On the one hand, there's the Olympics. On the other, Harvard.

Sage Palmedo is undoubtedly the nation's best teenage sabre fencing female -- The Oregonian

Each has its own merits for Oregon's Sage Palmedo, the nation's top fencing teen. It's a decision other 17-year-olds wouldn't mind facing, but a difficult one nonetheless.

"People go like, 'Rough life,'" Sage's mother, Kelly Palmedo, told The Oregonian in a fantastic feature detailing the conundrum the sabre star mulls in the coming months. "You have to choose between the Olympics and Harvard. It's really difficult, right?"

On July 1, collegiate coaches can begin contacting Palmedo, who enrolled in Stanford University Online High School as a prep freshman in 2010. A couple months later, Ivy League schools stop accepting early admission applications -- around the same time fencing guru Ed Korfanty needs a full-time commitment for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

It's no wonder Korfanty is wielding a figurative épée of his own, fending off the country's top college coaches, since Palmedo has been the nation's top-ranked sabre fencing female in her age group for eight years running, according to The Oregonian.

Korfanty has Palmedo's ear. The Polish native has been mentoring her since the first grade at Portland's Oregon Fencing Alliance. In practice, he's seen Palmedo defeat another protégé, two-time Olympic gold medalist Mariel Zagunis, and also watched her beat current NCAA champion Eliza Stone at a World Cup competition this year.

"I'm always supporting academics," Korfanty plainly told The Oregonian as Palmedo listened a few feet away. "But if I see potential, I want to use this potential."

Generally, when concern about teen sports head trauma is discussed, critics focus on both the need for more proactive medical attention and improved sporting goods. Generally, the enumerated sporting goods advances called for focus squarely on helmets and padding, fairly obvious targets given their role in player-on-player contact in football in particular.

Now, one new biometric company feels it may have an answer that will help make it much more clear when a player has suffered a case of head trauma, and it doesn’t involve a new helmet or more or better padding. Rather, it focuses on the technology involved in the oldest and most common part of a player’s gear: Their mouthpiece.

As reported by The Times Record, the Middletown (N.Y.) High football team is currently testing new impact-sensing mouthguards produced by a company called i1 Biometrics. The mouthpieces were given to all the Middies players during early summer practices so that the teens could provide data for the company to analyze in its beta testing phase of the cutting edge devices.

If mouthpieces weren’t the first piece of sporting equipment you would pick to be primed for major technological advancement, you’re not alone. Still, early results have shown that the i1 mouthguards provide valuable information on the strength of head movement in all impacts during a game. The mouthpieces contain both an accelerometer and a gyroscope, which essentially records how much a player’s head twists during a hit.

The results the i1 mouthpiece records are then transmitted instantly via wireless receivers to a laptop on the sideline, allowing athletic trainers and coaches to immediately monitor how significant an impact a player has absorbed, both play-after-play and cumulatively across the course of a game.

While the full influence of rotational acceleration (the speed with which a player’s head twists) on concussions is not yet known, it’s generally accepted to be a major contributing factor to head trauma.

Naturally, the more data i1 and others collect on rotational acceleration, the easier it should become to piece out exactly what the force means.

The Middletown football team is among the first to test the i1 mouthguard — Flickr

Make no mistake: This real-time monitoring is a big deal. By providing instant data, biometric mouthguards could essentially hold athletic trainers and coaches accountable for ensuring that their athletes not return following an in-game concussion, a major factor in helping them avoid devastating head injuries beyond an initial concussion. Furthermore, by providing cumulative data on how much rotational acceleration a player has absorbed over the course of a game, the high tech devices could also help determine when to keep a player off the field to help limit his or her exposure to a concussion in the first place.

What happens when a group of the world’s most athletic 16-year-old basketball players have time to kill after a practice? Evidently they launch into a spontaneous dunk contest that could rival the best impromptu slam-offs of all-time, if not the best officially sanctioned ones.

The players you see throwing down the completely ridiculous, almost ludicrous slams you see above are Seventh Woods, Malik Monk, Ivan Rabb and Terrance Ferguson. All four are members of the U.S. national team’s U-16 squad, which means that they are 16-years-old or younger.

Keep in mind, these guys had just completed a competitive practice, and they still had the energy and athleticism to do this. Wow.

Let’s not beat around the bush here. These guys could compete in a collegiate dunk contest tomorrow. Heck, they could probably compete in the NBA dunk contest and improve it tomorrow.

In fact, if one were trying to judge the impromptu contest that the four combined for after their national team practice, it would be incredibly hard to pick a winner.

On the final day of the MLB First-Year Player Draft, the sons of three of the most famous former Houston Astros were all picked. The trio’s selection was met with applause and excitement, of the literal and virtual kind.

Josh Pettitte, son of Yankees star Andy, was picked by the Bronx Bombers — Twitter

Yet all three draft picks were little more than symbolic gestures, with all three players since declaring that they would still be attending college. In essence, they were draft-for-publicity swaps, with three sons of future Hall of Famers taking the place of other players who might have considered an MLB future if they had been picked instead of the more famous players who were.

As noted by Prep Rally's brotherly blog Big League Stew and the Ultimate Astros blog from the Houston Chronicle, the sons of Astros legends Craig Biggio, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were all selected on the final day of the MLB Draft. They were drafted, in order of selection, by the Philadelphia Phillies (Cavan Biggio, in the 29^th round), Houston Astros (Kacy Clemens, 35^th) and New York Yankees (Josh Pettitte, 37^th). Within hours of each player’s selection, all had affirmed via their parents or their own Twitter accounts that they were headed to college.

Here was Roger Clemens’ account of his son Kacy’s future:

“It was great to hear his name called and always an honor to be selected,” said Roger Clemens, who picked the final two letters of Kacy’s name as a nod to the Cy Young Award. “His sights will be set on the ‘The University’ to get his education and get the Horns back to Omaha!”

And this is Craig Biggio on young Cavan, who has signed to play at Notre Dame alongside his older brother, Connor:

“[Cavan] is going to school,” Craig said Saturday. “He had some options on the first day [of the draft]. He is excited about college.”

And, last but not least, Josh Pettitte himself on his own next step. In this case, “BU” refers to the Baylor Bears:

I'm ready to get to BU with my Boys. Next chapter in my life. I love out in less than a month

As it turns out, the Astros alums were not the only sons of famous Texans to be selected in the draft. Torii Hunter’s son, Torii Hunter Jr., was also picked, snapped up in the 36^th round by his father’s current team, the Detroit Tigers. After starring for Prosper (Texas) High, the younger Torii is about as certain to pass on the late round MLB dollars as Josh Pettitte and friends because of his own collegiate future; he has signed to play football at Notre Dame, though he will have to continue recovery from a nasty mid-winter injury to do so as a freshman.

Of the Texas trio -- or quartet, if you include Hunter Jr. -- the largest media buzz was created by the younger Pettitte, whose selected by the Yankees coincided with the 250^th victory of his father’s career. The connection was not lost on the media or Yankees players, with the likes of Mark Teixiera and Phil Hughes quick to point out the Pettitte family’s dual achievements on Twitter.

Albeit with a heavy tailwind at his back, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Gibbs High senior Trayvon Bromell became the first prep runner to eclipse 10 seconds in the 100-meter dash.

Trayvon Brommell became the first American prep runner to break 10 seconds in the 100 — Bay 9 News screengrab

The Baylor-bound sprinter won the event at the Great Southwest Classic with a time of 9.99 seconds on the University of New Mexico track. While remarkably impressive, his effort does not qualify as the national record due to a tailwind of 4.0 meters per second.

You can see video of the remarkable dash below, courtesy of ProView Networks.

That honor still belongs to former Groveland (Fla.) South Lake High star Jeff Demps, whose time of 10.01 seconds at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials still ranks as the U.S. No. 1 prep time in history. Demps, who ran the first leg of the silver medal-winning 4x100-meter relay squad at the 2012 London Olympics this past summer, was traded from the New England Patriots to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 2013 NFL Draft.

Still, Bromell's 100-meter dash time at Great Southwest is the fastest time among high school track and field athletes ever recorded using the fully automatic timing system.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Bromell told the Tampa Bay Times. “I got off to a good start, but I thought I ran maybe a 10.1 or a 10.2. The crowd was quiet through the whole race. But once the time showed on the scoreboard, it got so loud, like I was at a concert. ...

“After the 100 race, I had so many people coming up to me asking for my autograph and taking pictures with me. Even Sunday, I still had people congratulating me and wanting to take my picture in the hotel room. I don’t think that was something I was prepared for, to have that much publicity over recording a time like that.”

And it's not like Bromell is your run-of-the-mill runner when he doesn't have a heavy tailwind. He owns the nation's top qualifying performance this season (wind less than 2.0 meters per second), covering 100 meters in 10.27 seconds in mid-May.

Bromell also anchored the winning 4x100-meter relay squad that finished in 40.11 seconds at the Great Southwest Classic. He combined with Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips High senior Reggie Glover as well as Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage High teammates Jerimy Strainge and Walter Tucker to clock the nation's fastest time in 2013.

A senior citizen near a prestigious high school in Nashville has filed one of the more extraordinary lawsuits of recent times, claiming that she was knocked unconscious by a soccer ball that errantly flew off an elevated field on top of the school and hit her in the head.

The Montgomery Bell parking garage and soccer facility — AMSYSCO

As reported by the Tennessean, 73-year-old Josephine Bainbridge, who lives near the Nashville (Tenn.) Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), has filed a lawsuit against the well respected private all-boys high school claiming that her life has been irretrievably damaged by an injury she suffered while walking around the side of the school.

According to Bainbridge, she was walking around the perimeter of the school in June 2012 when a soccer ball flew from above and struck her on the left side of the head, knocking her down to the street and rendering her unconscious. Bainbridge’s attorney, Scott Derrick, claims his plaintiff is no longer the active, engaging person she was before being struck by the soccer ball, as the incident allegedly has had long-lasting physical and mental effects on the senior citizen.

Most salient in terms of Bainbridge’s legal claims, Derrick writes in filing the suit that MBA was unnecessarily reckless in its planning and construction of the soccer facility --which sits atop a three-story parking garage -- because it failed to provide ample netting or other safety features which would keep passers by from coming in contact with balls used in games.

The annual MBA alumni soccer game on top of the school's parking lot — MontgomeryBell.edu

“There was no netting along the sides of the field to keep a kicked soccer ball from leaving the field,” he writes in the suit.

Officials from MBA were not immediately available for comment.

MBA “knew of the unsafe condition caused by its use of the rooftop soccer field and the way in which it was designed and used,” the lawsuit says. “The risk to others caused by a kicked soccer ball coming off the rooftop soccer field is clearly forseeable.”

What’s better than one over-the-fence, home run-stealing catch in a playoff game? How about two over-the-fence, home run-robbing catches by the same player?

That’s precisely what happened in Minnesota, where a freshman softball outfielder stole two game-winning home runs from her opponent and scored her team’s state title-winning run to boot.

As reported by the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Twin Cities CBS affiliate WCCO, Elk River (Minn.) High freshman outfielder Jayme Langbehn pulled in not one but two otherworldly catches during the state’s Class 3A state title game, helping her squad to a 4-3 victory and their second state title in four years.

The first over-the-fence grab came in the bottom of the sixth inning, with the game tied 3-3. A Prior Lake (Minn.) High batter stroked a pitch from Elk River ace Anna Pipenhagen deep to center. With the ball heading over the fence, Langbehn refused to give up, instead extending her arm over the fence … and then falling over the fence herself. Langbehn’s right foot dangled over the temporary soft fence throughout her tumble, keeping her within the dimensions of the field until after the out was safely recorded and the go-ahead home run was instead officially ruled a very long out (that may be the difference between Langbehn’s grab and the one pulled in a week earlier by East Setauket (N.Y.) Ward Melville High outfielder Greg Coman).

“I’m like, ‘Yeah…Jayme, somehow jump over the fence, catch that’ – and she did, and I just can’t believe it,” Pipenhagen told WCCO.

The game remained tied through the following inning, sending the title game into extra frames. That’s where Langbehn came through on offense, scoring the Elks’ go-ahead run in the top of the eighth inning when teammate Courtney Jensen delivered a crisply hit RBI single. Langbehn rushed home from second and beat a dagger of a throw to the plate with an aggressive slide, giving her team a lead that would stick.

That run and the earlier catch qualify as plenty heroic enough for most players, but Langbehn instead had one final act. Her coup de grace came in the final half of an inning, when a different Prior Lake batter tried to extend the game again by drilling yet another shot to deep center field. Langbehn again found a way to bring in an athletic, over-the-fence grab to seal the victory, sending the teen and her teammates into celebratory hysterics as a result.

Jayme Langbehn, second from left, celebrates Elk River's state title — St. Paul Pioneer Press

The softball snowconed in Langbehn’s glove on her final grab, as if to prolong the drama delivered by the freshman in her final game of the season. Fittingly, she had just enough magic to hold on for herself and her team.

While Langbehn deserves all the credit for her miraculous catches, her coach may have set her up for success better than most could have. Elk River coach Stacey Sheetz told WCCO that her team had practiced how to handle soft fences during the week anticipating that just such a play could have popped up in the title game.

The 2013 Maine South Eyrie briefly featured an athlete exposing himself — Chicago Sun-TimesOh, those pesky prep pranksters. Sometimes they’re pulling stunts out of Animal House, sometimes they’re lazily pulling the old “snap my shorts!” trick, slipping their genitals out for all to see in perpetuity."

Now, a 16-year-old who pulled just such a stunt during his team’s annual yearbook photo is facing charges after his school was forced to pull back all of its initial copies of the yearbook before distribution. The stunt has reportedly cost the school as much as $1,400.

The stunt took place at Park Ridge (Ill.) Maine South High, and featured a sophomore on an unidentified varsity sports team. The player in question intentionally pulled his genitalia out and left it in front of his shorts during the team’s photo, an act which has now landed him in juvenile court on a charge of disorderly conduct.

“[The exposition] does appear intentional,” Park Ridge Police Deputy Chief Lou Jogmen told the Chicago Tribune.

According to the Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and CBS Chicago, the school spent the aforementioned $1,400 outlay removing and replacing the explicit photo from all 2,000-odd copies of the annual Eyrie, the school’s official yearbook.