High school sports all the time

Here's a fun little sports story worth passing on:

John Bolton, a high school football player in Wayzata, Minn., scored a game-winning touchdown without getting close to the goal line.

After running 25 yards, Bolton was tackled at midfield by a Hopkins, Minn., player who came off the bench. The officials awarded Bolton a 75-yard touchdown on the play, which gave Wayzata the lead.

Or how about these numbers:

Naples (Fla.) scored 63 unanswered points in the first quarter of a football game and went on to an 85-0 rout of crosstown rival Naples Lely.

And then there's offensive lineman Jeffrey Allen, who has a 5 o'clock shadow by the time Friday night football rolls around. The 6- foot-5, 330-pound college prospect started shaving at age 11.

If you enjoy prep tales like these, which rarely make it in the newspaper's high school roundup, you'll want to check out Sheldon Shealer's Wacky and Weird column at studentsports.com. The five- year-old Web site is an offspring of the Student Sports, a quality magazine which has been around since 1984. The staffers - many of whom contribute to both the site and the magazine - cover 32 prep sports and do a great job in posting news stories, player updates, features, recruiting information and their popular national rankings.

While USA Today only ranks the high-profile sports teams, studentsports.com also acknowledges other sports such as volleyball. (Assumption of Louisville, Ky., is No. 1 with a 40-0 record.)

Wacky and Weird is one of the sites newest features that was launched on Sept. 19. Shealer, the East region editor based in Frederick, Md., relies on regional editors and correspondents to supply him with stories such as the lead item of this week's column:

A Greeley Colo., football coach accused his counterpart from Loveland, Colo., of greasing his team's jerseys. Officials made some players change jerseys at halftime.

"My offensive linemen's hands were like grease," the coach from Greeley Central claimed. "We've all tried to catch a greased pig, and it's hard."

Now that's some slick reporting from a well-oiled Web site.

Zagchatter

Spokane's Bob Shill, publisher of zagshoops.com, reports the message board on his five-month-old site has been buzzing with the start of the Gonzaga basketball season days away.

Zagshoops, which joined theinsiders.com family, also will feature a game-by-game diary by a Kennel Club member this season. Fans also will be able to link to the radio broadcasts of every game on Yahoo! sports or at GU's official fansonly.com site for live broadcast feeds.

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