Q: Do you think former Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel coached at Rainier Beach High School for public-image purposes?

A: No. Give Neuheisel some credit. He was sincere about his role as an assistant coach for the past two football seasons.

Rainier Beach athletic director Dan Jurdy said Neuheisel told him, "This was a tough time in my life, and this was therapy. I got to do what I love to do most, and that is coach kids."

Jurdy said Neuheisel was diligent and went to all games and practices, helped scout and attended Sunday team meetings.

"He was seriously sincere," Jurdy said.

Jurdy said Neuheisel quietly dipped into his own pocket to spend $8,000 to buy history books for a new advanced-placement class at Beach because no school-district funds were available.

Neuheisel, now the quarterbacks coach of the Baltimore Ravens, was one of the reasons Rainier Beach upset O'Dea to win the Metro League title last November.

Q: What has become of Jim Pearson, the former track and cross-country coach at Ferndale High School who had run at least a mile a day every day for something like more than 30 years?

A: Pearson, 61, has retired from teaching and lives in Mead outside Spokane and continues to run. The streak is up to 35 years, which reportedly is the third longest active streak in the U.S.

Pearson's son, Joel, has a streak of 10 years under way. Joel, who ran for Ferndale and Mead high schools, won the Birch Bay Marathon in February in 2:49:41. He is a freshman at Evergreen State College.

A: Cross-country, track, football, wrestling, gymnastics and swimming usually are no-cut sports. Most schools don't cut in tennis. The hardest teams to make at any school are the basketball teams because they have the fewest members and a lot of competition from select-team players. Climbing the "basketball pyramid" to being on a team as a senior is no minor accomplishment at most Class 3A and 4A schools. Soccer and volleyball teams also can be tough to make because of select-team athletes.

Q: You invited readers in a recent column about high-school traditions to tell us about others. Any responses?

A: Hudson's Bay High School, Vancouver: In honor of the late Curt Daniels, baseball coach at Hudson's Bay from 1987 to 1999, players vote after each game for a player of the game. That player has the honor of taking home Curt's jersey, No. 16, and returning it to the dugout for the next game. It hangs in the dugout to keep his memory alive. All shirts and sweatshirts have "CD" on them and the slogan "Keeping the tradition always — CD."

Liberty Bell High School, outside Winthrop in North Central Washington: The "golden shoe" goes to the most inspirational cross-country runner. It is an old painted shoe from the early 1990s when cross-country started at the school after basketball player Bryce Court talked his father and another community member into coaching him.

The team has another tradition called "the fork." It goes to the junior judged most likely to be a team leader the next year. The current holder of "the fork" decides which girl or boy to give it to. The fork is usually a plastic fork from the team banquet.

Lacrosse-Washtucna, Eastern Washington: When a boys basketball starter is introduced, he goes into the stands and shakes hands with his father or someone else if the father couldn't attend.

Reardan, west of Spokane: The football team walks the quarter-mile from the locker room to the field to the rhythmic chant of two claps to thigh pads and one clap of hands.

Ilwaco, Southwest Washington: Baseball coach Kevin Heimbigner has his baseball team take infield with three baseballs — two new ones and a used one. If all three are thrown away by bad throws, the infield drill is over even if the 10 minutes allotted for it hasn't elapsed. Heimbigner also pumps up the crowd by announcing the lineups of both teams in a style similar to Bob Sheppard of the New York Yankees.

Have a question about prep sports? Craig Smith finds the answers every Tuesday in The Times. Ask your question by voice mail (206-464-8279), snail mail (Craig Smith, Seattle Times Sports, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111) or e-mail csmith@seattletimes.com