Just 10 days removed from losing the Western Conference semifinals, Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant was back in action, albeit in a rather surprising place. The superstar showed up at a Washington, D.C. area high school gymnasium to play pickup basketball, according to The Washington Post.

Kevin Durant played basketball with a bunch of D.C. area high school kids on Saturday -- Getty Images

The storied Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic High gym has played host to a number of impressive exhibition games in recent years, just usually not this early in the offseason and definitely not involving a three-time NBA scoring champion at a moment's notice.

While DeMatha coach Mike Jones, an assistant and several Stags -- including sophomore Jaelin Grant -- were using the gym on Saturday, Durant and a few friends arrived ready to play some ball, The Post reported. So, Jones locked the doors and the games began.

“I didn’t know he was coming, but for somebody like me, it’s nice to get to watch talent like that play in our gym,” Jones told the paper. "I just have to turn on the lights and roll out the ball. Of course, when a guy like Kevin comes, everyone is excited. They all played hard, talked some trash and it was a high-level pickup game.”

Despite averaging 30.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game during the NBA playoffs, Durant's season ended sooner than anticipated, as the Memphis Grizzlies ousted the Russell Westbrook-less Thunder from the conference semifinals in five games.

A D.C. native, Durant played his senior prep season at nearby Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.) School, capturing All-Met Player of the Year honors from The Washington Post in 2006. Still, the Stags always open their doors to DMV products.

"Even though they maybe didn’t go to DeMatha, after those guys from rival schools graduate, I don’t hate them as much," added Jones, "so I’ll let them come work out too."

The Moore tornado left 19 Southmoore football players homeless, but the team's booster club has helped — Reuters

The deadly EF-5 tornado that ripped through Oklahoma had a profound impact on the entire community. In an area where prep football is king, it should come as no surprise that the region has sprung into action to help support players for an area power rebuild to contend again in 2013.

As reported by The Oklahoman, 19 members of the powerful Moore (Okla.) Southmoore High football team lost their homes in the tornado that wrecked multiple schools and public facilities throughout the Moore area, just outside Oklahoma City.

The tornado struck the area just days before Southmoore was to play its annual Spring fundraiser intrasquad scrimmage, and while officials initially hoped to go ahead with the game, it was eventually called off due to unsafe road conditions and larger issues impacting many of the team’s players.

Needless to say, chief among those issues was the aforementioned SaberCats’ lack of a home.

Luckily, those players have a devout support network behind them in the form of the Southmoore booster club. Overnight, the school transformed its traditional football-focused website to load with a call for donations to help the team’s affected players rebuild. Within hours and days significant funds had been raised, and the program aims to begin parceling out aid immediately.

The Southmoore football program had 19 players lose homes in the EF-5 tornado that struck Moore — GoSaberCats.com

Of all the ways to announce one’s pledge to a college football program, rapping about one’s future is a rather creative one.

Meet Jabrill Peppers. If you haven’t heard of the Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High superstar yet, you probably will when he wears a maize and blue uniform beginning in 2014, assuming he remains loyal to the decision he announced on Sunday.

As noted by the Detroit Free Press, Peppers -- who is among a growing legion of top prep prospects who engage in a side passion of rapping -- announced his commitment to Michigan on Sunday during an interview with ESPN. More notable than the commitment itself (a handful of pundits had already said they expected Peppers, a lifelong Wolverines fan, to pick Michigan) was the way he made the announcement. He rapped about it.

“You see it started as a dream. My Dad planted the seed. Though when I started to sprout he couldn’t be better see. Still I remained focused and transcended the rest all the way through my journey how can you not be impressed. And yes, for those who wait the Lord brings blessings. I had this dream since I was seven, now I’m dream telling. I can see it now. The fans screaming, yelling as I’m walking through that tunnel, wearing a winged helmet.

“Go Blue, baby. I’m going to Michigan.”

Jabrill Peppers picked Michigan for his football future with a televised rap — Rivals.com

Wearing a winged helmet = Michigan. That’s pretty smooth.

There is little question that Ervin Mears Jr. wants the best for his son. The issue is that he also thinks that the track team at his son’s school failed to provide those conditions, a violation that he deems to be worth approximately $40 million.

Ervin Mears Jr. and Mawsumensah Mears, who are suing for $40 million — Philadelphia Inquirer

As first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mears Jr. filed a federal lawsuit against a slew of parties -- a track coach, principal, superintendent and school board among them -- after his son, Mawusimensah Mears, was kicked off the Camden County (N.J.) Sterling Regional High varsity track team. The elder Mears claims that his son was bullied and harassed during his time on the Sterling Regional squad, then was kicked off the team. The Mears family seeks $40 million in compensatory damages for the persecution they allege befell Mawusimensah during his freshman season with Sterling Regional.

The official reason for Mawusimensah Mears’ dismissal was unexcused absences from practice, though his father said that both a family death and leg injury provided ample justification for his son’s missed practices.

Yet, at the root of the elder Mears’ lawsuit is a controversial claim that his son has a right to participate in extracurricular activities, turning the long held adage that sports, music and the like are privileges on its head.

Critics have been quick to accuse Ervin Mears of interfering in his son’s education, an accusation he both accepts and embraces.

"Interfering?" Mears asked, his voice rising in response to a question about whether filing a lawsuit was interfering with the school's prerogatives. "That's my son. I better interfere. I better make sure he gets every opportunity."

Mawsumensah Mears practices the hurdles — Philadelphia Inquirer

In the Mears family’s interpretation, “every opportunity” is taken quite literally. The bulk of the harassment that the family cites in its lawsuit is in the form of the Sterling Regional coach’s refusal to run Mawusimensah in varsity races … while he was still a freshman. Ervin Mears insisted that his son was persecuted against because the coach decided to run seniors in those races instead of Mawusimensah, even though the younger Mears was often the faster competitor.

Mawusimensah himself said that failing to line up at the start line often left him feeling “disrespected,” though at least one former track coach in the region equivocated over blame in the incident.

A California high school softball team had its postseason dreams ended prematurely for a reason that was at once both incredibly unique and utterly banal: They dared to take batting practice on the day of a playoff game.

The Shadow Hills softball team, which was eliminated from the state playoffs for taking batting practice — Facebook

As reported by the Desert Sun, Indio (Calif.) Shadow Hills High had its softball team eliminated from the California Interscholastic Federation Division VI playoffs after it was revealed that the team had participated in batting practice before a matchup against San Pedro (Calif.) Mary Star of the Sea. The Shadow Hills girls had reportedly decided to kill time before their game by having multiple players line up and take five swings against soft toss pitching. That, evidently, was deemed to be legitimate batting practice, which eliminated the team due to a violation of CIF Southern Section Bylaw 2521.2.

The violation nullified a hard-fought, 1-0, 9-inning victory for Shadow Hills against Mary Star of the Sea.

“There were four different fields there and we were right across from the main one,” sophomore pitcher Caitlyn Whiteside told the Desert Sun. “We were hitting soft toss, having three girls at a time go up and swing five times. Some were out in the field catching. We were just killing time.”

If you’re wondering, the full text of Bylaw 2521.2 can be found on the Desert Sun article about the incident right here. The most salient part of the ruling is the following paragraph:

Teams entered in the softball playoffs WILL NOT be permitted to take batting practice on the day of the scheduled contest. Batting practice will be construed as any type of pitching motion with any type of ball from in front of the batter (including pitching machines, underhand tossing, overhand throwing or pepper). The only acceptable batting warmup will be soft side toss.

Shadow Hills athletic director Ron Shipley told the Desert Sun that parents from Mary Star of the Sea filed a complaint with the CIF about the “batting practice” session, and the CIF ruled that Shadow Hills had indeed committed a violation. That violation in turn made the Knights ineligible to continue on to the CIF quarterfinals, a round which would have marked the team’s deepest run into the state playoffs in school history.

While there was no questioning that the CIF regulation was well established in the state’s rule book, Shipley sounded a note of disappointment that no one had warned the Knights that they might have been violating the regulation. Instead, the parents allegedly quietly captured video and submitted that to CIF officials after their school lost, with CIF ruling in Mary Star of the Sea’s favor after some Shadow Hills players were getting ready for the school’s graduation the following night.

Tragedy struck North Carolina just before the Memorial Day holiday weekend when a state champion high school quarterback was discovered drowned just off the coastline.

Southwest Onslow quarterback Shak Pershey was found drowned just days before he was set to graduate — Facebook

As reported by North Carolina CBS affiliate WNCT and the Jacksonville Daily News, Jacksonville (N.C.) Southwest Onslow High senior quarterback Shak Pershey was found around 2 a.m. Friday morning after he had disappeared while swimming the prior evening. Pershey reportedly ventured into the water at North Topsail Beach with a group of friends around 7 p.m. and disappeared.

While police and emergency responders launched a rapid response search, they were unsuccessful and suspended the efforts due to rough water after just two hours. A number of hours later Pershey’s body was discovered when the crew began scouring the area again.

The teen’s tragic death came less than two weeks before he would have graduated from Southwest Onslow High as one of his class’ most celebrated figures. During his senior season, Pershey led Southwest Onslow to a North Carolina High School Activities Association Class 1-AA football crown, a campaign that was capped by a 44-34 victory against Swain County (N.C.) High in December.

En route to that title, Pershey was nearly unstoppable under center. As noted by the Daily News, the senior passed for 1,149 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 929 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was a three-way starter, and he intercepted five passes and recorded 73 tackles as a defensive back and returned three kicks for a touchdown.

While it is impossible for a school or small, tight community like Jacksonville to fully prepare for a tragedy of these proportions, Southwest High principal Tim Foster told reporters at the North Topsail scene early Friday that the school had a crisis plan in place and would have a number of grief counselors on site Friday for students who needed help.

As Memorial Day arrives and Fourth of July nears, let this be a reminder to everyone: Playing with fireworks isn't as bright an idea as the pyrotechnics they produce.

An accident involving a Roman candle last July 4 cost Homewood-Flossmoor (Ill.) High junior right-handed pitcher Jameson Lamb the use of his right eye, as detailed in a tremendous feature by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Pat Disaboto.

Illinois prep junior pitcher Jameson Lamb lost sight in his right eye in a fireworks accident -- Chicago Sun-Times

After H-F coach Todd Sippel specifically warned his players "not to be stupid" following a summer league game on July 3, 2012, the next day Lamb and his friends gathered near his family's cottage in Michigan to set off some fireworks, the Sun-Times detailed.

Just teenagers being teenagers, right? Well, here's the problem: The kids decided to hold the Roman candles in their hands, and when one of them thought the series of bursts had finished, he lowered the tube and fired one last shot into Lamb's eye.

Missy Franklin is about as close to a sure thing as there is in swimming these days. After taking the Olympics by storm, Franklin returned to the high school pool and dominated Colorado competition to lead Aurora (Colo.) Regis Jesuit School to a state title. Along the way, Franklin committed to swim at the University of California and rolled through just about every national competitor she lined up against … except for a future teammate.

Celina Li is just 5-foot-3, but could become Missy Franklin's toughest collegiate foe and teammate — Associated Press

In one of the quirks of top level swimming, Missy Franklin has now proven that she can beat just about anyone in the world at most strokes, but she couldn’t beat future Cal teammate Celina Li, a fellow high school senior from Pleasanton (Calif.) Foothill High, when the two competed in the 200-meter individual medley at the AT&T Winter National Championships. Li finished that race with a time of 1:55.28 with Franklin hitting the wall at 1:55.88.

As noted in a terrific profile of Li from MaxPreps, the Foothill senior is a far cry from a physically imposing figure like Franklin, but still manages to fly through the pool. Li stands just 5-foot-3, a height which assuredly puts her at a significant setback when competing against the likes of Franklin and other international stars. Yet what Li lacks in physical presence she makes up for in her technical talent, with her club coach claiming that the teen has “impeccable strokes.”

Li has never let her height affect her enthusiasm for the pool, either. She trained in both swimming and gymnastics growing up, but decided that swimming was a safer sport once she began to reach the more advanced levels of gymnastics.

"You don't see a whole lot of shorties like me," Li told MaxPreps. "I like being short though. … I don't think height matters as much as how determined you are and how much heart you put into it."

That attitude likely resonated with Franklin, with the pair reportedly bumping into each other during the recruiting process and getting along quite well (Li said of Franklin, “she really is the nicest person.”).

Between the two incoming freshmen, Cal could have quite a Class of 2017, with both swimmers likely to earn berths to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, provided that they stick with the sport between now and then.