind Jacksonville (Fl.) Stanton Prep star Kendal Williams’ 20.63, but it was also the second best time in the nation so far in spring 2013. For the Orlando (Fl.) Jones High wideout, the afternoon was a strong one for proving just how fast he can be off the field.