Now retired from the NFL, Ray Lewis apparently must now resort to providing pregame speeches for girls lacrosse teams. Only Lutherville-Timonium (Md.) St. Paul's School for Girls couldn't replicate the Baltimore Ravens' improbable march to a championship.

Ray Lewis provided an inspirational pregame speech for a Maryland prep girls lacrosse team -- Associated Press

The 13-time Pro Bowler's daughter Diamond attends St. Paul's, so Lewis sent a cell phone video to the girls lacrosse team before its private school state title showdown with three-time defending U.S. Lacrosse national champion Owings Mills (Md.) McDonogh School, owners of a 90-game winning streak entering the contest (h/t MaxPreps).

Here's a transcript of the speech courtesy of PressBoxOnline.com:

St. Paul Gators -- where you are now, you are supposed to be. Now it's up to you to complete the race. But you want to complete the race by looking each other in the eyes and ask yourself one question. What will I give up for the person that's beside me? What will I sacrifice?

What will I sacrifice? Not for a win or a loss, just for the opportunity to play and say we did it. Whatever your fate is, it's already done. That's why we're in the championship.

Go claim the glory -- the glory within your heart, the glory within your spirt. You'll do anything, anything to be with a teammate during this time. This is your time.

The motivational words nearly worked. The Gators led 8-4 with 15 minutes left, but McDonogh scored the final seven goals to secure another IAAM A Conference title and finish unbeaten this season, prolonging a 91-game winning streak that dates back to April 2009 and will remain the nation's longest for at least another year.

Oddly, former Ravens kicker Matt Stover's daughter Jenna helped lead the McDonogh comeback, according to PressBoxOnline.com. Stover and Lewis won a Super Bowl together in 2000. Lewis' daughter Diamond does not play lacrosse for St. Paul's.

"Speaking of the Ravens," St. Paul's coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland told the Maryland-area online publication, "Scott said before the game this is like John and Jim Harbaugh in the Super Bowl. We're like a big family."

The McDonogh girls lacrosse team has won a nation's best 91 consecutive games — Balitmore Sun via Facebook

In a way, he's right. In 2000, McDonogh coach Chris Robinson hired Kuhl-McClelland as an assistant while serving as head coach at Ellicott City (Md.) Mount Hebron High. Robinson's MHHS tenure culminated in a five-game winning streak before he handed the reigns over to Kuhl-McCllelland, who proceeded to win 98 consecutive games and establish the reported national record of 103 straight.

A typical high school baseball game features 21 outs, across seven innings. With the shorter length of game, as well as a general population of batters who lack the plate discipline of your garden variety MLB backup infielder, its more common for pitchers to last the entire game, particularly when all their pitches are working.

Jake Shortsleff, here at bat, struck out 20 batters among 21 outs in a complete game victory — Facebook

That being said, what Hannibal (N.Y.) High pitcher Jake Shortslef achieved on May 14 was still absolutely remarkable. Across a complete game, 3-1 victory against regional rival Jordan-Elbridge, Shortslef struck out 20 batters.

As one might expect, Shortslef’s 20-strikeout gem set a new Hannibal record for strikeouts in a game, tying a New York Section III record with two other pitchers. Those performances -- by West Genessee (N.Y.) High’s Kevin Krause in 1991 and Mexico (N.Y.) High ace Jeff Hains in 2006 -- are among the only other recorded performances where a pitcher has struck out nearly the entire slate against him. In his performance, Shortslef walked precisely zero batters. In a remarkable twist, Shortslef isn't even the most successful strikeout pitcher in his own family; his sister, Marlena Shortslef, once struck out 22 batters in a victory for the Hannibal softball team.

Yet Shortslef’s mastery of the Jordan-Elbridge lineup goes beyond the simple stats. As noted by the Syracuse Post-Standard, the game in question was played in downright winter conditions, with sleet and snowflakes coming down on the teams throughout the game.

That Shortslef could maintain his control so masterfully under those conditions is almost absurd. Then, consider that Shortslef wasn’t even feeling on top of his game, either.

Taryn Griffey decided to keep college all in the family, committing to Arizona — DPAthletics

Taryn Griffey is more than just Ken Griffey Jr.’s daughter; she’s also one of the best prep girls basketball prospects in the nation. In fact, Taryn Griffey is such a promising prep hoopster, she was recruited by many of the nation’s best programs even after missing her entire junior season following an ACL injury in October.

Most expected Griffey to accept a scholarship from one of those highly touted programs. Instead, she’s heading to a school where the team often fails to reach a .500 record, let alone the Final Four.

On Wednesday evening, Griffey committed to play her collegiate basketball at the University of Arizona, which finished the 2012-13 season with a record of 12-18, including a dire run of 13 losses in the team’s final 14 games.

That doesn’t sound like a program well suited for a top-50 recruit, but there are other compelling reasons for Griffey to wind up in the desert. Primary among them is her brother, Trey Griffey, who is a wide receiver on the Arizona football team.

“My family was pretty shocked. I hadn’t said anything because I didn’t really know what I was thinking,” Taryn Griffey told Central Florida News 13. “My brother is here and my dad and him were high fiving.

“My brother being out there had some influence on it, but I really like the coach and I really like the atmosphere out there.”

Given the fact that Griffey Jr. and his father famously had a family thing going in Seattle, the Arizona connection between Griffey Jr's two children is a touching one that both brother and father clearly relish.

While Trey Griffey and the Wildcats coaching staff may have had some impact on the younger Griffey’s decision, Taryn insisted that there was a larger motivation behind leaving Florida’s humidity for the dry heat of Arizona: The chance to forge a legacy. Griffey cited the recent examples of Baylor superstar Brittany Griner and Notre Dame guard Skylar Diggins as ideal models of what she hopes to achieve in Tuscon.

She certainly has the talent to do just that. Before sitting out her junior campaign, Griffey was named the Florida High School Athletic Association’s Class 8A player of the year, leading her Orlando (Fl.) Dr. Phillips High squad to a second straight state title.

There is an epidemic of teachers having sex with students coursing its way through Texas.

Cleburne (Texas) High girls soccer coach William Christopher Francis, 27, became the 33rd teacher arrested for sexual contact with a student this year, WFAA-TV reported.

"I hope it's not true, but I also know there are two sides to every story," a parent of a Cleburne High student told the news broadcast. "I also know it's happening a lot."

In fact, improper relationships between teachers and juvenile students happen in Texas more than any other state. Terry Abbott, chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Education under the Bush administration, cited 13 female and 19 male teachers -- as well as one undisclosed case -- facing felony charges for sexual conduct with students.

The majority of the teachers involved were between the ages of 30-40, and a third of them used either social media or texts with the student victims, WFAA-TV reported.

Francis resigned from his posts as an audio visual and animation teacher as well as head girls soccer coach. This was his first school year at Cleburne in both roles. A day later, Francis was arrested and now faces up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. He remained behind bars on $40,000 bond at the time of the WFAA-TV report.

Ever seen a vaulter’s pole snap in mid-attempt? Well, now you have.

As first dug up by MaxPreps, Honolulu (Hi.) Punahou star Quinn Cassidy was in the midst of an attempt at the Island Movers State Track and Field Championships when he ran the lane, planted his pole, got two-thirds up and … fell directly back down to earth.

As one can see, Cassidy’s pole inexplicably snapped just as he was nearing the bar. Naturally, that’s just about the single worst moment for a pole vaulter’s primary accessory to fail. That send Cassidy into a full flip, with the vaulter eventually landing on his back on the safety mat.

Amazingly, Cassidy came back to finish second in the pole vault with a top height of 14-foot-0. That was actually just as high as the eventual champion, Honolulu (Hi.) Roosevelt High’s Devin Furuta-Harada, but Furuta-Harada emerged victorious on a tiebreaker.

Given what he had just gone through, second place was a heck of an accomplishment in itself, particularly because of its contribution to Punahou’s larger goal; the school won the combined boys and girls title, with the Punahou boys finishing just 0.25 points shy of Honolulu (Hi.) Baldwin High for the boys title.

He set a new state record, and then, days later, he was informed he didn’t set the record after all. It’s understandable that Jabrill Peppers would be frustrated with New Jersey athletic officials.

Jabrill Peppers set a new state record, and then was told he didn't days later — Star-Ledger photo

As reported by the Newark Star-Ledger, Peppers blazed to a state record victory in the 200-meter sprint at the Big North United Division Championships, crossing the finish line at 20.79 seconds. That time was good enough to surpass the previous record of 20.93 dating back to 2001 by a good deal (in sprinting terms), which set the track and field and recruiting worlds alight.

If you want to see Peppers' speed in action on the track, you can see it right here.

After all, Peppers is a top football recruit for Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High first and a sprinter second, so any achievements he reaches on the track are often filtered through the lens of what they mean to his football career. In this case, they meant that he could be seen as an athletic speed merchant like NFL brethren in the backfield DeAngelo Hall and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, among others. That’s clearly what programs like LSU, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State are thinking as they beat down his door trying to recruit him to their campuses.

In fact, because of Peppers’ famed speed, there was no particular reason to doubt the authenticity of his time, which led to media reports far and wide about his latest achievement. Yet, as it turns out, there was reason to doubt his 20.79 speed, because he didn’t run a 20.79 at all; he ran a 21.37.

How could such a mistake happen? According to Lou Fraulo, who runs Fraulo Race Timing, the service which provided all official timing for the Big North United Championships, a shadow was cast in front of Peppers’ body on the image taken to certify the finish times, and that shadow made Peppers appear to be farther forward than he actually was.

You can look at any level of competition, but you will be hard-pressed to find a grab better than the one pulled down by Riverdale (N.Y.) Horace Mann School outfielder Eric Mass during a game against traditional rival Brooklyn (N.Y.) Poly Prep Country Day.

As you can see in the video above, with the game on the line -- Horace Mann was nursing a 3-2 lead with two outs in the bottom of the 7^th inning with runners in scoring position -- Mass was charged with chasing down a deep, deep fly ball.

In fact, the ball was hit so deep that it would have been a home run in almost any other park. However, at Poly Prep Country Day, the ball was still in play because the diamond’s outer fence in right field traipses behind the batting cages, giving Mass and other right fielders a few more feet to chase down deep balls if they can navigate the plentiful obstructions.

Mass did just that, though he almost took himself out on a batting cage and sent himself tumbling forward in the process.

The catch was a particularly important one for Mass and Horace Mann because of the rivalry it won. HM had fallen in 12 consecutive matchups with Poly Prep, and would have fallen for season number 13 if Mass hadn’t pulled in his miracle grab.

On Monday, a small town in Louisiana mourned one of its own on Monday after Farmerville (La.) High running back Jaleel Gipson was taken off life support following a freak accident suffered during Spring football practice. At the same time, across the country an Arizona’s community was also forced to remember another football star, though this one’s demise may have been more preventable.

As reported by the Arizona Republic, Surprise (Az.) Valley Vista High quarterback Andrew Arellanes, who was slated to start in fall 2013, was pronounced dead early Sunday morning after falling out of a pickup truck while playing a version of motorized cops and robbers colloquially known as “Fugutive.”