What is it about former Vikings quarterbacks? Evidently they retire in groups and return to high school coaching in groups, too.

At roughly the same time that Brett Favre filed his retirement papers with the NFL (the latest batch), former Vikings signal caller Brooks Bollinger also announced his retirement from professional football after spending the past two years playing for the UFL's Florida Tuskers. Then, about a week after one-time Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte became the head football coach at a St. Louis area school, Bollinger took over at Hill-Murray (Minn.) High.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Bollinger agreed to become the new coach at Hill-Murray after he was contacted by the school's activities director, who read that he planned to retire. The two arranged a meeting, at which they discussed Hill-Murray's opening, and the longtime NFL backup and son of a football coach agreed to follow in his father's footsteps.

"I would say on some level I probably wanted

A chivalrous attempt to preserve the safety of the mother of a high school soccer player had tragic consequences last week, with repercussions that became much more dire Monday when Stratford (Texas) High girls soccer coach Christopher Matthews, pictured below, died after being removed from life support.

"There is never a good explanation for things like this," University Interscholastic League executive director Charles Breithaupt told the Houston Chronicle. "You hate this for his family, the school, that community and those kids who look up to him every day. Our hearts go out to Stratford right now."

According to the Chronicle, the string of events that led to Matthews' death began last Friday, when Matthews, other coaches and teachers, and parents of his players were finishing a celebratory dinner in honor of the Spartans' latest victory. Toward the end of the meal, one of the parents on hand became concerned with threatening text messages that she began receiving from her husband.

Remember the Christian Laettner buzzer-beater in Duke's 1992 Elite Eight game against Kentucky? Of course you do. Well, check out this game-winning buzzer-beater from Washington state and try to tell us it doesn't have eerie similarities with that Duke wonder bucket. In fact, it might even be a bit more impressive, because the eventual victorious team only had one second to work with, as opposed to the 2.1 ticks Duke used on that Laettner classic.

The shot you see above was hit by Orting (Wash.) High's Isaac Lewis, who found a way to get it up over fierce defense from a Charles Wright (Wash.) High defender. The shot was from the right side of the court as opposed to dead-center -- where Laettner connected -- but was definitely from even farther than the Duke shot. Laetnner put his attempt up from around the foul line, while Lewis was a good 2-3 feet behind the 3-point line.

Playing the role of former Duke star Grant Hill, who sent in the

Childhood obesity is a serious national problem. With the waistlines of American children ballooning almost as fast as the subsidized health care bills to pay for the generation ahead of them, first lady Michelle Obama and others have attempted to rescue the country's commitment to youth physical education and healthy eating.

In suburban Boston, a marathoning champion decided to help a high school aide take matters into her own hands, and they found 50 students interested in accepting their challenge: Instead of sitting on the couch, train and run a marathon.

The champion in question is Bill Rogers, arguably the most famous American distance runner of all-time. Rogers, a 63-year-old who won both the Boston and New York Marathons an astounding four times each, responded to a call out from Newton (Mass.) South High special education aide Jamie Chaloff in 2008. Inspired by the same motivation that has driven Mrs. Obama, Chaloff founded the Dreamfar High School Marathon program, hoping to

It's a game unlike any other. Once a year, two Washington high schools organize a basketball game. Like any number of games in the apple state, the gym is packed, fans bring large, painted signs and cheerleaders celebrate baskets wildly.

The difference between this game and others is all in the athletes involved. Unlike traditional varsity games, all the participants in the annual Rogers (Wash.) High and Sumner (Wash.) High face-off is made up entirely of high school students who usually compete in the Special Olympics.

"They think this is the Super Bowl," Rogers basketball coach Tim Wood told Seattle's KING-5. "It's a great feeling for everyone involved tonight. We get to see these kids and the ultimate joy in sports."

The players do feel like it's the Super Bowl, in part because of everything that goes into the game. As you can see in the video above, there's absolutely no difference between the atmosphere in the Rogers-Sumner game and other huge varsity tilts.

The fans come and

The latest season of "American Idol" is still just getting going, but one of the early contestants to turn judges' heads has a decent fallback plan if he isn't performing in L.A. during the show's final rounds. It's called baseball season.

According to the News & Observer, Garner (N.C.) High pitcher Scott McCreery made a big impact in his initial audition, impressing judges with deep-toned, country-twanged renditions of "Your Man" and "Put Some Drive in Your Country."

Making the early going more auspicious for McCreery, the show shot video footage from around McCreery's hometown, including a handful of shots showing McCreery working out with Garner baseball coach Derek Goffena.

"I've been on national television before, when I played baseball at Georgia Tech and we were on ESPN," Goffena told the News & Observer. "I never thought I'd be on 'American Idol.'"

Yet McCreery's success in front of a microphone could hinder his development in pitching a baseball. The junior spent his first two

Looking for an incredible prep statistic? Try this on for size: CAPA (Penn.) High star Matt Powers has averaged 262.3 points per win in his high school career.

That's right, 262 points per win. The reason for that, of course, is that the Creative and Performing Arts team has won just four games in his four years. According to Ted Silary of the Philadelphia Daily News, CAPA has compiled a woeful overall record of just 4-59 in that span. Powers has scored 1,049 points across his four year career, all as a starter.

Perhaps more amazingly, that actually puts Powers' high school tenure right in line with CAPA's school mark. Silary reports that the school has just eight wins in its seven years. If Powers and his teammates sneak out another win this season, the senior will break the school's record for career victories for a player, as small a moral victory as that may be.

As it turns out, there's a very good reason why Powers has refused to move to a more competitive program, despite plenty

"Brazilian" throw-ins are a part of prep soccer in a variety of locales across the country. The long passes pop up on occasional highlight reels, provide an additional level of unpredictability -- a factor made possibly more confusing by the player's flip to gain momentum -- and occasionally even set the stage for goals. Never has one of those goals been more direct and impressive than the one in the following clip, which comes from a game in Florida last week.

According to Rich Weber, the coach of Mantanzas (Fla.) High's boys soccer team, the two players involved in the incredibly improbable goal you see above are Justin Watts, a senior co-captain, and his classmate and compatriot, senior co-captain T.J. Von Diezelski. In fact, the long pass -- it's hard to get a throw-in any longer than from a far sideline directly into the box -- was so accurate, it went directly from Watts to Von Diezelski, who connected