You'll often hear people complain about the state of professional and college sports, citing the Mike Vick's, Bill Belichick's and Barry Bonds' of the world. These individuals proclaim with vigor that the only pure athletic endeavors take place on the fields of local high schools.

Obviously, that's a load of bullshit:

- Nothing like a little recruiting scandal to get us going. The Sacramento Bee recently had a story about a coach in Stockton, California named Tom Verner, and his desperation to win. Seems he went all the way to the American Samoa islands (which are closer to Australia than the U.S.) to pay for players and their families to come to the U.S. and play football for him:

"Tom Verner face allegations of luring at least 10 players from American Samoa to block and tackle and win football games. (The governing body) has asserted Franklin coaches arranged airfare for the American Samoa teens and their parents, who were then put up in Stockton hotels just long enough to establish utility company accounts for houses they never intended to live in.

Once the accounts were set up, the section has asserted, those documents were used to register the students at Franklin. The parents then flew back to American Samoa, and their sons moved in with a Franklin assistant coach or a relative of the assistant, the section said."

Surely, he was just trying to help some kids out. Right? Anybody?

- In Tampa, a high school football coach named Rick Rodriguez is a big Bill Belichick fan. The local Fox station had this report:

"Largo High School is being punished for an incident where a photographer was caught videotaping the signals from the opposing team's bench.

The Florida High School Athletic Association is fining Largo $250 and issuing a public reprimand.

It comes after the brother of Largo Head Coach Rick Rodriguez was seen using a video camera to tape signals coming from the Countryside High School bench at a game earlier this year."

Of all the ways to cheat, isn't that the one he shouldn't have been doing at this particular moment in time?

- How about some performance-enhancing drug news? Apparently, rugby is awful big around the world. As big as football is in America, that's how Rugby is viewed in many other places, including South Africa. Also just like in America, people are cheating to gain an advantage. So goes the story in the South African newspaper the Daily Dispatch:

"Border schoolboy rugby has been hit by a doping scandal after one of its top players allegedly tested positive for a banned substance recently.

In what could become the biggest scandal to hit schoolboy rugby in the region, the 17-year-old Stirling High matric pupil allegedly tested positive during a random test taken at the U18 Craven Week held in Stellenbosch in July. The boy cannot be identified until he appears before a hearing.

So serious is the situation that the county’s rugby ruling body, the South African Rugby Union (Saru), will fly down a delegation to be part of the hearing and the Border Rugby Football Union will be represented by its general manager, Leon Botha.

If found guilty, the boy could be banned for life."

Banned for life ... think that'll send a message?

- Finally, in Austin, Texas, the local NBC affiliate tells us this - too many kiddies are getting boo-boos, so the football program is going bye-bye:

"(The students) are seeking support to build their football team back up after their principal e-mailed staff, announcing the varsity football season was canceled, because too many players were getting hurt."

After relenting a bit, the principal decided to go on a week-to-week basis with the games.