J-Mac scores 20
   Jason McElwain, a high functioning autistic, had been the manager of the Greece Athena boys varsity basketball team and was given the chance to suit up for a regular-season game late in his senior year in February 2006. Coach Jim Johnson hoped to get McElwain onto the game for a brief appearance, and he got the chance with four minutes go to. McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six 3-pointers and another shot for a total of 20 points in three-plus minutes.
   The story elicited such strong viewer response when it aired on the CBS Evening News that the network did a follow-up story on the next night's newscast. [see CBS video] [also: ESPN video]

March badness at Madison Square Garden
   A series of melees in the stands and outside the arena in March 2007 during the PSAL championship game between Boys & Girls and Abraham Lincoln got the public-school league evicted from Madison Square Garden.
   There were more than 13,800 fans in attendance, and the incidents drew comparisons to the brawl among fans that erupted following the 1994 PSAL championship game at the Garden between George Washington High and Robeson High. [see WCBS video]

True grit
   Though the video is seven minutes long, the drama begins about 1:35 in as Claire Markwardt of Berkshire High approaches the finish line of the 2007 Ohio Cross Country Championships.
   Markwardt was on a personal-best pace through two miles. With a quarter of a mile to go, she heard her already-tender left leg crack. About 200 yards later, she heard another crack. And then, within yards of the finish, it happened again, and this time she went down in a heap.
   Despite the broken leg, Markwardt gutted out the remaining distance and crawled to the finish line. She placed 67th in the race, but No. 1 in the hearts of sports fans who appreciate her never-surrender attitude. [see the video]

Miracle comeback in Texas
   Plano East was trailing John Tyler, 41-17, with 3 minutes to go on Nov. 26, 1994. In quick succession, Jeff Whitley threw a TD to Terrence Green, Plano East recovered the onside kick, Whitley hit John Braddick for a short TD and Plano East again recovered the kick. Whitley hit Braddick to pull with 41-37, and Plano East recovered still another onside kick. Whitley threw for one more TD with 31 seconds left, and the extra point gave Plano East a 44-41 lead.
   Game, set and match . . . right? Nope. A John Tyler player returned the kickoff 97 yards for the winning TD.
   What really puts this 4:34 clip over the top, though, is the announcing by a crew from Plano that got increasingly worked up with each great play during the rally. As John Tyler was running back the kickoff for the winning TD, Mike Zuffuto, a coach at a nearby school, uttered the memorable, "God bless those kids. I'm sick, I want to throw up." [see video]

You've gotta have Hart
   LeRoyFootball.com hosts the clip of Mike Hart's epic left-to-right journey in the fourth quarter of the 2002 state semifinals at the Carrier Dome. Though the play officially covered 64 yards, New York State's all-time rusher and future University of Michigan star covered much more ground than that while making two seemingly impossible escapes against the Le Roy defense to secure a 13-10 victory. [see video]

Iverson had all the answers in football, too
   Allen Iverson is best known as a National Basketball Association star, but he was also a football phenom in high school. He led Bethel High to the Virginia state championship as a junior, then did the same thing in basketball. He was selected Virginia's player of the year in both sports. [see video]

The toughest job in sports?
   Middletown's Varsity845.com did a three-minute piece on lacrosse goalies in April 2008, calling their job perhaps the toughest in high school sports.
   Hard-rubber balls are fired at them at up to 80 mph. Opponents criss-cross in front of them and behind them as they try to defend a goal that is 6 feet by 6 feet. They wear little or no protection on their legs and they are having a good game if they can stop 60 percent of the shots they face. [see video]