* Berkeley High senior Declan Farmer is a finalist for the U.S. male paralympic athlete of the year award. Farmer was the leading scorer for the U.S. sled hockey team that won the gold medal at the International Paralympic World Championship. The winner will be announced Dec. 10.
* Former Wharton High quarterback Chase Litton, a Marshall University freshman, threw for nearly 500 yards and two touchdowns in Marshall’s 34-10 win over Charlotte.
* It’s a down year for UCF football, as the Knights remain winless into mid-November. But here’s a major consolation for the athletic department: According to NCAA data, UCF is No. 1 among Division 1A public universities for graduation success rate (93 percent). UCF is No. 6 overall, trailing only Duke, Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern and Boston College, all private schools.
* Speaking of graduation rates, check out those of the University of Connecticut basketball teams–men’s and women’s. The NCAA reports that the men’s team has a graduation rate of 20 percent. That’s actually an improvement; two years ago it was 8 percent.
As for the UCONN women, defending national champions, its graduation rate was 100 percent.
* We’ve seen this one before. A high school football coach in Washington who prayed at games despite orders from the school district to stop, has been put on paid administrative leave. The impetus came from a group of self-styled Satanists who had protested the practice. The coach is being supported by, among others, the Texas-based Liberty Institute.
Seemingly lost in the controversy, as is typically the case, is the inherent, ironic upshot. Not unlike “Tebowing,” such practices, in effect, trivialize religion. Shouldn’t The Deity have, well, higher priorities than acknowledging, say, entreaties over fourth and goal?