Officially, there is no stipulation for where a coach of one team must stand or sit when scouting a future opponent in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools handbook. A San Antonio (Texas) Central Catholic assistant coach recently challenged that theory, watching part of a future opponent's game from a prime location … alongside their bench. The fallout since has been extraordinary.

First, Central Catholic defensive coordinator John Jennings was kicked out of the game between San Antonio (Texas) Antonian Prep and San Antonio (Texas) St. Anthony School. When he left, Jennings was confronted by the Antonian athletic director, who then collaborated with his staff to file an official report against the Central Catholic coordinator.

The incident -- which some in the San Antonio media have taken to calling "Benchgate" -- was first reported by the San Antonio Express News, which included a photo taken by an Antonian student that shows just how close Jennings got to the Antonian sideline. As you can see right here, the Central Catholic assistant was almost close enough to overhear the team's sideline huddles.

Days later, a TAPPS board handed down one of the most drastic measures in recent Texas prep sports history: Jennings is to serve a suspension for the rest of the 2011 season and the entirety of the 2012 campaign. Central Catholic head coach Chris Roberts was also handed a probation for the remainder of the 2011 season, though he will not have to miss any time on the sidelines.

"We feel that he was a little bit overzealous and made some people uncomfortable," Roberts told San Antonio news network KENS 5 of his assistant's behavior at the Antonian game. It was one of those deals where we've got kind of a gray area in scouting. There's a gray area. When you get into TAPPS, what we're all learning and finding out is that when you go scout, there's not a designated area like there is in the UIL world.

"The press boxes aren't as big. Everything tends to be a little bit small, and so you go by the policies of the stadium and the procedures that they have. As everyone knows, at Antonian you're allowed to walk around the field and walk on the track in kind of a free flow, and that's kind of what happened."

As one might expect, that is not at all how Antonian officials categorize the incident.

"That's not an excuse," Antonian football coach Van Fuschak told KENS 5 of Roberts' 'gray area' defense. "Holy Cross, St. Anthony, every one of them have bleachers. If you're going to scout, you can stand outside the track. We've got a fence here they can stand outside of.

"But when a team is playing, I don't care what league it is, you don't stand right next to the team that you're playing. When they're right behind you in your players' box, then I think that crosses the line."

The head coach of a Southern California football team has been placed on administrative leave after he was involved with a physical altercation with a student. While the punishment might seem to fit that crime, the circumstances around the suspension of Pasadena (Calif.) John Muir High coach Ken Howard make the decision much more questionable: He was trying to protect other students by facing off with the individual in question.

According to the Pasadena Star-News, Howard -- who you can see speaking about the 2011 season (but not the incident in question) below -- and other school personnel were searching the school for a student who was allegedly in possession of a deadly weapon. When Howard came across the student, he asked him about a weapon and, when the student resisted, physically detained him.

"The kid was resisting," Howard told the Star-News. "I told him to sit in his seat and it got physical. I wrapped the kid up and escorted him from the classroom."

Exactly how Howard handled the student seems to be the main issue in question. A Pasadena community activist named Randy Ertll told the Star-News that the student was both choked and slammed on to a desk, leaving bruising on his back and blood on his neck.

While school district officials have questioned Howard's involvement in any search for a weapon, the coach insists that the search was authorized by a Muir administrator, who gathered Howard and two security guards to search the school. After the student was detained, Pasadena police were called to the scene but did not make an official arrest. Howard claims that the responding officers praised him for handling the situation.

Now, the coach is sitting at home on paid administrative leave, away from the team he has led for the past seven seasons with his assistants and players forced to adjust to life without him.

Everyone knows there are only four downs in a football game, but for a split second during Friday night's game between West Genesee (N.Y.) High School and Baldwinsville (N.Y.) High, almost everyone attending the game -- including the officials on the field -- forgot the rule even existed.

berecruitedgeneese

In a stunning turn of events, West Genesee was granted an extra down during the team's game-winning drive that saw them not only win the game, but remain undefeated (5-0) for the season. As the Times-Standard reported, the game got interesting when Baldwinsville took the lead with just over a minute remaining in the game.

After completing his first pass and moving the chains for a first down, West Genesee quarterback Dan Ginestro couldn't connect with his receiver, setting up a second-and-10 that saw him hit his receiver for 6 yards.

At that point it was third-and-4 with just under 45 seconds remaining in the game, but in the middle of trying to get the clock operator to add some additional time on the clock, the officials made a critical error.

At that point, the officials motioned to the scoreboard operator to add two seconds to the clock, from 42.8 to 44.8. But in the confusion, none of the five game officials thought to inform the chain crew to flip the down marker card from second to third.

Ginestro threw two incomplete passes to seal what should have been a Baldwinsville victory. But because nobody ever caught the mistake on the down marker, West Genesee was incredibly granted a fifth down, which ended up going for 6 yards and a first down.

West Genesee scored three plays later to win the game with only one second left on the clock. Nobody had a clue the fifth down ever occurred until a volunteer worker came over, after the game was over, to notify the Baldwinsville head coach Carl Sanfilippo of the gaffe.

"I thought it was a joke," Sanfilippo told the Post-Standard. "I said, there's no way it can happen."

After reviewing tape, everyone, including the officials and athletic director, saw the error. The worst part of it all was that just like the 1990 game between Colorado and Missouri, where the Buffaloes were given a fifth down that allowed them to win the game and a national title, the mistake in the West Genesee-Baldwinsville game couldn't be reversed.

It seems like whenever you turn around, another NBA superstar is headed to another far flung land to play out the remainder of the league's lockout. Not LeBron James. He's staying stateside, though he is keeping in shape. How, you ask? By showing up at football practice at his alma mater, Akron (Ohio) St. Vincent-St. Mary High.

LeBron James practices with St. Vincent St. Mary in Akron

As first reported by Fox8.com, James made an appearance at SVSM football practice on Tuesday, donning full pads and a helmet and participating in the Irish's full practice regimen. The Miami Heat star showed up unannounced to the high school team -- which is undefeated and ranked as high as No. 3 in the state in its classification -- but reportedly fit in seamlessly as he ran through passing drills for an hour with the full varsity squad.

In fact, the lone player missing was the one who donated his helmet, pads and number 13 jersey to James for the day; 6-foot-5 Clayton Uecker, who is the tallest player on the SVSM roster and who was missing from practice because of an injury.

According to Fox8.com, the only caveat to James' participation in the team's training session -- his blue football pants notwithstanding (everyone else wore green) -- was that defensive backs were not allowed to tackle the basketball star. They could make contact with the forward at the line of scrimmage, but once he went up for a ball, King James was off limits.

As to questions about how he would perform back on a football field -- remember, James starred in football in high school, to the point that State Farm once commissioned the commercial you see below raising the prospect of James suiting up for the Cleveland Browns -- the high school players he was on the field with said he more than held his own.

"He caught everything, he didn't drop a pass," St. Vincent-St. Mary quarterback Kevin Besser told Fox8.com. "I probably threw six or seven passes his way and he went up and got everything.

"I not gonna lie, it was pretty cool to see him out there."

In one of the most disturbing acts by an individual high school athlete in recent times, an Ohio football player placed a sharp object -- believed to be a tack -- in his glove before walking through a postgame handshake line, pricking the hands of 27 opponents as he walked through and "congratulated" them on a game well played.

According to the Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal and NBC affiliate WCMH, a Washington (Ohio) Court House High 16-year-old who was ineligible for the game sat on his team's sideline, then walked through the handshake line after his team's 26-0 victory against McLain (Ohio) High with a studded receiver's glove. The punctures made by the player's sharp glove eventually forced all 27 of the undisclosed perpetrator's alleged victims to receive tetanus shots from the Highland County health department at a meeting between the players and the Highland County Health Commissioner days after the event.

McLain players shared the most troubling details of the incident with WCMH.

"We walked across the 50-yard line and supposedly one of the guys had tacks in his glove. Nobody knew about it. I was far back enough in the line that everyone started to turn around and I got out of the way," said Michael Aeh, a McClain football player. ...

"They felt the pain of it when it occurred and they thought maybe they had hit a nerve or something. Then some of them immediately … looked at their hands and saw blood," said Dr. Dan Strain, McClain High School principal.

While the McLain players who suffered hand injuries because of the stunt were understandably most upset about the incident, local police also opened an investigation and contacted the mother of the suspect, who reportedly told Greenfield Police Chief Tim Hester that she planned to hire an attorney to defend her son.

"It was a small, sharp object," Hester told the News Journal. "We think it was probably a tack, but we haven't recovered it so we can't say for sure."

You know the colloquialism about how its important to be prepared? That's certainly true in football, where depth charts are as much a part of game planning as designing a nickel package on defense.

Bishop Alemany football

Well, no one realizes just how important being thoroughly prepared for every situation is than Mission Hills (Calif.) Bishop Alemany School football coach Dean Herrington. That's because his team's chances at a homecoming victory were sabotaged by its inability to field a backup holder for an extra point.

The play in question came late in Alemany's 13-12 loss to Los Angeles (Calif.) Dorsey High, which entered the game at Alemany as a significant underdog. Alemany had finally reached the end zone, pulling within a point in the process. All the Warriors needed to tie was to convert an extra point.

That's where the Warriors' problems began. The team's regular holder, quarterback Devon Dunn, had been knocked out of the game with a concussion. That meant the team needed to use a backup holder on the kick.

While Alemany technically had a backup holder on the depth chart, the team couldn't decide whether or not to actually use him, because he hadn't ever held for a kick before. In fact, the team was so confused, the Warriors called two consecutive timeouts trying to determine who should hold for the kick.

"We have a backup holder," Herrington told the Los Angeles Times. "We just didn't work with him."

Eventually, Herrington decided that the team had a better chance of winning if it just went for two. After spending two timeouts game planning for an eventual conversion, Dorsey stopped a pass attempt from backup quarterback Deron Smith, ensuring that Dorsey would escape with a win.

It's not every day that a player scores eight touchdowns. In fact, no matter how hard you look, on most Friday nights you won't find a single prep star able to rack up those kind of statistics.

Ingleside quarterback Tristen Barajas

Amazingly, two players achieved that exact feat on Friday, and while they achieved the feat in different ways in different states, both have earned significant attention for their remarkable knack for finding the end zone.

In Texas, Ingleside (Texas) High quarterback Tristen Barajas tied a state record by throwing for eight different touchdowns during his team's 74-6 rout of Robstown (Texas) High. As pointed out by the Dallas Morning News, nine different Texas players have hit that eight touchdown plateau in past seasons, though none may have done it at Barajas' tender age: The first-year starter is only a sophomore.

Barajas' different touchdowns came from a range of different distances as well. He started and finished with 10-yard scoring strikes, adding in TD passes from 42, 63, 17, 57, 10 and 62-yards in between, all part of a 22-of-30 night from the budding star. You can see highlights of all his touchdown passes below via Corpus Christi NBC affiliate KRIS-TV.

Incredibly, six of Barajas' eight touchdowns were thrown to the same family, with both twin brothers David McHugh and Matt McHugh pulling in three touchdown receptions a piece.

According to KRIS-TV, Barajas had no idea he had tied the passing record until he saw a note about it on a Friday night program's Facebook page.

"I was looking on the Friday Night Fever Facebook page, and I saw they mentioned it there. So I went and double checked and found out I had tied the record. It's just unbelievable, because I never thought about being part of history.

"My receivers deserve a lot of credit for that, as well. Having guys like Matt and David and my other wide outs helps a lot."

In Utah, Logan (Utah) signal caller D.J. Nelson pulled off a similar feat by passing for five scores and running for three more himself, leading his Grizzlies to a 67-7 romp against Logan (Utah) Sky View High. According to the Deseret News, Nelson's end zone-focused act was far more diverse, as his five touchdowns were part of a 30-for-43 passing night when he threw for 300 yards. His five touchdown passes landed in the hands of four different receivers.

Not to have his rushing prowess outdone, Nelson ran for 157 yards, including his three touchdowns on the ground.

"He's the best quarterback in the state, I think," Nelson's Logan teammate, running back John Schmidt, told the Deseret News. "He makes the right reads. He can run the ball. He makes things happen out of nothing. He rarely takes a sack and he gets yards every time."

On September 21, Prep Rally reported on the scary circumstances surrounding Adrian Padilla, the Oxnard (Calif.) High defensive back who suffered a serious concussion during his team's loss to San Luis Obispo (Calif.) High, eventually collapsing shortly after he reached his team's sideline.

Oxnard defensive back Adrian Padilla in the hospital

After some harrowing moments -- and a touching vigil held outside Padilla hospital room -- the senior is ready to leave the hospital. According to Ball Hyped and KSBY.com, Padilla finally left the hospital room he had been sequestered in for 19 days on Tuesday evening, returning home with a wealth of good will for all those who cared for him while he was hospitalized.

And, as you can see above, Padilla leaves the hospital with a healthy looking scalp, albeit one that shows off the trauma that his concussion caused. It's good a thing that chicks dig scars, right?

"Juss saw the FAMBAM!" Padilla Tweeted Tuesday night. "Felt so good to be around the team. Almost brought tears to my eyes! Love you guys."

Padilla's Oxnard teammates have continually done all they can to memorialize Padilla while he was away sick. The team has reportedly been playing with "A.P. 25" stickers on their helmets, honoring Padilla's number 25 jersey number. And, not surprisingly, teammates have continually visited Padilla in the hospital during his stay there.

Most importantly, the Yellow Jackets are glad to see one of their teammates back healthy, even if his condition ensures that he won't return to school until the spring semester, and that he likely will have to give up football altogether.