Leading off today: with New York's openers still one or two weeks away, I'm sure many of us enjoyed the taste of high school football presented by ESPN over the weekend.

   Don't count some of the participants among the happy, however. The Sacramento Bee says they think the worst part of the prep football showcase on ESPN was that ESPN was there.

   Coaches said the production company handling details for the cable network barged into Folsom, Calif., with an attitude that rubbed many the wrong way, starting with the coaches and extending to the media.

   "Playing the game," Folsom coach Kris Richardson said, "was the easy part."

   According to the paper, it started with Paragon Marketing Group requesting early morning pep rallies at Grant and Folson high schools and continued with players being pulled out of classes to do interviews.

   Local TV stations that regularly cover the schools were first told they would have no access to the field before they were finally allowed only end zone positions.

   "I've covered eight Super Bowls and never had as many difficulties as I have with this game," Fox 40 sports director Jim Crandell told the paper.

   But the financial windfall was worth it, right? Think again. Although the hoopla undoubtedly helped sell tickets and create a raucous atmosphere, Folsom officials said they had to fight for a $2,000 payout for their school and a piddly $1,000 for Grant.

   It happens every year: For your reading pleasure, here's the annual misguided-adult-attempts-to-recapture-his-or-her-youth story.

   A 21-year-old Florida man pretended to be 14 years old in order to play youth-league football and attempted to enroll at a Hillsborough County middle school.

   Authorities said Julious Threatts, who is 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds, used the name Chad Jordan to play last week for the Town N’ Country Packers, a Tampa Bay Youth Football League squad for 13- and 14-year-olds. He then attempted to enroll at Webb Middle School last week under the same alias, showing up alone for registration under the guise of being homeless.

   Steve Hegarty, Hillsborough County School District spokesman, said school officials became suspicious and notified the Department of Child and Families. Threatts' ultimate undoing was when his cell phone rang; a school official answered the call -- from the scammer's mother. She blew the whistle on him, and Threatts was arrested on trespassing charges at the school. He is also being held on charges of violating probation in a 2009 burglary case, court records indicated.

   Dollars delivered: The Roy-Hart Sports Boosters handed Royalton-Hartland Superintendent Kevin MacDonald a check for $7,600 last week to fund fall modified sports, The Buffalo News reported.

RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site

   That's in addition to a spring payment of more than $20,000 that saved the football program after the district passed a budget that chopped many extracurricular activities for the 2010-11 school year. The Rams, looking for their first winning season since 1993, open Friday at Gowanda.

   By the way, head coach Don Baker is on the mend from triple bypass surgery performed on the eve of the opening practice. He made a brief appearance on the practice field last week.

   Roy-Hart scrimmaged Saturday vs. Barker to prep for the start of the season. Saugerties wasn't so fortunate, the result of its own budget difficulties in the spring.

   Having suffered heavy graduation losses on the line, Saugerties is switching from the I-formation to a spread offense. The Sawyers open Friday night at Valley Central, but they will roll out their changes without having scrimmaged anyone.

   The proposed school budget was rejected by voters in May. Though a fund-raising effort saved sports for the school, corners -- such as the football scrimmage -- were cut. The Kingston Journal also reports that participation id down, and offseason training was disrupted by the uncertainty.

   “I think it was a distraction in May and June,” coach Mike Melville told the paper. “There were rumors kids were going to look to move to other schools.”

   Boys basketball: Rochester East point guard Brandon Caruthers, a fifth-team all-state pick in Class AA last season as a senior, is attending Kennedy-King College, a Division I junior college in Chicago. Caruthers, who averaged 17.2 points last season to lead the Orientals within a bucket of a berth in the state final, is one of those players who grows on you the more you watch him. At some point a mid-major four-year school will get over the fact that he's only 5-foot-9 and take a chance on him.

   Jamesville-DeWitt post player Dajuan Coleman posted 12 points and five rebounds Friday in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 event Saturday in Venice Beach, Calif.