Leading off today: Lamont "Momo" Jones, the stellar 6-foot-1 guard who left New York City last summer to play basketball for American Christian Academy in Aston, Pa., may be returning to Rice High School.

   American Christian officials announced in June they were shutting down their high school and prep wing in order to plow resources into the preschool and grade school, and Jones was thought to be headed for New Jersey power St. Anthony. But the school decided now was not the time to drop a policy against accepting senior transfers, and Dick "Hoops" Weiss reports that Rice coach Maurice Hicks plans to meet with Jones' mother, Jeneen Fuller.

   "We would love to have him back," Hicks told Weiss. "In my opinion he should have never left. I just think that he's a Rice Raider. I saw that when he was younger and I still see that today."

   The CHSAA would have to rule on Jones' eligibility to play because its transfer rules require incoming players to sit out a season if they suited up for another school in the previous year. But the fact that American Christian shut down its secondary school is an extenuating circumstance that will favor Jones and Rice if he opts to return.

   Weiss says Seton Hall, St. John's, South Florida, Oklahoma State, Xavier, UMass and Providence have all offered scholarships to Jones.

   Lawsuit looming: The family of a Stuyvesant track athlete paralyzed last winter during a van crash are suing Ford Motor Co., New York City, the city Education Department and others for $300 million on behalf of Valerie Piro, The Daily News reported.

   Piro, now 17 and about to begin her senior year, was paralyzed from the chest down after her team's van flipped while traveling to a meet at Dartmouth on Jan. 12. The lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court alleges that coach Erin Taylor was negligent when the van she was driving veered off the road and rolled over in Hartford, Vt.

   Piro was wearing a seatbelt but was thrown from the van. Her lawyers say the 13-passenger Ford vehicle lacked side air bags and allege that Avis should not have rented Taylor the van because of these dangers. Additionally, they blame the city and Education Department for not properly supervising Taylor.

   The risks of cheerleading: Cheerleading is far more dangerous than any other sport for females in high school and college according to a report released Monday by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.

   Cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of all catastrophic ("fatal, disabling and serious") sports injuries among high school females over the past 25 years, according to the group's annual report. In college, cheerleading accounted for 66.7 percent of all female

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sports catastrophic injuries.

   Both numbers were revised upward from previous levels due to additional research and reporting, and annual numbers have mostly been climbing recently.

   "A major factor in this increase has been the change in cheerleading activity, which now involves gymnastic-type stunts," said Dr. Frederick O. Mueller, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of North Carolina. "If these cheerleading activities are not taught by a competent coach and keep increasing in difficulty, catastrophic injuries will continue to be a part of cheerleading."

   The new data showed that between 1982 and 2007 there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among high school femals, with 67 occurring in cheerleading. The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine) and track (seven). There were only two reported serious injuries last year, down from 10 in 2006.

   Going to Disney World: A scholastic team representing Rochester but including players from across Upstate New York won the inaugural adidas National Lacrosse Classic last month in Baltimore, giving members the right to represent the United States in December at Disney World in the Brodgen Cup against Canada.

   Tylon Thompson (Salmon River) scored three goals and Kyle VanThof (Penfield) added two, including the winner with less than 30 seconds left in a 9-8 victory over Delmar Prep in the final. Delmar consisted of private-school players from Delaware and Maryland.

   Irondequoit's Craig Whipple coached Rochester to a 6-0 record in the tournament. Teams from as far away as Los Angeles and San Francisco competed.

   Extra points: The Daily News reports that Oswald "Oz" Cross, who coached Our Saviour Lutheran until a falling out with the administration last year, is in line for an assistant's job at St. John's. That would give the former Big East power a huge foot in the door with a number of CHSAA recruits. Meanwhile, Xavier assistant Emanuel "Book" Richardson, formerly a VIP on the NYC AAU circuit, is said to be papering the Big Apple with scholarship offers. Those on the Atlantic-10 school's wish list include Rice's Durand Scott and Shane Southwell, Bishop Loughlin's Jayvaughn Pinkston as well as Mount Vernon's Sherrod Wright. . . . I'll delve into the whole subject more in an upcoming blog, but it's sort of amazing that even The Wall Street Journal made mention of the so-called A-11 Offense, threatening to become the next big thing in high school football innovations. If you're in the dark, start your research with this week's piece in The Washington Post.

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