Therapy can be a long and expensive process. But a California man was able to ease his guilty conscience for just $300, and a few phone conversations with White Pine High School Cross Country Coach Gary Johnson.

Shhh! The NCAA doesn't allow university sports departments to publicize where football practice sessions are held, if off campus.

White Pine High School has released its sports practice schedule:

ELY -- Jordan Barrett didn't expect to play this football season, and he certainly didn't expect to play tight end.

The White Pine High School Cheerleaders attended Cheer Camp at the JW Marriott Resort Hotel in Las Vegas in July.

ELY -- Jordan Barrett didn't expect to play this football season, and he certainly didn't expect to play tight end.

The White Pine High School Cheerleaders attended Cheer Camp at the JW Marriott Resort Hotel in Las Vegas in July.

The Bobcat football team roared back to life Saturday with a preseason scrimmage on its new home turf at White Pine High School.

Their uniforms may be new, but White Pine's varsity football players still have to iron out some wrinkles from their first game of the new season.

They haven't had much time to train, but White Pine High School's cross-country teammates still managed to put in strong individual showings at the "Un-Run" in Carlin.

Their uniforms may be new, but White Pine's varsity football players still have to iron out some wrinkles from their first game of the new season.

They haven't had much time to train, but White Pine High School's cross-country teammates still managed to put in strong individual showings at the "Un-Run" in Carlin.

Earlier this summer, 12 White Pine High School football players attended the Boise State Football Camp.

Earlier this summer, 12 White Pine High School football players attended the Boise State Football Camp.

Basketball is not supposed to be this easy. The Dream Vision 15s raced past, jumped over and outclassed 43 Hoops Academy on Thursday during the adidas Super 64 tournament at Cimarron-Memorial High for an 88-45 victory. Despite having five on its eight-player roster who haven't attended one day of high school, the blowout featured a handful of highlight-reel dunks and several other impressive plays not typical for the average ninth grader.

Boulder CIty High basketball players Joey Felsenfeld, Chris Leach and Ryan Bowen worked the last three days as ball boys for the U.S. national team during its mini-camp in Las Vegas.

Although I’m far from enlightened, I’m reminded of that paradox every football season in Las Vegas with the onset of those “handicapping contests” sponsored by one sports book or another.

Even bettors who downplay or entirely discount the significance of “revenge” in handicapping a football game might be tempted to reexamine their philosophy come Sept. 26.

Desert Pines High football coach Paul Bennett felt like a kid in a candy factory. Bennett, Nevada’s delegate at last week’s NFL’s Youth Football Coach Summit in Canton, Ohio, had so many memorable moments during the three-day convention, that pinpointing the top highlight was impossible.

Hunkie Cooper remembers the initial years of the Arena Football League with fondness and pride. The Canyon Springs High football coach went from fourth string wide receiver with the Arizona Rattlers to league Most Valuable Player in 1993 to start a 12-year career where he became one of indoor football’s most notable players of all-time.

If you want to know where Lon Kruger ate dinner with his wife last Saturday night, or maybe where the UNLV basketball coach teed it up on Sunday morning with his buddies, Twitter is not the right place to look. But Kruger is simply one of the latest prominent college figures -- joining the likes of Southern Cal football coach Pete Carroll and Kentucky hoops coach John Calipari -- to join the wildly popular social networking site, which is rapidly becoming a major player in the sports landscape.

For a college football player with legitimate NFL aspirations -- say, UNLV receiver Ryan Wolfe, for example -- Thursday morning was probably a huge help. Wolfe and the rest of the Rebels veterans were eating breakfast together at the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday morning while the team's newcomers were practicing at Rebel Park. On a television tuned to ESPN with the volume off, the room's attention was grabbed when images of junior quarterback Omar Clayton and Wolfe flashed during a segment in which analyst Mel Kiper Jr. discussed four potential sleeper teams for the 2009 season.

Joseph Benavidez is one victory away from proving that dreams really do come true. Three years ago, armed with nothing more than high school wrestling experience and knowledge of mixed martial arts from watching television, Benavidez decided to commit his life to becoming a professional MMA fighter. Now, after amassing a 10-0 record including WEC victories over Danny Martinez and Jeff Curran, Benavidez finds himself pitted against Dominick Cruz in the undercard Sunday in WEC 42 at the Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which will be televised on VERSUS.

The morning began for the UNLV football team with breakfast in the Thomas & Mack Center. But it wasn't just an ordinary meal. During that team session, a television was turned to ESPN, just in time for the entire Rebels squad -- both newcomers and veterans -- to see analyst Mel Kiper Jr. select UNLV as a potential sleeper to make national noise this season.

Sure, being given the title of starting quarterback on the first day of fall camp last year was great and all for then-sophomore Omar Clayton. But aside from helping the Rebels right the ship following four consecutive 2-10 seasons, he also put a hefty value on simply staying healthy for an entire season.

Though she go-go dances at XS and models for top agencies like Platinum, Las Vegas native and new UFC Octagon girl Natasha Wicks does not have the typical Vegas tale. Growing up on a farm near Nellis Air Force Base as one of eight home-schooled children, Wicks spent time gardening and raising farm animals before getting involved with her family’s sport of choice: running. This passion for speed led her to enroll in Cimmaron Memorial High School. where she went on to place 18th in the Western U.S. in the Foot Locker Nationals.

When United Football League commissioner Michael Huyghue first told Las Vegas coach Jim Fassel that his team’s name would be the Locomotives, the former NFL head coach wasn’t so sure about it.

Charles Childers jogged off the practice field Sunday night at Rebel Park with quickness in his steps. It's a pace the freshman defensive back admits took awhile to adjust to this week during his first practices with UNLV's football team.

Junior defensive lineman Malo Taumua said the UNLV defense felt the need to send a message -- both to the offense and to itself -- before leaving Tuesday for a week-long training camp in the cool confines of Ely. Consider it sent.

In a chapter on NFL teasers in his 2001 book “Sharp Sports Betting,” author Stanford Wong makes a compelling case that certain forms of football teasers are “playable” while others should be avoided, depending on the odds offered by the casino.

Junior defensive lineman Malo Taumua said the UNLV defense felt the need to send a message — both to the offense and to itself — before leaving Tuesday for a week-long training camp in the cool confines of Ely. Consider it sent.

When United Football League commissioner Michael Huyghue first told Las Vegas coach Jim Fassel that his team’s name would be the Locomotives, the former NFL head coach wasn’t so sure about it.

The shrill chirp of coaches’ whistles split the air at Broadbent Park as the UNLV football team began its annual summer training camp Wednesday in the relative isolation of White Pine County.

Palo Verde High football coach Darwin Rost sat behind a table near the entrance of the team’s locker room Wednesday morning and waited for a storm of eager players to come collect their equipment for the upcoming season.

The upstart United Football League signed former UNLV standout Casey Flair to a contract Friday and assigned him to the Las Vegas Locomotives.

The Vegas Insider football handicapping seminar, scheduled for this weekend at Red Rock Resort, appeals primarily to beginning and intermediate-level sports bettors. This is an ideal target audience, considering those two groups encompass just about all of us.

“Balance” was the key word for UNLV’s football program after a week of training in Ely and returns to Las Vegas. Last season, the Rebels staff had a hunch that there could be depth and consistency issues on the defensive side of the ball when they left Ely. This time around, things felt different.

Arena football is returning to Las Vegas and so is one of the city's most talented high school graduates. Former Foothill High School and Oregon State star Jeff Van Orsow and the Spokane Shock will battle the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers for the AF2's ArenaCup10 championship at the Orleans Arena Saturday at 7 p.m. This is the first time the AF2 is holding its title contest in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Valley has seen more than its share of talented high school football players in recent years. The area, which was rarely scouted by college coaches a decade ago, has become a hotbed on the recruiting trail with athletes playing significant roles for teams in major college conferences. It started with St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson, who drew little interest after rushing for 2,764 yards and 34 touchdowns for Eldorado as a senior in 2000.

Football coaches preach about the importance of minute aspects of the game. They stress the value of every inch, yard, second and point. Perhaps no team knows the significance of those minuscule increments better than the Palo Verde Panthers after losing the 2008 4A state championship by a single point, 13-12, to Reno’s McQueen High

Del Sol High football coach Preston Goroff is still disappointed his team was included in the proposal. The Dragons, which have earned the reputation as being one of the Las Vegas Valley’s most physical teams, have advanced to the last three Sunrise Regional championship games in becoming one of the state’s elite teams. But not elite enough to save his school’s status in the large-school classification and keep them from being put into a league with Boulder City High and first-year Sunrise Mountain High.

High school coaches in the area might not want to hear this. Las Vegas High, one of Southern Nevada’s most dominant teams, has played at a disadvantage the last couple seasons. According to coach Chris Faircloth, the Wildcats were not nearly as strong as they should have been. That’s changed heading into the 2009 season.

Arena football is returning to Las Vegas tonight. The helter-skelter, high-scoring game played on a shortened field will be on display in the Orleans Arena as the Spokane Shock and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers battle for ArenaCup10. This is the first time the Arena Football League 2 is holding its championship in Las Vegas.

There won't be any millionaires vying for the ArenaCup Saturday night at the Orleans Arena. No international endorsement deals. No cable television coverage. And probably no celebrity girlfriends overshadowing the game either. The AF2's ArenaCup 10 is certainly not the NFL's Super Bowl. Yet while the hits are just as hard and the risk of injury just as high, the 40 AF2 players from Spokane and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton competing for a championship Saturday night will be lucky if they can earn a few extra hundred dollars for capturing that title. The appeal is something greater than fame and fortune.

The most rousing explosion in the Sam Boyd Stadium stands Saturday night came on a 2-yard pass reception by the only player not wearing a numbered jersey at the UNLV football scrimmage. Jordan Barrett, a Rebel for all of eight days, didn’t miss his father and mother, three younger brothers, girlfriend, grandmother, aunt and uncle, and two nephews.

As fall camp concluded on Saturday night for the UNLV football team, Mike Sanford was yet again able to praise his ever-improving defense.

Arena football is known for its fast-paced, high-scoring games and the Spokane Shock proved why Saturday night. Trailing by one point entering the second half, the Shock scored six unanswered touchdowns en route to a record-setting blowout 74-27 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers in the AF2's ArenaCup 10 in front of 5,846 fans at the Orleans Arena. Spokane's 74 point outing set a new, all-time high in ArenaCup history, while its 47-point margin of victory also broke a league record.

As I sat in the wheelchair section atop the Orleans Arena (can you believe they ran out of room on press row at ArenaCup 10?) watching guys catch khaki-colored footballs off fishing nets Saturday night, my first inclination was not that this is a silly game with silly rules played by almost grown men hailing from colleges with directions or a “Kutztown” in their names — which was my first inclination while watching one of the 16 or so indoor football teams that have tried to make a go of it in Las Vegas over the years.

Forty-five minutes before practice Friday night, with every UNLV player and assistant coach watching, Rebels football coach Mike Sanford handed Channing Trotter the black jersey. Twice before, Trotter had been nominated for the prestigious garment, which Sanford presents to the standout offensive and defensive player from the previous practice. This time, Trotter got it. He thought, Thank you, Jesus.

To find attractive betting spots, sports handicappers often gravitate toward teams and conferences that tend to play outside of the national media spotlight. The high-profile leagues draw so much attention, and so much information on them becomes widely available, that the betting lines on their games end up being largely accurate, according to the handicappers’ mind-set.

You will only get to play in roughly five home football games during your senior year of high school. That’s five opportunities to compete in front of family and friends, surely creating memories that will last a lifetime.

The high school football season could end for one Henderson area team in an unfamiliar place this fall — the state championship game. The Henderson-based Southeast Division usually struggles in the playoffs with teams combining to capture just one state title, Basic’s in 1960. But this year might be different.

The football teams at Basic and Boulder City High couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. The schools will continue one of Southern Nevada’s oldest rivalries when Basic travels to Boulder City for the annual Jug Game at 7 p.m. on Aug. 28. While the rivalry has lost some of its luster from years past, it’s still a game with significance for both teams. The rivalry started in the 1940s.

If the Del Sol High football team wins the coin toss Friday for its season opener at Valley, senior Dezrick Reed has no doubts about what the Dragons should do. Take the football.

Stacy Keibler came to Las Vegas today to kick off an eye-pleasing lineup for Fantasy Football Superdraft Weekend.

The Las Vegas Locomotives of the upstart United Football League signed 18 more players Monday including three former Utah standouts, offensive lineman Jesse Boon, nose tackle Lauvale Sape and receiver Brian Hernandez.

Before you criticize UNLV for scheduling an opening-night football opponent whose logo resembles that of a supermarket chain, consider that the ... uh ... um ... Hornets, of Sacramento State, played Colorado State of the Mountain West tough before losing 23-20 last year.

The presence of the word 'or' here and there on UNLV's depth chart for next Saturday's home opener against Sacramento State shows that nothing is set in stone in Mike Sanford's lineup. But at least this is a more solid starting point.

In four seasons as a UNLV football fan, a kid named Mike Wintermute has accomplished what Jim Weaver could not in 3 1/2 years as Rebels athletic director:

The Las Vegas Locomotives of the upstart United Football League signed 19 more players Monday including three former Utah standouts: offensive lineman Jesse Boon, nose tackle Lauvale Sape and receiver Brian Hernandez.

Minutes after watching film of his team’s first game, Henderson International football coach Brett Price is shaking his head. Price is not happy with what he saw. He says if the Wolverines continue to play like they did in their season opener, they will not be successful.

A football team rarely improves when it graduates its star quarterback and running back. But Las Vegas High might prove an exception this season. With standout quarterback Emir Lopez and running back Reggie Bullock heading to college, the Wildcats turned to sophomore sensations Hasaan Henderson and Farrell Victor to lead Las Vegas' perennial powerhouse backfield. The youth movement did not disappoint in the Wildcats' 48-21 opening week victory over Douglas.

While the Boulder City High football team was disappointed in how it opened the season on Aug. 28, the Eagles understand it was just one game. They had less than 100 yards of offense in being blanked by Basic 26-0 in the annual Jug Game, but coach Alex Kazel still found plenty of positives in the performance.

UNLV and Sacramento State have never played each other in football. Their respective coaches supposedly don’t know each other. They’ve never even met.

Desert Pines High senior football player Eric Tuiloma is a star. It’s just nobody knows about this hidden jewel, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound wide receiver and defensive back who is arguably one of the Las Vegas Valley’s top players.

College football bettors, particularly those in Las Vegas, tend to exhibit symptoms of hipper-than-thou syndrome. hey take pride in their knowledge of the most obscure teams and conferences that appear on the betting board. They would no sooner back a so-called public team, a top BCS title contender, at the window than they would wear a sandwich board proclaiming, “I’m a square.”

UNLV and Sacramento State have never played each other in football. Their respective coaches supposedly don’t know each other. They’ve never even met. The two teams, however, do share Fort Collins, Colo., as a connection.

College football bettors, particularly those in Las Vegas, tend to exhibit symptoms of hipper-than-thou syndrome. They take pride in their knowledge of the most obscure teams and conferences that appear on the betting board. They would no sooner back a so-called public team, a top BCS title contender, at the window than they would wear a sandwich board proclaiming, “I’m a square.”

Last September, the UNLV football team headed down to Tempe, Ariz., with a 1-1 record, fresh off of a 42-21 thumping at Utah. The squad had a saying in mind as it got set to face then-No. 15 Arizona State. "Our motto was 'dream big,'" junior defensive tackle Malo Taumua said. This week, when the Rebels face yet another Pac-10 foe — No. 24 Oregon State — the so-called 'David vs. Goliath' feeling won't be anywhere near the UNLV locker room out at Sam Boyd Stadium.

It’s unrealistic to expect the likes of local high school football standouts Xavier Grimble, Alex Turner and others to reject scholarship offers from top college programs to stay home and play at UNLV. Getting the rare opportunity to compete at an elite level — Grimble is committed to Southern California and Turner to Stanford — is something so special you’d be foolish to pass on. But playing for UNLV is still an attractive option.

Last September, the UNLV football team headed down to Tempe, Ariz., with a 1-1 record, fresh off of a 42-21 thumping at Utah. The squad had a saying in mind as it got set to face then-No. 15 Arizona State. "Our motto was 'dream big,'" junior defensive tackle Malo Taumua said. This week, when the Rebels face yet another Pac-10 foe — No. 24 Oregon State — the so-called 'David vs. Goliath' feeling won't be anywhere near the UNLV locker room out at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Oregon State’s football pipeline to Las Vegas has dried up like an ice cube on the Strip in the middle of summer. When the Beavers visit Sam Boyd Stadium to play UNLV tonight, they will have nobody from Las Vegas on their roster.

If the UNLV football team wants to prove that it truly is a different group than the 2008 club that let one fourth quarter collapse snowball into several, here's its golden opportunity. In actuality, the 23-21 defeat the Rebels suffered at the hands of No. 24 Oregon State on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium may have been more devastating than anything last year's 5-7 squad endured.

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, drive-in movies -- and games against nationally ranked opponents during the second week of the college football season. Oregon State, ranked No. 24 in the land, needed a field goal on the next-to-last play of the game to beat the upset-minded Rebels 23-21.

Wearing highlighter-yellow Nikes, jeans, a long white T-shirt and stylish shades, Frank Summers stood on the sideline before tonight’s UNLV game and tossed a football to himself. The former Rebel looked as if he was itching to put a scarlet-and-gray uniform back on and punish a few Oregon State linebackers in Sam Boyd Stadium. Not the case, he said.

If Oregon State is the 24th-best team in college football, that would make UNLV the 25th-best team in college football, based on the Rebels’ 23-21 snatch-a-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory performance on late-night television Saturday.

Bishop Gorman High linebacker Evan Palelei is back on the recruiting market. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior pulled his verbal commitment to Stanford last week and will entertain offers from other schools, Gaels coach Tony Sanchez said.

The Las Vegas Locomotives of the upstart United Football League opened training camp this week at the Casa Grande Performance Institute outside of Phoenix and officially announced their roster today.

The Del Sol High football team will be playing for more than themselves Thursday night against perennial Sunrise Region power Las Vegas High.

Forget health care reform; try settling a high school sports realignment debate. Nearly 100 parents, coaches and administrators packed the Del Sol High School library Wednesday morning to voice their opinions on the sensitive issue at the Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association Board of Control meeting.