There isn't a full-proof blueprint for catching the eye of college coaches and earning a scholarship, but most high school athletes know that if you want to play at the next level, you need to excel in your particular sport.

Whether that's on the field for your high school or via the AAU circuit, getting noticed is the biggest thing. But every so often a student-athlete manages to obtain a college scholarship by going a completely different route -- like playing volleyball in a recreational league during your senior year.

As WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth's ABC affiliate, reported, Plano's Meredith Mounger didn't even play volleyball Plano East (Texas) High School during her junior and senior year, after she was cut from the team.

After playing for a club squad her junior year, she ended up leaving the team to play in a recreational league at the Plano Sports Authority. And yet somehow, some way, she managed to still end up with an opportunity to play volleyball in college at Texas Wesleyan University, a NAIA school.

"To have someone tell you at a young age no, or you're not good enough, and then for you to continue to pursue and be persistent and work at it says a lot about a person," Christy Clawson-Diver, Texas Wesleyan's volleyball coach, told WFAA.

Mounger's story isn't a first, but the fact that she ended up passing on even playing club volleyball her senior year and still ended up with a scholarship is pretty rare.

While Mounger's scholarship offer is a feel-good story, The Dallas Morning News' Health Blog noted that even though her perseverance paid off, there's still a concern about whether high school sports are discouraging kids who want to play and stay healthy.

The Mary Kline Classic, an annual event organized and hosted by new Rivals.com and Yahoo! partner The Recruit Scoop editor Alex Kline, has emerged as a legitimate magnet for top-tier talent from throughout the prep hoops ranks. In the 2012 iteration of the event, all the star power on display couldn't compete with the real star of the event: A 9-year-old who got to score the final four points of the game and was carried off the court in celebration immediately afterwards.

As noted by Hoop Dreams Magazine -- and seen in detail thanks to video from ScoutsFocus above -- 9-year-old Kyle Ratner was the shocking star of the 2012 Mary Kline Classic, a star-studded event designed to raise funds for cancer research in honor of Mary Kline, the mother of Alex Kline.

Ratner was deemed a guest of honor because he lost his father to cancer during the winter. While it had been a fait accompli that Ratner, in a LeBron James jersey-style T-shirt, would get to step onto the court, there was no protocol for how the teen superstars would react to him.

What they did was truly heartwarming and memorable for more than just Ratner himself.

9-year-old Kyle Ratner is carried off the court after the Mary Kline Classic — ScoutsFocus

As soon as the elementary schooler was on the court, the future NCAA stars surrounded him and set him up for a drive on the hoop. Fed the ball, Ratner came in and sunk a running shot. Then, with time ticking down, Ratner was given the ball again with just enough time to shoot before the final buzzer. Fittingly, he sunk the hoop and was then given a victory ride off the court on the broad shoulders of future famous friends he never knew he had.

A perfect ending for a cancer fundraiser that raised more than $20,000 for cancer research, all organized by a teen who lost his mother to cancer.

"Alex had asked Kyle to sit on the bench with the players for that night, and he couldn't have been happier. When he was asked to go in the game in the final minute, he tried telling me from across the gym, but I had no idea what he was trying to say. When I saw what he meant, I was overwhelmed," Ratner's mother, Nancy Ratner, told Prep Rally. "His love of the game is second to none, and he definitely was not intimidated by the size of those boys on the court! He went out there and was one of them.

"And that's how they treated him. Both teams. He scored on a jump shot and then ran down the court on defense. Running back up the court, the other team passed him the ball. Not worrying about the score or their own numbers, all that mattered to every young man on that court was Kyle during that minute."

Only 15 players in Major League Baseball history have ever turned an unassisted triple play (with one coming in the World Series, in 1920 by Cleveland Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss), where they have unilaterally been responsible for recording all three outs of a half inning by themselves on a single play.

Now those 15 baseball statistical icons have been joined by a 6-year-old. Really.

The video you see above -- which was brought to Prep Rally's attention by Deadspin and originally circulated on Reddit -- comes from a youth baseball game in Georgia, where the league's Dodgers and Braves teams in the first-grade division were facing off. With a Dodgers player at-bat, a pop-up floated directly to shortstop Ross Bernath, who nabbed it cleanly, raced back to touch third base and then chased down the advancing runner from second, all without enlisting the help of a single teammate.

And just think: He had to pull off those feats even quicker than they do in the bigs since he was playing on a diamond with basepaths significantly closer to each other.

Of course, those teammates hardly seemed to register what was going on. In fact, Bernath himself seemed to be confused about everything that was going on. For a guy who had just achieved a feat which is practically the unicorn or blue bear of baseball statistics, he had an awfully puzzled look on his face.

Missy Franklin has plenty on her plate. She's a high school junior, worrying about the daily concerns of a teenager, things like prom dresses and finals. She's also possibly the greatest American hope for glory in the London Olympic pools less than three months from now, assuming she reaches the heights that have been expected of her at the Olympic Trials on June 10.

How does Franklin keep all of that under control without breaking down completely? One word: Mom.

Now, on Franklin's 17th birthday Friday, and two days before Mother's Day, the teen has released a video -- seen first here on Prep Rally -- dedicated to her mother, D.A. Franklin, and her mother's own dedication to the teen's success. The video was filmed as part of the U.S. Olympic Committee's 'Raise Our Flag' campaign, in which anyone can donate $12 to purchase a stitch of a national Olympic flag of support which is designed to help support U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

In Franklin's case, she almost certainly wouldn't be a world class swimmer if it wasn't for her mother, and her mother's own struggles with the water.

"My mom actually started me swimming when I was very, very young because she's afraid of the water," Franklin said. "She wanted me to be comfortable in the water, wanted me to enjoy being in it, and ever since I was a baby, being in the water has been like my second home."

The importance Franklin's mother has had on her life should come as no surprise, given the lengths to which the Centennial (Colo.) Regis Jesuit School junior has had to go to compete at the highest level from such a young age. As perhaps the most important non-Missy member of "Team Franklin", D.A. Franklin is helping her daughter push away the media pressure and deal with her own expectations, which -- according to a terrific profile from the Denver Post -- focus on not letting down anyone around her.

High school junior and U.S. Olympic hopeful Missy Franklin — Getty Images

Like all leagues, the minor-league Western Hockey League has to look for ways to save cash in clever new ways. Still, some might question their most recent idea: They're having two teams locked in the league's signature playoff series share a plane when traveling between their two cities, which are a massive 962 miles apart.

One of the two fights between Portland and Edmonton before the team's shared a flight — Portland Oregonian

As reported by Prep Rally's brotherly Canadian Junior Hockey blog Buzzing the Net, the Portland Winterhawks and Edmonton Oil Kings are sharing a plane which has been chartered by the Western Hockey League when traveling between the two cities in different countries that comprise the sites for the WHL final.

While that might not seem like a bad idea during cool-headed times, it can lead to some second guessing when one considers that the two teams of teenagers and 20-somethings have already engaged in a series of NHL-quality fights during their series.

To whit, Portland's Brad Ross and Edmonton's Jordan Peddle fought and were ejected for game misconduct (for that fight) on Sunday, before the teams were scheduled to fly back to Edmonton after Tuesday's game. Portland defenseman Joe Morrow also fought Edmonton's Keegan Lowe in that game.

Even the coaches aren't happy with each other, with Edmonton's Derek Laxdal reportedly carping about an alleged cheap shot leveled against Edmonton star Mitch Moroz following Edmonton's key third goal in a 4-3 loss.

A former New York Yankees outfielder has been arrested on disturbing charges of sexually abusing an 8-year-old child in the town-issued van he drives as a youth baseball coach in a small, idyllic Long Island town.

As reported by NBC New York, the New York Post, CBS New York and other outlets, former MLB veteran Rosendo "Rusty" Torres was arrested on Tuesday and arraigned Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse. Torres, who played as an outfielder for the Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Royals and Angels across a nine-year career, is now 63 and lives in Massapequa, N.Y., though he has worked for a variety of youth baseball programs in nearby Oyster Bay.

It was in that capacity that Torres allegedly abused an 8-year-old girl inside a town-issued van, with law enforcement officials telling the press that Torres inappropriately touched the young girl on April 30 and Monday, after which the girl told her parents, who then alerted police.

Rusty Torres as a Yankee — Wikipedia

Torres was immediately suspended without pay from his position with the town of Oyster Bay, but those in the surrounding Long Island community were left stunned by the accusations against him.

"No way! Rusty arrested? What?" one of Torres' neighbors, Gus Galatatzis, told the New York Post. "I'm floored right now. He even coached my son. He's great. He knows everyone in the neighborhood and everyone knows him. He's such a well-known, well-liked guy. I'm speechless.

"Rusty is such a friendly, outgoing guy, I pray to God it's [the allegations] not true."

At 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, 17-year-old Seth Jones has the athleticism, size and skating speed to make NHL scouts drool. He's a smooth skating hockey phenom who recently led the U.S. U-18 national team's defense across the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, helping the squad earn a 2011 IIHF World U-18 Championships gold medal. In short, Jones is the guy who every coach in college and junior hockey wanted.

Top hockey prospect Seth Jones — Getty Images

Any of those reasons would be enough to engender plenty of extra attention for Jones, but the budding hockey prospect is used to it, for a rather surprising reason: He's the son of longtime NBA player Popeye Jones.

Now, the son of an NBA lifer -- the elder Jones is an assistant coach for the Nets now that his 11-year playing career is in the past -- is getting attention for turning his back on the more traditional American route of NCAA hockey to play for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, a respected franchise which is currently competing for the WHL title in the league's championship series. While others have made similar decisions in the past, few have had the pedigree and name recognition of Jones, who some have pointed to as the future face of an even more-integrated sport on skates.

It's not unusual for the progeny of great athletes to follow in the footsteps of their fathers (or mothers for that matter), but it is odd for a longtime basketball star to precede a hockey superstar in a family tree. For the younger Jones, who spent most of his formative years in Colorado before moving to Dallas with his father, hockey was a natural fit because of the success of the Colorado Avalanche while the Jones family was in Denver.

In fact, Seth Jones was so taken with the likes of Joe Sakic that he committed to take a full year of skating lessons before he ever started competing on a rink. As noted by USA Hockey magazine, that skilled skating foundation has set the stage for Jones' emergence as one of the top American hockey prospects in years.

Throughout all those years of development, Jones continued to get one question in each interview: What is it like to be a hockey player as the son of an NBA player?

"You know, it's typical," Jones told USA Hockey. "If I were a reporter, I'd probably ask the same thing. I don't get sick of it, but it definitely comes around a lot.

"It'd be awesome, however far I go in my career, to eventually be known as 'Seth Jones' and not 'Popeye's son.'"

The day when Jones is known simply for being a great hockey player may not be far away. In addition to Jones' skating skills, his size, vision and self-awareness of what he does well (and what he doesn't) puts him in a nearly one-on-one competition to be the top overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft with fellow junior hockey star Nathan MacKinnon.

An Arkansas mother has sued her son's high school for cutting her son from the school's varsity basketball team, claiming that he was deprived the right of a full education because he was not allowed to take part in school athletics.

The Mamuelle boys basketball team — iHigh

As reported by Arkansas Matters and USA Today, among other sources, Teresa Bloodman, the mother of a Maumelle (Ark.) High freshman, filed suit against the school, district and state after her son was replaced on the school's basketball team following a third set of tryouts for the team that re-incorporated members of the school's football team.

Bloodman's son, who is a minor and was not named in the suit, spent two months as part of the team after qualifying through two tryouts in August only to be replaced three months later by a member of the football team, as were nine of the team's 11 original players.

Mamuelle High School — EdLine.net

While those replacements might stoke claims of favoritism, the lawsuit filed by Bloodman goes much further, claiming that her son has a constitutional right to participate in school sports, as you can read in the excerpt from the suit directly below.

"…the deprivation of the right to a full and complete education which includes competition in sports and consequently athletic scholarships impairs John Doe of a property right guaranteed under both the U.S. and State Constitutions."

The suit further alleges that the sheer lack of an orderly appeals process for students who were cut is also a violation of due process.