A few bits and pieces as we wrap up another high school sports year.

Officials at state high school athletic associations around the country, including Rhode Island, are big fans of the U.S. Supreme Court — at least when it comes to recruiting middle school students for high school teams.

In case you missed it last week, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that said a Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association rule that prohibits athletic recruiting of middle school students infringed on the “free speech” of high school coaches. In essence, the Supreme Court ruled that state high school associations do have the right to institute recruiting rules. “We are very, very pleased,” Tom Mezzanotte, executive director of the R.I. Interscholastic League said of the decision. “It was a unanimous Supreme Court decision that has repercussions with everything we do.”

The ruling came in a case brought against the Tennessee Association by the football coaches at Brentwood Academy, a private high school that is a Tennessee football powerhouse. A lower court had said that the rule prohibiting Brentwood coaches communicating with eighth graders infringed on the coaches’ free speech.

But in the Supreme Court decision Justice John Paul Stevens wrote “Games have rules. It is only fair that Brentwood follow them.”

Bad break for Sleeper

You have to feel sorry for Portsmouth’s John Sleeper.

Last spring, only a few days after he helped Portsmouth win the 2006 Division II state baseball title, the Patriots’ pitcher and outfielder broke his leg playing in an American Legion baseball game. The injury not only caused Sleeper to miss last summer’s Legion baseball season, but also his senior football season at Portsmouth this past fall. By the start of the 2007 baseball season, however, Sleeper was back in the lineup as Portsmouth made the move up to Division I. His .457 batting average and 6-0 pitching record played a big role in the Patriots’ drive to an 18-0 regular-season record and a ranking in Baseball America’s Top 50 high school baseball poll.

But in the top of the first inning of last Wednesday night’s Division I playoff game against South Kingstown, Sleeper tried to make a diving catch of a line drive from his position in center field. Unfortunately, just before he hit the ground, Sleeper’s outstretched arm struck the leg of another Portsmouth player, breaking Sleeper’s arm. Sleeper missed the rest of the game and the Patriots were eliminated.

Kings of the hill

This baseball season was great, but next year could be even better. Many of the pitchers who made this season exciting will be back again next year, including Cranston West’s Anthony Meo, Portsmouth’s Ryan Westmoreland and South Kingstown’s Jackson Geary.

Cheers

Cheerleading will be an Interscholastic League varsity sport next winter.

Stoneham’s off-track

If you have any doubt that high school sports are big in Massachusetts, just check out last Saturday’s Boston Globe.

Forget the sports page or even the city and region section, the story that the town of Stoneham is wiping out its high school sports program because of budget cuts was one of the lead items on the front page of the newspaper.

One note to the people of Stoneham — forget the obvious importance of high school sports for the teenagers in your town like better health, improved self-esteem and learning to work as a member of a team. If you want to see your property values plummet, then go ahead and become the only town in Massachusetts that doesn’t have any sports programs at its public high school.

Flowers and Keeling shine

Classical’s Victoria Flowers and Ponaganset’s Jake Keeling have been selected the girls and boys Rhode Island Gatorade Outdoor Track Athletes of the Year respectively.

Flowers, a junior, is a nationally ranked girls high school hammer-thrower. This past winter, she was the national indoor girls weight champion, and this spring, she had the fourth-best girls hammer throw in the country. In addition to winning this year’s girls hammer throw title at the outdoor State Meet with a record-setting effort, she also set a state record in the shot put.

Keeling, a senior who also was an All-State football player in the fall, won both the Rhode Island javelin and shot put titles this spring. He won the javelin title with a throw of 206-8, which was the 12th-best toss this spring by an American high school javelin-thrower.

Statewide bulletin

The Providence Journal Spring All-State section will be published Friday, July 6.

Any coaches associations that have not sent their all-division and all-league selections to the Journal sports department should do so immediately. The Journal sports department fax number is 277-7444.

jgillool@projo.com