David Castricone is best known for being the Godfather and architect of one of the most dominant wrestling programs in the New England. Castricone's North Andover (Mass.) High wrestlers have more victories than any other program in the region -- and third most nationally -- and are the defending state champions, widely favored to retain their crown in 2011.

Yet, if the team does win another title, it will do so without its head coach, who resigned on Monday after being arraigned on shocking charges of child pornography.

According to the Boston Globe, Associated Press and other sources, Castricone has been charged after surveillance cameras at North Andover showed him entering the girls locker room nine times in January and February, carrying a device which appears to have a viewfinder screen that may identify it as a still image or video camera.

"A lot of my friends are on the wrestling team, and he seemed like a good guy and a great coach," North Andover freshman Alex MacMillan told

Stories about professional and top collegiate athletes inspiring the injured or suffering are not altogether uncommon. Yet its a rare occurrence when prep athletes inspire fellow teens to recoveries.

That has been the precise case unfolding in New Mexico, where injured teen Tripp Gleghorn -- who suffered second and third-degree burns across his body after a fire accident -- has been inundated with personal, written, spoken and gifted responses from top prep prospects from across the Land of Enchantment.

"Tripp is a huge prep football fan and what really boosted his spirits was the fact that players going from high school to college to play football showed him some love," Charles Gleghorn, Trip Gleghorn's father told NMPreps.com. "[Tripp Gleghorn] has some recovery time ahead of him, needs to grow all the hair back that was burnt off, but he should be back to normal and playing sports soon. We are just so thankful to everyone from around the state that helped us during this tough time."

It's not unusual for a high school sports team to have a former player who they look up to come back to the school as a motivational speaker or advisor. Often those inspirational figures are college players or, occasionally, professionals who can reflect back on their prep careers.

Yet the Elkhorn (Neb.) High girls basketball program has a particularly unique mentor, based almost solely on his experience ... or at least the wealth of it. That's because Elkhorn assistant coach Gene Kruger is 86.

"Some of [Elkhorn's opponents] have asked who [Kruger] is," Elkhorn senior forward Brittney Lynch told the Omaha World-Herald. "They think he might be someone's grandpa.

"It's really inspirational seeing him here. And he's always giving us tips and showing us different drills that have made us a better team."

According to the World-Herald, Kruger became an assistant coach for the girls team four years ago, following a volunteer stint as an assistant coach for the boys program. Kruger initially

On Friday, two of the nation's best prep hoops programs faced off in a game with more hyped prospects than some small states, with Montrose (Md.) Christian School eventually routing visiting Findlay (Nev.) Prep Academy, 63-37, in a shockingly one-sided encounter with national ramifications.

That rout was led by Tyrone Johnson who scored 25 points to overwhelm Findlay. Among those 25, two truly stand out, as you can see in the clip below.

Not only did Johnson throw down a thunderous statement dunk on that play at the Primetime Shootout in New Jersey, he did so on one of the nation's top recruits, St. John's signee Amir Garrett.

The kind of authority that Johnson, a point guard and Villanova recruit, used on that dunk isn't seen often, and it set the stage for the worst loss in Findlay Prep history. It also helped Montrose bounce back from it's first loss of the season the night before, all but ensuring that the Mustangs will avoid the meltdown they suffered in the 2009-10 season, when

It's incredibly difficult for a high school basketball coach to reach the watershed mark of 500 wins. If you assume that a near-unbeaten team might win a total of 25 games per season -- a number which would require a playoff run -- it would take 20 superlative seasons to reach the 500-win mark.

That's why it's an achievement worth celebrating when any coach reaches the 500-win plateau. What's even more rare is when one school can boast of two coaches who both sport 500 or more victories. Coppell (Texas) High can brag of just such an arrangement, even though it was without any 500-game winners just a week ago. Amazingly, according to the Dallas Morning News and other sources, within 48 hours of Coppell boys coach Brad Chasteen winning his 500th career game, girls coach Jerry Hoffman won her 500th as well, crowning a true watershed moment for both programs. The coaches join an incredibly rare group of head men and women in the Lone Star State, an exclusive club detailed by Vype 7-5A.

Carla Amaya is like any number of high school senior student athletes across the country, with one very specific difference: She plays a boys sport, all while hailing from Hispanic cultures that don't endorse girls playing sports at all.

According to the Washington Post's James Wagner, Amaya has done more than just grapple with the difficulties of being a girl as part of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.) High boys wrestling team, she's also had to help convince her mother, who hails from Colombia, that playing an aggressive boys sport is an acceptable option in modern American culture, all while also assuaging her El Salvadorian father's quite reasonable concerns that she would be seriously injured in the sport.

Eventually, Amaya's mother, Patricia, came around, thanks to increased cultural acceptance and the hope that her daughter can achieve things she never would have considered possible.

"When you live here, you learn," Patricia Amaya told the Post in Spanish. "The culture teaches

Rebecca Robinson hates the winter like any number of other top high school sprinters. For the Arlington (Mass.) High senior, winter requires indoor running, keeping her off the track and outdoor training runs, requiring extra mental fortitude and patience.

Yet Robinson still recorded the third-fastest time in the 300-meter sprint, qualifying for the national indoor championships in New York City in March, and she did it by using one rather unorthodox training method.

According to the Boston Globe, Robinson trains for her sprinting events by running down empty hallways in Arlington High every day after school lets out.

"It can be hard," Robinson told the Globe. "I run at least 15 sprints a day. If I didn't have my friends to help me and run with me, I wouldn't be able to do it. They push me."

Such are the rigors of being a standout sprinter in Massachusetts in the winter, with Robinson finding one of the most unique resolutions to weather issues en route to a career filled with success.

In the annals of game-winning high school buzzer beaters, few are stranger than the one turned in by Torrington (Conn.) High School's Sarah Royals, who found a way to earn her team a win despite its three-point deficit with just four seconds left before the miracle play off the inbounds, as you can see below.

To set the scene surrounding the video above, which was provided and edited by Jennifer Royals and shot by Paul Caron, Torrington trailed Northwestern Connecticut rival Waterbury (Conn.) Holy Cross High, 58-55, with just four seconds left. With Holy Cross employing a full-court press, Torrington inbounded the ball to Royals, who cut toward the baseline to create an opening in the defense. The senior pushed the ball up to midcourt, racing past defenders, before hoisting up a desperation heave that was nearly underhanded from a stride inside the halfcourt circle.

The fact that Royals even got a shot off was a minor