If you're like Prep Rally, you've often wondered what it would be like to slowly observe a small school transform into an athletic powerhouse. Well, now we may all get the chance.

Montverde Academy athletic fields

As first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, Orlando (Fla.) Montverde Prep has decided to add football as a varsity sport starting with the 2012 season. The school has already hired a head coach to begin developing the program and ease the typical growing pains associated with a new football program (and yes, if you were wondering, the football team already has a Facebook page, too).

The man hired by Montverde headmaster Kasey Kesselring is Brian Treweek, a former defensive coordinator who helped Ocala (Fla.) Lake Weir High reach the only two playoff appearances in school history, in 2008 and 2009.

Montverde Academy athletics logo

While the Sentinel reported that the official reasoning behind starting the program in 2012 is to coincide with the school's Centennial Celebration, it's hard not to view the opening act of football at Montverde without considering recent developments in the school's basketball program.

In April, the school hired longtime Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick High basketball coach Kevin Boyle, a move which sent shockwaves through the top tier of the prep basketball establishment in the Northeast.

More recently, in the opening days of August Boyle officially landed his first big name transfer to Montverde, with one of his most highly touted former St. Patrick players -- rising sophomore Dakari Johnson -- joining the Eagles' basketball program, even though doing so will cost him an entire season of competitive eligibility.

Preseason scrimmages are a near essential part of high school football life around the country. That's certainly the case in Georgia, where one Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer counted up only 10 programs statewide which would go without a scrimmage before opening the 2011 regular season.

Brookwood varsity football team

Yet, one of those 10 programs is also the state's most conspicuous: Reigning Class AAAAA state champion Snellville (Ga.) Brookwood High, which will begin defense of its state title on August 20 against Lassiter (Ga.) High in the annual Corky Kell Kickoff Classic at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

Considering the fact that Brookwood also failed to hold a scrimmage before it's 14-1 2010 season, a campaign which culminated in the school's first state title in 14 years and a No. 43 ranking in the final RivalsHigh 100, head coach Mark Crews doesn't have to work hard to defend his aversion to scrimmages.

Not surprisingly, Crews said a big factor in pushing his program away from scrimmages is the risk of injury less than two weeks before the regular season begins.

"I'd rather be working toward preparing for our opponent in the Dome rather than preparing for a scrimmage," Crews told the Journal-Constitution and Georgia High School Football Daily. "Also, we would be one week out from game time, and I would really worry that someone, a key player, may be injured in a full-tilt scrimmage and miss the beginning of the real season."

There is little question that the simmering threat of heat stroke remains a top concern of high school coaches and athletes (not to mention health professionals) across the country, with yet another teen falling prey to the extreme heat on Tuesday. For one teen in Florida, that threat is even more dire as he tries to cope with the religious restrictions of Ramadan, all while working through his first ever varsity football training camp.

Wesley Chapel lineman Ahmed Elshaer

Ahmed Elshaer is a rising sophomore at Wesley Chapel (Fla.) High. As first reported in a terrific story by the St. Petersburg Times' Matt Baker, he's also a devout Muslim, with his faith growing even stronger since he and his family emigrated to the United States from Saudi Arabia when he was 9. Soon thereafter, he began fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, a practice which requires him to reject all food and water from sunup to sundown.

The teenager insists that fasting during Ramadan is a keen part of his identity. In past years, Ramadan fasting kept Elshaer from joining football teams at all, for fear that he would struggle to handle practicing without food or water. Yet this year Elshaer decided to play for the Wesley Chapel varsity team, and his commitment to his faith hardly seems to have wavered, even as he works through his first ever training camp, in which he has emerged as a potential starter on the team's offensive line.

"Millions of people on earth don't have food or water," Elshaer told the St. Petersburg Times. "It puts you in their shoes. … "If [Minnesota Vikings safety Hussain Abdullah] can do it, I can do it.

"It's tough, but I've got to do it for my religion."

While daytime fasting hasn't kept Elshaer out of any preseason practices or drills yet, it has created another level of concern for his coaches and other Pasco County officials. Wesley Chapel head football coach Ben Alford said he is particularly concerned about Elshaer because of both his lack of hydration and the level to which he pushes himself on the field, citing the sophomore as one of the team's toughest players.

To cope with the Florida heat for Elshaer and the rest of the team, Alford moved the program's practices to 7 a.m., when it is still a bit cooler for outdoor workouts. When the Wesley Chapel team takes water breaks, Elshaer dumps water over his head and neck in an effort to cool down his core temperature.

At the end of practice, the 16-year-old heads home for a cold shower, a nap and an afternoon spent in air conditioning until his family can gather for its traditional evening meal after the sun sets.

During the U-17 World Cup in July, Prep Rally wrote about the exploits of Alfred Koroma, an immigrant from Sierra Leone who has starred at Southlake (Texas) Carroll High and for the U.S. junior national team while attending U.S. Soccer's residency program in Bradenton, Fla.

U.S. U-17 striker Alfred Koroma

Now Koroma, pictured above, is taking yet another step toward an eventual bright future abroad, with the striker joining Swedish power AIK Solna as a training trialist without a window to a permanent move; Koroma is not eligible to move to Europe until after he turns 18 next year. He will spend August 9-22 training with AIK.

While Koroma's long term professional future is still too far in the future to discern clearly, the Swedish trial is a promising sign for a 17-year-old who holds boundless potential and still a relatively marginal amount of organized soccer experience.

The trial also points to an increasing concern for American college soccer programs, as more and more top young American soccer players bypass the NCAA system for MLS' academies and overseas opportunities. While Koroma opens his training period just outside of Stockholm, another top soccer prospect -- fellow U.S. junior national team program member and D.C. United Academy member Jalen Robinson (pictured below) -- has stoked criticism for his commitment to Wake Forest as opposed to a future in the MLS or abroad.

U.S. U-20 soccer player Jalen Robinson

As one might expect, the debate between collegiate and pro soccer development is a heated one that incorporates far more considerations than just a player's talent. While many analysts point out the inefficiencies and general inadequacies of the collegiate game, those critiques fail to consider the additional, educational benefits of a NCAA career.

One of the men siding with professional development is Robinson's national team coach, Thomas Rongen, who has led the U.S. under-20 program for three consecutive World Cup cycles.

"From a developmental standpoint, college and high school, those are not the right places for players to get a lot better," Rongen told the Washington Post. "I don't mean for 95 percentage of [players], I'm talking about the group of really elite players that Jalen Robinson fits into right now. They need to give themselves the best places to get better. . . . and that's not for two- or three-month [seasons] in college."

Another teenager died in connection with extreme heat on Tuesday night. That death left the current preseason football toll at four student athletes and one coach, five tragedies which all could have been avoided, according to medical experts.

Allen football practices outside in 100-degree heat

While common sense and the intervention of some school district officials has curbed the threat in some areas (notably Georgia, which has already lost two football players), one of the nation's most prominent programs in Texas insisted on holding its first practice outside during the hottest hours of the day -- it started at 4 p.m. on Monday -- all while the team could have been practicing inside the school's indoor practice facilities, which are air conditioned.

As documented in detail by TheOldCoach.com and the Dallas Morning News, the school which brazenly decided to ignore 100 degree temperatures and the ever-present health risks they create was Allen (Texas) High, an annual UIL Class AAAAA state championship contender -- the Eagles are ranked No. 6 nationally and No. 1 in the state of Texas in the first RivalsHigh 100 of the 2011 season -- and the very program which is in the middle of a $60 million stadium construction project.

Of course, practicing outdoors is nothing radical. Nearly every program in the country does it as the days tick away until the 2011 season kicks off. The difference with Allen is that it has one of the nicest indoor facilities in the state of Texas, if not the nation. There's absolutely no reason for the Eagles to hold practices outside.

Allen's head football coach, Tom Westerburg, said that the team is holding a majority of its preseason practices and workouts outside so its players acclimate themselves to the heat, since its early season games are all played outside in similarly steamy conditions.

That may be true, but it's hard not to feel like a certain amount of machismo is involved in the decision, too. While the days of withholding water from players to improve their "toughness" may be gone, the days of coaches wanting their players to be as tough as possible certainly aren't.

In 2010, Kyle Hicks was one of the best defensive backs in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex as a sophomore, earning honors as the District 4-5A defensive newcomer of the year for his work in the Arlington (Texas) Martin backfield as a result.

This year, he's hardly expected to play on defense at all.

Arlington Martin defensive back turned running back Kyle Hicks

Usually a team would build a defensive system around a star like Hicks, not remove him from it. Yet, according to the Dallas Morning News, there's a good reason for Hicks' sudden swap of every down defense to occasional cameos in the defensive backfield: Martin is relying on him even more in the offensive backfield.

Hicks is slated to begin the 2011 season as Martin's every down running back, a role which brings a very heavy workload even in years where the team enters with an established starting quarterback. Since Martin lost both starting QB Russell Bellomy (who is now at Michigan) and star running back Danzel Williams (who is at Oklahoma) in the Class of 2011, the team is expected to put even more emphasis on moving the ball on the ground.

That's where Hicks figures prominently in the offensive equation. The star defensive back had served as a running back as a freshman before he was moved to a defensive role in 2010. Now he's being asked to switch back to help the team, a move which could affect the junior's collegiate future; as a defensive back prospect, Hicks was being recruiting by Oklahoma, Texas A&M and TCU.

The first week in August wasn't the easiest for public relations staff of American Legion baseball tournaments. First, a Nebraska state title game was decided by a coin flip because of an unplayable field after a downpour. Then, a brawl during a Sunday morning game presaged the elimination of one team from Georgia and another from North Carolina.

According to the Associated Press and Gaston Gazette among other sources, the raucous brawl you see above occurred at the Southeast Regional American Legion Tournament in Sumter, S.C., when a brawl kicked off after two members of Cherryville, N.C. Post 100's squad scored in the fourth inning. The two runs pushed Cherryville's lead over Douglasville, Ga. Post 145 to 4-0, and seemed to have Post 100 on a track to advancement in the tournament.

The team never got to find out if that was truly the case because of a violent reaction from the Douglasville catcher, who threw the ball at the second run scorer after the North Carolina player had offered up testy words after crossing the plate.

As one might expect, the thrown ball kicked off a long brawl between the teams, with officials finally restoring order after some three minutes of continuous scrapping between players.

After the fight American Legion officials were faced with the rather unenviable task of sorting out what to do with the two teams. After consulting with officials in the association's national office, the word came down: Both teams were officially banned from the tournament by reason of forfeit.

After a week without any heat-related prep football deaths nationwide, another teen may have fallen prey to severe heat on Tuesday. This time, the Southern state involved was Arkansas. This despite the fact that health experts continue to say that all football heat-related deaths are preventable, if the right precautionary measures are taken.

Gurdon football player Montell Williams

According to the Associated Press, Arkansas Democrat Gazette and other sources, a 15-year-old football player for Gurdon (Ark.) High collapsed at an evening practice and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly thereafter. The victim was Montel Williams, a rising sophomore.

Gurdon began practice at 7:15 p.m. to help players try and avoid heat issues that have been prevalent across the South in recent weeks. Gurdon School District Superintendent Allen Blackwell told the Democrat Gazette and AP that the team's practice was less than 90-minutes old when Williams collapsed and was quickly transported to Arkadelphia's Baptist Health Center, in part because the team did not have athletic trainers on-site at the practice.

"He was a strong student, he was a good kid and this will be tough," Blackwell told the Democrat Gazette. "Our community is strong, but anytime something like this happens, it shakes you."

Though heat is expected to be either a dominant or contributing factor, no official cause of death has been announced as of Wednesday morning.

"Obviously he was hot because of practice," Blackwell told the Democrat Gazette. "But we don't know anything official.

"The coaches have gone through all the new trainings and we took every precaution that was possible to avoid these kind of events from happening."