In particular, the NCAA has banned high school basketball tournaments (except for those events sanctioned by a state association, which basically means postseason tournament games), and 7-on-7 elite football tournaments.

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In the U.S., athletes are not allowed to go pro until they have been out of high school for three years ( except in basketball the number is one), so college sports is the only way for physically gifted kids to earn money from sports.

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Consider that Leach never played football (except for one, bench-riding year in high school) and that he wears Hawaiian shirts and flipflops .

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The U.S. already spends more on high school education than any advanced society except Switzerland and Norway, and considerably more than such egalitarian societies as Austria and Denmark.

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"I talk Spanish at home, except with my brothers, with them I speak English, " says Adriana, a teenager at Bell High School in East Los Angeles, California.

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