The Illinois High School Association Class 2A Hampshire Regional title was supposed to be decided on Saturday. Instead, Hampshire (Ill.) High School was crowned some 48 hours later after a back-and-forth battle through regulation, a two-day weather delay that struck just before overtime and, finally, a double overtime. Now, because of the aforementioned delay, Hampshire High has to turn around and play a sectional title match less than 24 hours after the conclusion of the weather-extended game.

According to the Northwest Herald of McHenry County, Ill., the regional championship match between Hampshire and Marian Central had to be abandoned on Saturday because of lightning at the start of overtime. The teams played to a 2-2 tie in regulation, and while both schools were willing to wait out the storm on Saturday night, referees called for the delay after waiting for an hour with no weather improvement.

When the game was finally re-started, it took nearly two, full overtime periods for a

Days after officials in Washington openly disobeyed an edict from the Washington Officials Association not to use pink charity whistles, the leader of the WOA is now saying that no individual officials will be punished for using the whistles, an about-face on comments he offered last Thursday.

According to KING-5 and the Seattle Times, WOA commissioner Todd Stordahl now claims that he never intended to penalize individual referees, though he has not ruled out the possibility of some sort of sanction against the Pacific Northwest Football Officials Association, which organized the use of pink whistles in last week's football games.

"The WOA did not have nor continues to have any intention to fine, take away games or deny pay checks to any member due to wearing a pink whistle," Stordahl said in a message posted Monday on the WOA website. That message goes on to stipulate that any decision from the WOA commissioner himself is also subject to appeal by any member boards or associations, a

The video you see below comes from occurred last spring, but when it finally reached the web earlier this month it reminded us that it's never to early to get excited about spring soccer in 2011. The reason for the burst of unseasonable enthusiasm is a senior who will return as one of Georgia's leading scorers, and who just happened to score not one, but two goals off a kickoff in the course of a single month last year.

The player in question is Tucker (Ga.) High School's Andrew Chin, who racked up an amazing 31 goals during his junior season. He scored one of his most spectacular against longtime state power McIntosh (Ga.) High, the 2007 state champions, starting with the opening kickoff of the game. With McIntosh's goalie switched off, Chin ran up to the ball and, instead of tapping it over to a teammate, gave it a boot all the way at the goal ... and over the leaping, outstretched hand of the man in the Chiefs goal. It

Sarah Swalberg didn't set out to break any kind of gender barrier when she joined the Green River (Utah) High School baseball team as a freshman. She just wanted to keep playing baseball. Now, four years later, the starting infielder stands out for one reason, and it's not because she's the only person on the field wearing braids: She's just really good.

According to a story by the Deseret News' Amy Donaldson, Swalberg has started for all four years of her high school career with the Green River Pirates.

"Sometimes they think I'm the manager," Swalberg, who starts at second base for the Pirates, told the Deseret News. "They just overlook a girl. That kind of motivates me that they think a girl couldn't do it."

Not only can Swalberg do it, she can do it better than most players in the state. Sex has nothing to do with it, though it occasionally sets the stage for an opposing coach to bring in his fielders, making it easier for Swalberg to drive a pitch through the gaps.

In fact, it's

A former Texas high school football player pleaded guilty last month to charges he sexually assaulted a former cheerleader, who was kicked off her high school's squad before the player's trial because she refused to cheer for her assaulter.

The strange, twisted tail unfolded in Silsbee, Texas, and when cobbled together from a variety of sources -- including the Associated Press, Beaumont Enterprise and KFDM.com -- it portrays a sad series of events in which a teen was attacked and then lost the sport she loved.

The episode began in 2008, when an unidentified 16-year-old varsity cheerleader at Silsbee High School claimed she was raped at an off-campus party by three members of the Silsbee football team. The victim immediately called police after the incident and was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was administered a rape kit. Of the three men allegedly involved, then 17-year-old Rakheem Bolton and 18-year-old Christian Rountree were charged with second-degree felony sexual

As the season heads toward state playoffs across the nation, big district foes got last shots at heated faceoffs against hated rivals. And how did all those highlighted games from the Weekend Watch shake out? See for yourself below, then see how those results shook up the latest RivalsHigh 100.

• No. 52 West Jones (Miss.) 40, Wayne County 14: The annual rivalry between West Jones and Wayne County is one the most pitched battles in Mississippi, so it was a shock when ranked West Jones rolled up a 40-14 rout on Friday, despite the Mustangs' clearly superior talent. West Jones got out to a dominant start and never looked back, essentially limiting Wayne County to a pair of big plays in a one-sided statement win.

• No. 26 St. Edward (Ohio) 31, Moeller (Ohio) 7: It was enough for Cleveland-area St. Edward to make traditional Ohio power and Catholic brethren Archbishop Moeller travel all the way up from the southern edge of the state to be systematically dismantled, they also did it with

Nothing beats a nice, tropical Friday night under bright lights for high school football fans, right? Not if you're a high school football fan on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where all games now have to be played on Saturday because of a very surprising culprit: A tiny bird.

According to the Associated Press, all high school football games on the island of Kauai originally scheduled for Friday nights had to be moved to Saturday afternoons this year, following massive death totals for young Newell's shearwater seabirds, which allegedly confused stadium lights for the moon. That confusion would often lead the birds to become disoriented and fall from the sky, making them easy prey for Hawaiian domesticated cats on the ground.

"When they hit the ground, it's usually very hard for them to take off," Hawaii wildlife program manager Scott Fretz told the AP. "They need a breeze or they need a place to launch from. They're just sitting ducks for the cats that are all over the place."

The

Jordin Sparks is an "American Idol." Her father, Phillippi Sparks, started at cornerback for the NFL's Giants in the 1990s. Amazingly, it's possible that neither of them will go down as the most talented member of the Sparks family. That's because the younger Sparks' sibling, 17-year-old P.J., is in the middle of a breakout senior football season that could land him a spot at a Pac-10 school, and all the high-wattage hype that comes with being a West Coast collegiate running back.

To be fair, P.J. -- the letters stand for Phillippi Jr. -- has a long ways to go. Still, the senior back has led Mountain Ridge (Ariz.) High to an impressive 5-2 start entering its Oct. 22 homecoming game, largely based on his 97 yards-per-game rushing and 10 touchdowns. Of those 10, more than one have come on explosive breakaways from midfield, stats borne out by his 7.4 yards-per-rush average.

Those stats got better on Friday, with Sparks' 79-yard touchdown run in the second half helping Mountain Ridge