From Sports Page 1

The football team has also moved from the Big Rivers Conference to the Mississippi Valley Conference. Even with the conference change, the Wildcats are still in a good position to try and win their third conference title in four years.

“Our attitude and effort have been outstanding. We have a large core group of players that really want to win. They have held themselves to a high standard for their performance each day,” said Scherz on the early season practices. “Playing games in front of fans again is huge for our kids. They missed that. Our first two games will provide a tremendous test, but we wouldn't want it any other way.”

Cross Country – The River Falls High School cross country teams will begin their season at home Thursday, Aug. 26 at UW-River Falls Smith Stadium. The meet will begin at 4 p.m. and include Chippewa Falls, Chetek – Weyerhaeuser, Eastview (Woodbury), Blaine, Dassel – Cokato, Owatonna, River Valley, Burnsville, Edgar, Chippewa Valley – Lightning Bolts and St. Croix Preparatory Academy.

Girls’ golf – The River Falls Wildcats girls’ golf season begins Friday, Aug. 13 at Rolling Oaks Golf Course in Barron, Wis. The Rolling Oaks Invitational begins at 9 a.m. and will also feature Eau Claire Memorial, Ellsworth, Hudson, Menomonie, New Richmond, Spooner, St. Croix Falls, Superior and Barron.

Girls’ tennis – The Wildcats girls’ tennis season will begin Tuesday, Aug. 17 with a triangular match at Mondovi High School. The Wildcats will play the Buffaloes at 10 a.m. for their first match of the season.

Girls’ swimming and diving – The girls’ swimming and diving team will begin its season at home on Thursday, Aug. 26. They will host Holmen High School at 6 p.m.

Girls’ volleyball – The volleyball team begins its season on Tuesday, Aug. 24 on the road at Chippewa Falls High School. The Wildcats will face off against the Cardinals at 2 p.m.

Boys’ soccer – The boys’ soccer team begins its season the same day as the volleyball team on Tuesday, Aug. 24. The team hits the road to take on the Osceola Chieftains at 6 p.m.

Prescott Football – The Prescott Cardinals football season begins Friday, Aug. 20 at home against Spooner High School.

Cardinals Head Coach Jordan Hansen said he’s already seen progress from his players early this season.

“It’s been great. Just a different feel, different atmosphere going to practice and not having to wear a mask under your face mask,” Hansen said. “So being able to use a football to contact drills, it's just a different atmosphere than it was a year ago. The kids are flying around having fun and just excited to be playing football.”

Hansen is also looking forward to having his first fully scheduled season as head coach; last year his season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hansen shared some of his own goals for the longer season.

“I'm glad I was here last year. We got to get to know the kids, get to know your staff,” Hansen said. “When that season ends you get a whole year to work with them and then build for the next season. That was important this offseason so I feel like we were building on some things. We had a lot of things to work on and keep working towards culture changes here. More importantly we just teach these kids life lessons and hopefully it's the things that we're doing, they can take with them outside of high school.”

Cross country – The Prescott Cardinals cross country season begins on Wednesday, Aug. 25 at Boyceville High School for the opening invitational. Other schools participating include Baldwin-Woodville, Colfax, Cornell, Durand, Elk Mound, Ellsworth, Elmwood/Plum City, New Auburn, Owen-Withee, Somerset, and Spring Valley.

Volleyball – The Prescott Cardinals girls’ volleyball season begins Tuesday, Aug. 24 at Menomonie High School. The opening match is a quad between Prescott, Menomonie, Barron Area Schools, and Glenwood City.

Girls’ golf – The defending Division 2 State Champion Prescott Cardinals girls’ golf season begins Friday, Aug. 13 at Reedsburg Country Club in Reedsburg, Wis. The Reedsburg Invitational begins at 2 p.m. and will include competing districts such as Reedsburg, Tomah, Stevens Point, DeForest, Wisconsin Dells and Wisconsin Rapids.

Dance Team – The PHS dance team will perform this fall during halftime at home varsity football games. The competitive season for the Cardinals Dance Team will begin during the winter.

Ellsworth Football – The Ellsworth Panthers football season begins on the road this year against the Superior Spartans on Friday, Aug. 20 in Superior.

Rob Heller, head coach for Panthers football, said he’s seen positive signs in the early practices this year.

“We're getting together and we're really looking to build off last year which was our first undefeated season in school history,” Heller said. “We're well aware that it was a shortened season, but it was still a hell of a run for us. We’ve had a really good offseason. It was nice to get back to some sense of normalcy this summer, much different than last summer when we weren't able to practice together.”

With a fully scheduled season still planned for the Panthers, Heller and the rest of the team have high hopes of repeating last year’s success in the coming weeks.

“We always take it one week at a time. We only lost four seniors last year. So we're coming back with a lot of experience, a lot of juniors a lot of sophomores with significant playing time. We’re looking to hit the ground running. We have a challenge week one against Superior. They’re a Division 2 school so they're much larger than us. That’ll be a good test for us week one, but the kids are eager to get out there and play ball,” said Heller.

Girls’ golf – The Ellsworth High School girls’ golf season begins Friday, Aug. 13 at Rolling Oaks Golf Course in Barron, Wis. The Rolling Oaks Invitational begins at 9 a.m. and will include competing districts River Falls, Hudson, New Richmond, Menomonie, Somerset, and St. Croix Falls.

Girls’ tennis – The Ellsworth Panthers girls’ tennis team has its first match of the season at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16 against the River Falls Wildcats at Summit Park in Ellsworth. On Aug. 17, the team has its first invitational of the season at Baldwin-Woodville High School. This invitational will host Baldwin-Woodville, Barron Area Schools, and Medford.

Volleyball – The girls’ volleyball team plays its first match of the season on Tuesday, Aug. 24. The quad match will be held at Colfax High School and will include competition against Colfax, Clayton and Eau Claire Regis.

Cross country – The Ellsworth Panthers’ cross country season begins Wednesday, Aug. 25 at Boyceville. Other schools participating in the opening invitational include Baldwin-Woodville, Colfax, Cornell, Durand, Elk Mound, Elmwood/Plum City, New Auburn, Owen-Withee, Prescott, Somerset and Spring Valley.

Spring Valley Football – The Spring Valley High School football season begins Friday, Aug. 20 at home against Durand High School.

Cross Country – The Cardinals’ cross country season begins Wednesday, Aug. 25 at Boyceville for the opening invitational. Other schools participating include Baldwin-Woodville, Colfax, Cornell, Durand, Elk Mound, Ellsworth, Elmwood/Plum City, New Auburn, Owen-Withee, Prescott and Somerset.

Volleyball – The SVHS volleyball season begins Tuesday, Aug. 24 at New Richmond High School. The quad will host Spring Valley, New Richmond, Amery and Hayward.

Elmwood/Plum City Football – The Elmwood/Plum City football team begins their season Friday, Aug. 20 at home in Plum City against Pepin/Alma High School.

Mike Birtzer, head coach for the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves, spoke on how the early season practices are going for the Wolves this August.

“We are a mix of very young kids and then some experienced kids. We had a bunch of kids miss out last year, you know, due to the COVID issues that were going on. But we're working on a lot of fundamental work. We have a couple new guys on the staff too. So we're working on the things that they're bringing to the table as well,” said Birtzer._ The Wolves football team has many returning players this season. Birtzer hopes they will be able to improve themselves to keep from repeating mistakes from last season._ “I'd like to get two percent better every day. Our goal is to compete in every game, you know, and keep the mistakes down. Now, last year, what really hurt us were a lot of mistakes, but we were also very inexperienced at the key positions and now this year, we want to make it possible to allow the talent to take over,” said Birtzer.

Cross Country – The Wolves’ cross country season begins Wednesday, Aug. 25 at Boyceville High School. Other schools participating in this opening invitational are Baldwin- Woodville, Colfax, Cornell, Durand, Elk Mound, Ellsworth, New Auburn, Owen-Withee, Prescott, Somerset, and Spring Valley.

Volleyball – The Wolves’ volleyball season begins Tuesday, Aug. 24 as they host the opening season match. The Wolves’ will host seven other schools, including Alma/Pepin, Blair-Taylor, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser, Gilmanton, Greenwood, Independence and Shell Lake.

Photo by Teodore Tollefson.