It's not too rare for a high school coach to resign out of frustration over his or her relationship with their school's administration. Similar disputes over funding also can take fatal tolls on budding coaching careers. Yet few reasons for departure can compare to the official reason given for Gardena (Calif.) High football coach Ed Lalua's departure before his team's first official game: He left because he was mad about his team's buses.

Gardena football coach Ed Lalua

As first reported by the Torrance Daily Breeze, Lalua left on the day of Gardena's season opener on Friday, blaming a dispute over the team's busing arrangement for its first game. Gardena was opening the season at Oceanside (Calif.) High, a game which required a bus ride of some two hours.

When Gardena decided not to take its junior varsity team to the Oceanside game, the school's allotment of three buses for the event was shrunk to two. That meant a lot of cramming for space between football players and "auxiliary team members," a group which included members of the band, drill team and cheerleaders.

Gardena officials insisted that some of the cheerleaders would have to ride on the varsity squad's bus, but Lalua refused, saying that there was no room. It appears he had plenty of grounds to refuse to squeeze them in, too.

"Forget about the distraction for the team and potential liability, our bus was already full," Lalau told the Daily Breeze. "We had players, coaching staff and equipment. I told them I don't know how they were going to fit.

"If it was a local trip just going down the street to Carson, that's different, but we were going all the way to Oceanside on Labor Day weekend. I told them they needed to order another bus."

After getting over the surprise of Lalua's refusal, the school's administration then reportedly told him to find a way to get the auxiliary members on the bus, or find another job.

Lalua chose to find another job.

"They told me I didn't have an option, and I told them that I did," Lalau said. "They made the decision very easy for me."

Four years. That's how long Thomas Jefferson (Texas) High School's football team went without a victory. Put it this way: The last time the team saw a "W" in the win column, the Indianapolis Colts were still Super Bowl champions. Losing 36 games in a row is difficult for any coach to swallow. You almost become accustomed to losing after a while, and sooner or later, start to wonder if you'll ever win a game.

But all streaks eventually come to an end and on Saturday afternoon, Thomas Jefferson snapped the incredible 36-game losing skid with a dramatic 19-16 come-from-behind victory against Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis (Texas) High School.

"They've been through a lot,'' Thomas Jefferson head coach David Haynes told the Dallas Morning News. "We told them the only reason we won was because they kept fighting. What I like about these kids is they give you all they have to give. To see them rewarded, well, that's why I got into coaching.''

As the Dallas Morning News reported, Thomas

When high school football referees in Washington used blue flags instead of the traditional yellow variety during games over the weekend, they were intending to help promote awareness of prostate cancer, hoping to encourage men to get prostate checks in the process. Instead, they sparked furor about sexism among the state's officials.

Of course, there's a good reason for those claims: The organization who approved the blue flag charity tribute, the Washington Officials Association, is the same one which sanctioned officials for using pink whistles in 2010 to try and raise funds for breast cancer research.

In case you've forgotten, here's how that pink whistle snafu unfolded: In October 2010, a group of Washington high school football officials decided to dedicate their game checks to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and honor breast cancer victims by using pink whistles. In the process, they unintentionally stoked a firestorm that led to threats of lost game checks and suspensions from WOA president Todd Stordahl.

While those threats were initially dropped, the WOA eventually sanctioned the officials involved in the pink whistle charity drive by revoking their rights to work in most high school playoff games in the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Fast forward to September 16, and state officials were again reaching out for a cancer charity, though this time they were supporting prostate cancer awareness, a condition that affects men, not women. As first reported by Seattle TV network KING-5, this time the WOA was on board with the effort, even though it came with questionable timing; the Susan G. Komen three-day national breast cancer walk was also held over the weekend.

While it's possible that the timing of the two competing charity efforts were purely coincidental, that only seemed to further upset those who support breast cancer awareness, as some made abundantly clear to KING 5.

"If they made such a stink about outlawing it for the breast cancer thing, why are they allowing it for prostate cancer?" says Steve Hamilton, who supports breast cancer research.

What's better than a play that stands out as one of the early season's best? When a play that stands out as one of the early season's best also decides a heated double-overtime game ... and bears an eerie resemblance to one of the great clutch NFL plays of all time.

That's precisely what happened on Friday in Mesquite, Texas, where the No. 87 Denton (Texas) Ryan High Raiders fought their way to a 28-22, double-overtime victory against the resurgent Mesquite (Texas) High Skeeters. While a number of Ryan players deserve plaudits for the team's determined victory, the man who earned the most accolades in the hardest way possible was backup quarterback Mitchell Bridges, who turned in an incredible John Elway-like run to reach the end zone on his team's second overtime possession to seal the victory.

As you can see above, Bridges' touchdown bore eerie similarities to the one Elway produced in Super Bowl XXXII to inspire Denver to an upset victory against the Brett Favre-led Packers. Like Elway, Bridges surveyed his options then took off on a bold dash to the right side of the field. And like Elway, Bridges was hit by multiple defenders, sending him into an uncontrollable helicopter twirl before taking a hard landing.

In fact, the most notable difference between Elway's heroics and the ones turned in by Bridges are that Bridges actually ended up in the end zone. Elway, famously, was stopped inside the 5-yard line, setting up Denver with a first and goal that eventually paved the way for a touchdown that put the Broncos firmly in control.

Just think: In a week, Bridges has gone from wondering what role, if any, he would play against an unranked Texas opponent to being compared to one of the great quarterbacks of all time. That's not a bad week for a sophomore reserve, huh?

Like any number of Americans, the teams and fans at the Washington high school football game between Skyline (Wash.) High and Bellevue (Wash.) High, currently ranked No. 24 in the RivalsHigh 100, wanted to honor those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Like those at many stadiums, Skyline officials arranged for a moment of silence for all in attendance before the highly anticipated matchup between the schools kicked off, a commemoration all agreed upon.

Still, that agreement didn't stop Washington officials from throwing a flag for delay of game, and blaming that penalty on the moment of silence.

As first highlighted by the Seattle Times, officials at the Skyline-Bellevue game employed what can only be considered a very literal interpretation of the rules when deciding to assess a delay of game penalty against Skyline in conjunction with the pre-arranged moment of silence.

According to Seattle Times reporter Mason Kelley, Washington standards hold that any delay after the pregame clock hits 0:00 will be assessed a delay of game penalty. That left little room for interpretation for officials, even if most in attendance probably would have been opposed to the penalty being enforced.

[Photos: Sports landscape following 9/11 | 9/11 tributes in sports]

The teams were on their respective sidelines and the national anthem was concluded before the pregame clock expired, but the moment of silence came after that.

We're reaching the point in the football season when every single weekend provides a handful of matchups that could determine both state and national pecking order. As predicted in the Weekend Watch, Friday and Saturday hosted on field referendums that also pitted powerful programs from Ohio and Kentucky as well as New Jersey and Florida against each other. When everything was sorted out, there was yet more shifting in the RivalsHigh 100, all as the national pecking order begins to take some definitive shape.

• No. 4 Louisville (Kent.) Trinity 17, No. 18 Cincinnati (Ohio) St. Xavier 7: Last week, St. X came through with a huge crosstown victory against fellow Southern Ohio power Cincinnati (Ohio) Colerain. This time around the Bombers weren't quite as lucky, with Trinity using a stifling defense to thwart St. X. After averaging 7 touchdowns per game entering the cross-state face off, Trinity held the Bombers to just 82 yards and 7 points.

• No. 5 Gaffney (S.C.) 35, Byrnes (S.C.) 13: If explosive offensive plays are likely to stand out as the hallmark of Gaffney's 2011 season, then the squad's stiff defense may be getting unfairly overlooked. On Friday, Gaffney shut down a traditional power, all while providing a platform for its dynamic offense to excel. It did, and ensured that the country's No. 5 team would keep rolling in the process.

• No. 1 Ramsey (N.J.) Don Bosco Prep 22, No. 80 Manatee (Fla.) 16: This was more a case of survival than sending a statement for Don Bosco, which picked up a second straight victory against a national power from hundreds of miles away, though it do so with significantly more stress this time around. Eventually, Don Bosco used a long receiving touchdown and a score shortly after a blocked punt for enough separation to keep Manatee at bay, though that wasn't enough for the perennial national title contenders to keep their top spot in the national rankings.

• No. 34 Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward 30, Cincinnati (Ohio) Elder 10: The Eagles just keep rolling. A year after charging all the way through the RivalsHigh 100 to nearly steal the national title from Batesville (Miss.) South Panola in the final rankings, St. Edward continues to chew up all in-state opposition with a dominant run game and big plays by the defense and special teams (in this case, both an interception and a blocked punt set up second half scores). Add in a rally from a first half deficit, and this victory over a fellow Ohio state title-contender was just another game in a day's work for the Eagles.

Teams are forced to pull out of scheduled games for different reasons all the time. Sometimes they don't have enough players to field a complete team. On other occasions, a game might be canceled or moved for logistical reasons.

Kenwood High School sign

Yet few reasons for calling off a game are ever likely to be as unique as the justification provided by the Essex (Md.) Kenwood High junior varsity football team, which forfeited its scheduled game against Baltimore (Md.) Eastern Technical School after six members of the team were involved in a consensual sexual act with an unidentified female member of the student body.

The following statements come from a letter that Kenwood principal Paul Martin had students bring home to their parents after the incident occurred.

"We have discussed this with the members of the team and explained that this situation is to be a time where they reflect upon their level of participation in this event and how this situation reflects upon the rest of the student body of Kenwood High School."

The principal added that "any attempts to contact the young lady, to continue discussing the situation, and/or making threats towards students who may or may not have been involved in the investigation will not be tolerated."

Naturally, the junior varsity football players are not the first high school athletes to be sexually active, yet the fact that an entire team would be forced to forfeit a game because a few of its members admitted to being involved in some type of a sex act seems a bit over the top.

However, there was a reason why Kenwood officials got involved in the sexual peccadillos of their young charges. According to Baltimore CBS affiliate WBAL-TV, which first reported on the story, the sexual encounter between the underaged girl and the junior varsity football players occurred on campus property, meaning that it fell within the purview of school officials.

Yet the sex act alone was not the complete justification for the team's suspension, according to WBAL and the Baltimore Sun. Rather, school officials decided to pull the plug on the team's game after ascertaining that a number of other players on the team knew about the incident but failed to report it to officials.

By now, nearly everyone knows that Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski tied an NFL record by kicking a 63-yard field goal in his team's season opening victory in Denver during Oakland's 23-20 victory. Since he tied an NFL record, Janikowski's kick is necessarily the longest of the season at any level of football. Most football fans would hardly be surprised by that fact, either.

However, what they might be startled to find is the identity of the kicker of the second longest field goal of the 2011 season. He's not a pro, and he doesn't even play for a major college program. Rather, Garrett Owens nailed an improbable 57-yarder during his Arroyo Grande (Calif.) High squad's 45-17 victory against Templeton (Calif.) High. According to Prep Rally's research, that's the longest high school kick this year, and the second longest at any level since the 2011 season began.

Owens' powerful boot came during the fourth quarter of Arroyo Grande's rout of a Templeton team which had no answer for Arroyo Grande's balance offense. It also had no answer for Owens himself, who put up the kind of combined statistics that can make a player's season. On top of his booming 57 yard kick, he was also a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points and crushed all his team's kickoffs.

Did we mention that Owens is also a starting wide receiver? He is, and he caught 10 passes for 123 yards and one touchdown, an exhausting effort that makes the distance he reached on his field goal all the more impressive.

The Arroyo Grande senior isn't a newcomer to distances beyond 50 yards, however. As a junior in 2010, Owens hit one 51-yarder, not to mention another kick from 47 yards. His kickoffs went for touchbacks an equally impressive 81 percent of the time.