It's not a stretch to say that Indi Cowie is one of the best freestyle soccer performers on the planet. She has performed tricks at halftime of a Chelsea-Manchester United match in the English Premier League and been featured in commercials for Playstation video games. It's natural to assume that the 16-year-old is easily the best soccer player at Green Hope (N.C.) High, where she is a junior, but that assumption is misguided, for a simple reason: She won't play for the Green Hope team.

As chronicled most recently in the New York Times, Cowie has emerged as the best women's freestyle soccer performer in the world, all while still working on a high school degree in North Carolina. Of Scottish descent, Cowie has already competed for the women's branch of one of her home nation's two most famed clubs -- Glasgow Celtic -- and once scored seven goals in a youth game in which her team escaped with a 7-6 victory.

She speaks with a unique blend of typical American pronunciation with occasional hints of Scottish brogue, and has burst onto the freestyle soccer scene within the past six years, after being introduced to the sport by its reigning world champion and teaching herself a few basic moves.

Yet Cowie refuses to participate in that most American of high school experiences, school sports, because she is concerned that competing with only other girls might hold back her progress. The teenager has had to deal with similar dilemmas since she was much younger, referring to one incident when she was 10 as a particularly formative moment in her development.

"At the beginning of one game I got the ball and beat three girls to score a goal, and my coach pulled me off the field," Cowie told the Times. "He said, 'You should have passed.' I said, 'But I scored a goal, Coach.' He sat me out for the rest of the half. At halftime he asked me, 'Are you ready to play properly?' I said, 'Sure.' I did the same thing, and he took me off the field for the rest of the game."

Instead of fighting for school pride, Cowie works on her own soccer growth as part of a competitive boys club program in her hometown of Cary, N.C. And while one might assume shunning her school would hurt her college exposure, Cowie has already agreed to play college soccer for the University of North Carolina, the collegiate soccer juggernaut that helped develop American legends Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly, among others.

For Cowie, the impetus to ignore high school soccer comes not only from the lack of competition she gets from other girls, but also from the insistence placed on playing the game in a cooperative, American way. Cowie often sees no need to pass or incorporate other teammates because she's simply better than them, and all the girls she plays against. Usually, she's right.

"Maybe that's why I like freestyle so much," Cowie says, "because I don't have any teammates to worry about."

The distance between the Minnesota and Michigan boys basketball state tournament finals -- held in St. Paul and Lansing, respectively -- is some 617 miles using the most direct of routes. On Saturday, the two sites felt much closer, with champions at both the Target Center and Breslin Center connected by the common threads of high school tragedy.

Perham boys basketball team wins the Minnesota state title

In Minnesota, Perham (Minn.) High, which dedicated its season to teammate Zach Gabbard -- who collapsed during a midseason game and has been recovering ever since -- captured the state 2A crown in honor of its ailing teammate, who was too weak to attend the final. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Schoolcraft (Mich.) High breezed to the Class C title just weeks after eliminating Fennville (Mich.) High, the team of fallen star Wes Leonard.

Both Gabbard and Leonard were struck with heart defects which brought on cardiac arrests, and both Perham and Schoolcraft had to overcome challenging circumstances brought on by those tragic events. For Perham, it was playing out the rest of a season without one of its best players and spiritual leaders. For Schoolcraft, it meant vanquishing a Cinderella team which captured the country's imagination the way few, if any, ever have.

"[Gabbard is] always here in our heart," Perham star Nick Tobkin told the Associated Press of his recovering teammate, whose name was announced during the team's medal presentation. "He was the one reason we wanted to get here. He just gave us that much more motivation and inspiration. When we're down, he's always right there to pick us back up like we are for him."

Perham pulled off that feat thanks in large part to Tobkin's heroics. The star scored 15 points, including seven of his team's final 12 points, as the Yellowjackets pulled away from Rochester (Minn.) Lourdes High in a 45-37 state title victory. Afterward, Tobkin and his teammates again dedicated their state title to Gabbard, holding up three fingers (Gabbard wore uniform No. 3) while wearing their team warmups, all of which have "Gabbard, 3" on the back, and posing with the state title trophy.

Even though Gabbard wasn't allowed to attend the game, as he had Perham's previous state tournament victories, he watched from his hospital bed and gave his teammates a direct message before the game.

"Today, he was just a little worn out," Perham coach Dave Cresap told the AP. "He couldn't get out of bed. His doctor said he needed to rest today. We called and asked for his will and his strength, and he gave it to us and we were able to persevere and win a state championship for him."

To say that Chris Carr brought a new level of toughness to the Eden Prairie (Minn.) girls basketball team is perhaps an understatement. After all, the longtime NBA veteran was used to practicing against Kevin Garnett, why wouldn't his girls players work as if they were, too?

Minnesota Timberwolves player Chris Carr

That philosophy, which allowed Carr to build the Eden Prairie team into his own image, helped lead the Eagles to only the second state tournament in school history, eventually finishing as Minnesota Class AAAA state runners-up to Hopkins (Minn.) High.

"As a pro, I was thankful every day, in awe every day that I had a jersey with my name on it,'' Carr told the Pioneer-Press. "Now as a coach, it is a different kind of satisfaction. I have been blessed with the opportunity to work with some really great kids. In this day and age of suicides and all kinds of tragedies with our young people, it is great to work with the kids to develop positive goals.''

His players responded, and were thankful for the opportunity to work with a former NBA player.

"I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it's the best thing that's happened for us," Eden Prairie star Morgan VanRiper-Rose told MNGirlsBasketballHub.com. "I think the first feeling from all the girls [was] kind of intimidation from him. He's coached guys, he's been in the NBA. We didn't know what it was going to be like."

What it was like was a whirlwind of intensity blowing through the Eden Prairie program. Carr re-built a loaded, senior-laden team into a defensive force, one which shut down nearly all its opponents with up-tempo trapping, a system that in turn led to plenty of easy buckets and good looks on offense.

Carr also had the benefit of coaching a player he considered a virtual "alter ego" in Eden Prairie's post. As the season wore on, junior forward Jackie Johnson emerged as the team's most dangerous offensive threat, equally willing to bang away against opponents in the paint and also able to distribute from the post, creating clear scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates.

While her size -- Johnson stands 6-foot-2 -- and skills were key factors in her emergence as a Minneapolis Star-Tribune All-Metro second team selection, her attitude was even more important to her coach.

"She's almost got like an alter ego," Carr said of Johnson, who led the team in scoring and blocks. "She'll charm you with her smile off the court, and then will cut your heart out to win on the court. That's a quality that not many girls have."

Kemba Walker should be focusing on the Final Four and a tough matchup against a physical, athletic Kentucky team which plays tougher defense than almost any other squad. Instead, he and the player he spent most of his time facing off against in the Elite Eight are both concerned about their high school alma mater, which is fighting to remain open amidst a brutal financial crush.

Uconn's Kemba Walker and Alex Oriaki celebrate in front of Arizona's Lamont Jones

According to the New York Daily News, Walker and Arizona point guard Lamont Jones both spoke before their Elite Eight matchup about the latest troubling news out of New York, where Rice (N.Y.) High is rumored to be on the verge of closure amidst brutal budget shortfalls.

The private school, which is a longtime Manhattan boys basketball power, is facing the real threat of closure due to lack of funding, in large part because of its limited tuition costs. Rice charges it's limited all-boys population just $5,750 per year to attend, with many of its low-income students also receiving need-based scholarships.

Rice is trying to find a new, more cost-effective location, but it has already told students, faculty and, yes, even famous alumni, that if it can't find a cheaper site, it will close permanently.

"That would be sad [if Rice closed], to tell you the truth," Walker told the Daily News. "The school has great traditions. That really would be sad.

"It's an all-boys school and a lot of people think that going to an all-boys school could be a problem, but I think it was the best thing for me. It turned me into a man. It shaped me in every aspect of who I am, from becoming a better basketball player to becoming a better person. I love that school."

So do plenty of Rice's other alumni, including Jones and NBA star Felipe Lopez. While the school's limited current population of just 218 students is an even smaller grouping than previous years, some near the school insist that they won't believe Rice will be shuttered until the doors are actually closed for good. That core group of believers includes the school's basketball coach, Dwayne Mitchell.

"You always hear rumors that Rice is in trouble," Mitchell told the Daily News. "You always hear that it might close down. I'm used to it now."

There have been plenty of amazing plays during the different state tournaments across the country. Buzzer beaters? We've seen those. Dunks? Check.

Yet none may have shown more unbelievable skill than the play you see below, where a Montana teen hit a basket after taking off from in front of the hoop … and landing behind it.

The player pulling off the feat in question is Bozeman (Mont.) High senior Tanner Roderick, who is more well-known for his football prowess. Roderick, who finished with 26 points, nailed this behind-the-backboard jumper in the fourth quarter as the Hawks pulled away for a 61-53 win in the Montana Class AA state championship game against Billings (Mont.) West on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, we were just up against a better team and one player that was just remarkable," Billings West coach Doug Robinson told the Helena Independent Record.

It's hard to argue with Robinson's assessment on the basis of that shot. And Roderick's overwhelming athleticism speaks to his dual-sport potential, as well. The senior is scheduled to play quarterback for Nevada in the fall, though he could be redshirted in his first season.

There are low scoring games, and then there's the California Division I boys basketball title game which unfolded on Saturday. In a battle of offensive attrition, Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei High outlasted Concord (Calif.) De La Salle High, 43-36. Perhaps most instructively, neither team employed any kind of a stall in the game.

Santa Ana Mater Dei boys basketball

The point totals from the game made it the lowest-scoring state final in the modern history of California Division I boys basketball. The 79 combined points were a point fewer than the previous low-water mark of 80 from Los Angeles (Calif.) Westchester High's 49-31 victory against Oakland (Calif.) McClymonds High in 2009. Perhaps more fascinating, both De La Salle and Mater Dei's team point totals were lower than all but five previous competitors in the CIF's 30-year modern history. Fittingly, one of those five other teams was a De La Salle squad.

Only one girls Division I title game had a lower combined score than Saturday's game, with the 1984 Ventura (Calif.) Buena High victory against Los Gatos (Calif.) High totaling just 67 points.

On Saturday, both team's defensive intensity created long scoring droughts pockmarked with brief runs made mostly at the free-throw line. The eventual state champion Monarchs made just three shots from the field in the entire first half, had a six-minute stretch where they didn't score a single point, yet still trailed just 18-12 at the break, thanks in large part to De La Salle's incredibly regimented offensive sets.

Despite the relatively small gap in scoring, Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight was reticent of the threat his team faced in the second half.

"Down six to these guys is like being down 20," McKnight told ESPNLA.com. "We had to pick up the intensity."

Mater Dei did just that, and it left De La Salle with few options, given the team's preferred snail-like offensive tempo. By game's end, De La Salle had just one player reach double figures in scoring and scored only eight points in the final period, despite needing a rapid rally to challenge for the state crown.

You'll have to forgive Miramar (Fla.) High for feeling slightly aggrieved that the Patriots don't have a 2010 state football championship. That sense of disappointment might seem displaced when you consider the fact that Miramar's football team fell in the state's regional semifinals in November, a full three victories short of a state title. The trick is that the boys football team isn't the squad entering a season feeling as if it has something to prove.

Miramar girls flag football program

Rather, that distinction falls to Miramar's girls flag football team, which fell in the state semifinals after racking up a perfect regular season. The team's coach, Damon Codgell, said there was a good reason for his team's 27-0 semifinal loss to Alonso (Fla.) High, too: The game was played just hours after the Miramar prom, with many of the Miramar players arriving at their semifinal game still wearing their prom night makeup and nails.

"Never seen a game like that before," Codgell told the Miami Herald. "It was almost ugly from the start."

To counteract a second spate of state playoff ugliness, Codgell exerted significant force on the school's spring planning committee, insisting that the senior prom not be held on the same weekend as a state playoff game. He succeeded, and now he and his team are confident that they can fulfill on the program's unfinished promise from the 2010 season.

Florida is the only state in the country to host an official girls flag football competition, while the sport is played at the club level in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and a handful of other states. The Florida High School Activities Association has sanctioned flag football in each of the past 10 years, holding a state championship tournament each year since 2003.

Miramar has yet to capture that crown, despite being one of the longest-running programs in the state. It felt last year provided a perfect opening to break through that barrier, before the prom got in the way.

Earlier in March, Atlanta Braves minor league coach Luis Salazar was hit in the face with a foul ball during a spring training game, leaving him with horrendous injuries that eventually cost him his left eye. While Salazar's injury got national attention, another similar terrifying injury struck with less fanfare last week, when Winter Park (Fla.) High baseball coach Bob King was struck with a line drive in his team's dugout during a game against Bishop Moore (Fla.) High.

Winter Park baseball coach Bob King

According to the Orlando Sentinel, King's injury was just as frightening as the one that befell Salazar, who spent a week in a hospital while undergoing three different facial surgeries. Like Salazar, King feared that the injury might have been life threatening as blood poured from his face in the Winter Park dugout.

"I remember thinking, 'Where is the ball?'" King told the Sentinel. "I must have just turned my head. When I went down, I said to my assistant [Rob Robison], 'I've been hit.' I really thought it was over for me, because I am on blood thinners and I thought I would bleed out right there."

As it was, King suffered a broken nose and fractures of the orbital bone under his left eye, injuries which required surgery to reset his nose and have plates and screws inserted to stabilize his orbital ridge.

Yet the injuries could have been so much worse -- and, indeed, almost identical to the ones suffered by Salazar -- if the ball had struck King even a fraction of an inch higher up his face.

"I feel very blessed," King said. "I have talked to a few doctors and I guess the ball hit me in the best spot possible. If it had hit me a little higher, it would have been the same situation as it was with the Atlanta Braves coach [Luis Salazar]."