It’s not often that families attend a high school graduation and are immediately presented with a perplexing riddle like the following: How can the nation’s best collegiate golfer be walking across the stage at a high school commencement?

Annie Park won the individual and team national titles as a freshman — AP

That was the bizarre scene in Long Island on Saturday, where Levittown (N.Y.) MacArthur High graduate and current NCAA women’s golf individual and team national champion Annie Park officially graduated with her former classmates. As one might expect, the attendance of a high profile USC golf star at a high school commencement inspired eligibility questions.

Luckily for Park and Trojans fans everywhere, the teenager didn’t violate any rules to compete for USC before she was eligible to do so. Instead, she finished her high school coursework and graduated from MacArthur early, in December, but couldn’t walk in a traditional commencement ceremony because the school didn’t host one then.

Instead, Park agreed to wait until the school-wide commencement in June and rejoin her classmates. Little did she know that she would do so as a dual national champion.

“The result was very unexpected for myself,” Park told USC sports information website USCTrojans.com immediately after her individual title. “I was just trying to play my best each round and each shot. It turned out to be good and feels great.”

That all became a reality in May, when Park and her teammates rolled to USC’s third consecutive national title, setting a team score record in the process; USC’s final combined score of 1,133 was 15 shots better than the standing record set by UCLA in 2004.

As for Park, her high school commencement was just the latest chapter in a whirlwind semester which could give way to an even more high profile professional future sooner rather than later.

An All-State swimmer and salutatorian from Belton (Texas) High who came out to his family, friends and classmates during his graduation speech last week is being lauded as "the strongest high school kid in the country."

Mitch Anderson had never told anyone in his life he was gay until breaking the news to hundreds of fellow students and their families -- including his own parents -- at a packed Bell County Expo auditorium, he told reporters afterwards.

"Once I got up there and started talking, I felt completely fine," Anderson explained to KTEM News Radio. "I've received so much support and kindness. Knowing that (people) found the speech inspirational has been really amazing."

The University of Texas-bound senior teamed with Austin Couillard, Ben York and Joey Martin to capture All-State honors in the 400-meter freestyle relay this past winter. The foursome set a school record with a second-place time of 3:12.71 in the Class 5A regional finals in February, earning Belton High's first ever All-State swimming recognition.

Of course, Anderson's reported 112.2 GPA and perfect PSAT score as a junior easily earned him Academic All-American honors in the sport as well.

"I started swimming in the second grade," Anderson told The Belton Journal last year. "It's always been a big part of my life and what I do."

However, the teenager's lasting impact on the Belton community will forever be tied to his graduation speech, which can be read in its entirety here. Anderson submitted a different version without the bombshell for administration approval, the reports said.

All-State swimmer Mitch Anderson came out during his graduation speech -- Facebook

I myself am guilty of self-doubt, relying on others to give my life definition. But that time has passed, and I feel the moment has arrived for me to be publically true to my personal identity. So now, I can say, I’m gay. It is both a significant portion of who I am and an inconsequential aspect. It’s as natural and effortless to me as breathing. I couldn’t change myself even if I wanted, and believe me, I have.

I have been bullied a lot. I’ve been called unspeakable things and relegated to a place of lower class. I have been made to feel worthless, unneeded, a blight on the world. People have mocked me, said that I was virtually subhuman. So, for a while, I was in a very dark place. I had no concept of self-worth, and frequently pondered suicide. I became so dejected, that many times I thought of killing myself not just because I saw no point to life, but because I had been convinced that doing so would actually make the world better. And so, for many years, I continued the cyclical, destructive thought patterns. This happened both before and after I thought about my sexuality. And after I had realized I was gay, I hated myself. I wished and prayed endlessly that I could just go on with life normally, that I could be like everyone else. Being different felt like a curse, an unfair sentence to the life of an outcast.

There were moments when I believed I was next to nothing. But I learned that what others think of you is not nearly as meaningful as what you think of yourself. You cannot owe the quality of your existence to other people. You must evaluate your life and give it purpose. You must recognize that you are an expression of the divine, a being made perfect through celebration of your perceived imperfections.

9-year-old Zach Adams shot a 58 over 18 holes — Mt. Pleasant Junior Golf Association

Justin Rose’s victory in the U.S. Open was the talk of the golf world on Sunday, as it should have been. After all, its not every day a man breaks through by edging Phil Mickelson in the final round of the U.S. Open (even if it has happened six times now). Still, what Rose achieved may be no more buzzworthy than what a golfer named Zach Adams pulled off last week in South Carolina.

While Rose deserves all the plaudits he receives, he can’t overshadow what Adams accomplished, shooting a remarkable 58 across 18 holes. That’s a remarkable achievement, yet it’s the age of the two golfers that makes it all the more unbelievable: Rose is a relatively spry yet traditional (by pro golfing standards) 32 and Adams is 9.

Yes you read that correctly: A 9-year-old carded a 58 on 18 holes in a recognized competition. As reported by the Charleston Post and Courier, that competition was a junior golf event -- the Mount Pleasant Junior Golf Open in South Carolina, to be specific -- but Adams’ 58 is a score that still puts him in rarified air. By comparison, David Duval is one of the few who have ever recorded a 59 in a competition before, let alone a 58. The lowest round Tiger Woods has ever recorded is a 61.

“It was pretty fun because I just kept on making putts and chipping it real good,” Adams told the Post and Courier. “The course was playing short and my putting was real good.”

Make no mistake: The yardage in the Junior Open is far shorter than that used in a professional event. The yardage Adams golfed across was 2,680 yards while the yardage at the Patriot Point Links course used for the event can reach upwards of 6,000 yards for a professional event. That shorter yardage means that par-5 holes on the junior course are approximately 215 yards long.

Adams was also helped by the pacing of his 18 holes. For the junior event, the 9-year-olds play a single full round across two days, as opposed to pros who play 18 in a single day.

Yet, even with the shorter distances and additional day, it can’t be underestimated how unprecedented the future fourth grader’s 58 was, even for Adams himself. The youngster had never scored below a 73 before, and used three eagles and eight birdies to reach the score at Patriot Point.

50 Cent and Christ the King boys basketball coach Joe Arbitello just chilling -- New York Daily NewsIn addition to da club, apparently you can also find 50 Cent at your local high school gym.

That is, if your local high school happens to be home to a Federation AA state championship winning boys basketball squad in 50 Cent's native borough of Queens, N.Y.

Of course, it helps when your assistant coach is a childhood friend of 50 Cent, too. That's the case for Middle Village (N.Y.) Christ the King assistant Mark McCarroll, according to a New York Daily News report of the rapper's visit.

“He came to some of my playoff games when I played at Christ the King,” McCarroll told the paper. “Since I’m an assistant coach at Christ the King I asked him to come down and see the kids and he said it was no problem, so he came down and met everybody.”

Back when he was Curtis Jackson, those previous visits to perennial prep basketball powerhouse back in the 1990s must have come some time between admittedly "bringing guns and drug money" to Queens (N.Y.) Andrew Jackson High and getting shot nine times on May 24, 2000, allegedly by Mike Tyson's former bodyguard Darryl "Hommo" Baum.

You know, just your average teenager's high school experience. While 50 Cent did not play basketball at the prep level, he reportedly boxed in the Junior Olympics as an amateur. He remains involved in boxing promotion to this day.

Meanwhile, McCarroll earned a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh after a brief stint at Milford (Conn.) Academy. The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 3.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in his Panthers career, earning Most Improved Player honors as a senior.

Football came first for Tim Tebow, but he had MLB talent — Rivals.com

Imagine this: “Now batting for your Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, left fielder, No. 15, Tim Tebow. “ Don’t laugh, it could have happened. In fact, it nearly did.

On Thursday, longtime baseball scout Tom Kotchman told Boston sports radio network WEEI that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were very interested in drafting Tebow after his senior season at Ponte Vedra (Fla.) Nease High. In fact, Kotchman, who was helping lead the Angels scouting department at the time, insists all the team needed to pick the newest Patriots quarterback was his information card.

"We wanted to draft him," Kotchman told WEEI. "But he never sent back his information card. Either it never got to him, or … it’s Tim Tebow. Who knows if it got to him, and if it did we just never got it back. Otherwise we were going to take him."

The rest, as they say, is history. As noted by MaxPreps, it’s likely that Tebow would have stuck with his commitment to Florida and history would have proceeded as scheduled, but you never know.

Tebow’s time on the diamond was almost as successful as his title-winning form for the Nease football team. The superstar batted .494 as a junior, then took off his senior season after he signed with Florida. He hit four home runs during his final baseball season.

Tim Tebow is now a member of the Patriots, but he could have been an Angels outfielder — Getty

The Black Forest fire in Colorado continues to torch large swaths of land around Colorado Springs, leaving charred land and huge, billowing clouds of ash in its wake. It has forced evacuations, and to date more than 360 homes have been forcibly evacuated.

The Black Forest fire is seen in the back of the Pine Creek baseball diamond — Twitter

High school baseball games, on the other hand, are not so easily pushed aside, as the photo you see above is powerful testament to.

That powerful image was tweeted out by Peter McEvoy, a sophomore infielder for Colorado Springs (Colo.) Pine Creek High. McEvoy snapped the photo, which is rapidly spreading across social media, during Pine Creek’s 10-0 victory against Greeley (Colo.) West High on Tuesday. As the fires continued, Pine Creek continued playing not only in the morning, but also in an afternoon matchup against Colorado Springs (Colo.) Legend High, which ended in a 2-0 Pine Creek victory.

The Black Forest fire has spread closer to Pine Creek High since that Tuesday doubleheader, so even Pine Creek and its loyal fans would have to temporarily put off action if it had been scheduled for Thursday.

It’s a good thing Hunter Harvey has a heck of a pitching arm, because he sure doesn’t have a future as a contract negotiator. He certainly has no understanding of the concept of leverage.

Orioles first round pick Hunter Harvey has made it very clear he's going to sign — Under Armour All-America Game

Harvey, a right-handed fireballing pitcher from Catawba (N.C.) Bandys High was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the MLB First Year Draft, selected number 22 overall. That’s a position where teams usually want to be awfully sure that they can sign a player before they select them. It comes with a suggested signing bonus of $1,947,600 signing bonus, a number which will be a bargain if Harvey achieves anywhere near the incredible 0.38 ERA and 116 strikeouts he recorded in 54 2/3 innings as a senior.

If Harvey is to be believed, there could never have been any such concerns about his future. Both the teen and his father, former MLB pitcher Bryan Harvey, are on the record with the fact that Hunter has “never really been a fan of college.”

That quote was offered up to Baseball America’s Ben Bader, and came from the younger Harvey just moments after he was picked by the Orioles.

In that way, Hunter Harvey is very much like his father. USA Today dug up a 1993 profile of Bryan Harvey in which the Angels and Marlins pitcher admitted to dropping out of UNC Charlotte because he “wasn’t too much into school.”

Roughly two weeks before the draft, on May 22, the Harveys gave a joint interview to MLB.com in which they re-affirmed the aversion they both feel to higher education. In that interview, Bryan Harvey admitted that the family had never even considered sending Hunter to a four-year college, and that there was little doubt that his son would turn his back on junior colleges where he could play a year and then re-enter the draft.

"I don't want to play games with anybody, so we've told everybody all along that we want to sign [with a Major League team]," Bryan Harvey told MLB said. "[Hunter] wants to go play baseball. That puts nothing in the way -- they know his signability is there.

"I knew we would never commit to a four-year school, but there's a couple of junior colleges that we really like. If things don't work out in a couple of weeks, I don't think it'll be a problem getting him into one of them."

That clearly won’t be necessary now. The Hayes’ have said they’re happy to sign a contract for the designated “slot” money which MLB recommends teams should pay the 22^nd overall pick.

On the heels of two scholarship offers to highly regarded eighth grade prospects from top Division I programs, an SEC school blew them both out of the water by handing out a scholarship to a seventh grade defensive back.

This is not a headline from The Onion, it really happened. Seventh grade. 13. Class of 2018. College recruiting is now officially absurd.

The player in question is young (by definition) Jairus Brents, a hard working (for a middle schooler) defensive back and running back from Indiana, where he plays for New Albany (Ind.) Hazelwood Middle School. He will still be playing for Hazelwood Middle School in the 2013 season because he’s still in middle school.

Brents received his first scholarship offer on Thursday when the University of Kentucky extended the pre-teen a verbal offer for when he graduates some six years from now. The news of Brents’ commitment was first reported by ESPN.

The Indiana native isn’t the first seventh grader to receive a scholarship offer. That honor goes to David Sills, the Deleware-based longtime USC commitment who became an overnight sensation after he received and accepted a verbal offer from head coach Lane Kiffin. To this point, Sills has stayed true to his initial pledge to USC, and the Trojans still appear excited that the still-growing quarterback will be suiting up in the Coliseum come 2015.

That’s because even though Sills committed to the Trojans in 2008, he still has two more years to play in high school before he graduates and heads off to campus.

To his credit. Brents brushed off the scholarship offer when interviewed by ESPN as if this was just another day in the life of an average American middle schooler.

"It's not a big deal. It's just an offer," Brents said.

"It's a good accomplishment, but I'm focusing on being the best cornerback ever and working hard."

Derrick Ansley, the Kentucky coach who gave an offer to Brents — Twitter

USC gambled on Sills because he was a quarterback -- a high need skill position which requires significant project -- and was recommended by luminary quarterbacks coach Steve Clarkson. Brents projects as a cornerback, a position that requires an absurd amount of speed and strength. Successful collegiate cornerbacks are freakish athletes, particularly in the SEC.

Apparently, Kentucky feels confident projecting that six years from now, Jairus Brents will be one of the best athletes in the country. They are doing so on the advice of Chris Vaughn, a former NFL player who now runs a training facility in Indiana. Vaughn also happens to be Brents’ godfather.

“[Brents] is a different breed of kid. He's super competitive," Vaughn told ESPN. "He expects to win every route. He's one of those kids who lights up the competition. Jairus is the best skill kid in the state right now."

Of course, Brents is also currently just 5-foot-8 and 152 pounds. He holds a 3.7 GPA, but he is taking seventh grade math courses. There is no trigonometry in seventh grade math. There may not even be any algebra.