SHOTS from the Hip

Thrilling. It’s the best word to describe the two tense, fist clenching, and nail-biting regional tournament victories for Head Coach Joan Korfhage and the Prescott girls basketball team. After Friday’s nervewracking overtime squeaker over the Somerset Spartans, the Cardinals survived a late Baldwin-Woodville onslaught to win their third regional championship in the last four years. The threepoint shooting of Izzy Matzek, Brynley Goehring, Lila Posthuma, Katrina Budworth, Rhianna Stutz, and Rylie Radloff enabled the Cardinals to punch their ticket to Sectionals.

Speaking of Saturday’s regional championship game, what a nice touch it was to have video of Baldwin-Woodville athletes reading the WIAA Sportsmanship statement before the playing of the national anthem. Well done.

Waiting for the Cardinals in the sectional semi-final will be St. Croix Falls who defeated Ellsworth in the regional championship by a score of 76-44. Finishing second in the Heart of the North Conference, the Saints will come into Thursday with an overall record of 22-4. The Cardinals and the Saints played during the regular season with Prescott coming out on top by a score of 59-57. Katrina Budworth and Izzy Matzek combined for 42 points as the Cardinals defeated a Saints team that was undefeated at the time. Advancing to sectionals for the fourth consecutive year, the Saints lost to La Crosse Aquinas in the finals last year and to Arcadia the previous year.

Incidentally, the St. Croix Falls adult girls basketball fans have a reputation for verbose, mouthy, and offputting behavior – Headshaker of the week like behavior.

In the realm of high school sports there are few things better than the atmosphere of high school basketball. Raucous crowds, high school bands, and spirited play make for some memorable March moments. When it comes to Prescott basketball, I am not sure if fans notice what has been a constant for quite some time – the Prescott High School Pep Band under the direction of Jason Canfield. Cardinal fans expect to see the band in their reserved corner of the gym whose impressive, boisterous percussion section can be heard in Diamond Bluff on game nights. Understand fans, this is not the norm. The number of games area schools have their pep bands play per year can be counted on both hands. Not true for Prescott. Mr. Canfield and a few dozen musicians twice, sometimes three times a week, show up and selflessly perform for their friends, classmates, and adults. Hats off to the Prescott High School Pep Band members and Mr. Jason Canfield for all they have done over the years. Well done.

And on the same “note,” how many Prescott games have you attended this season where high school kids have sung the national anthem? Prescott High School Choir Director Brittany Kamrath and high school musicians have made it the norm. It is certainly not true in other schools. Instead, instrumental or various vocal renditions of the national anthem lifted from YouTube – some better than others – are typically played over the public address system in other schools. Not so in Prescott. For quite some time, high school students have chosen to be “on the stage” for two minutes to sing a very, very difficult song in front of hundreds of people. Soloists singing the anthem publicly is one thing, but to do so acapella is another. That takes talent, poise, and courage. Well done. Hats off to Choir Director Brittany and to these young vocalists for showing that high school performance is not only about shooting free throws or scoring touchdowns.

Congratulations to Sam Murphy on finishing an impressive Cardinal wrestling season culminating in an appearance in the WIAA State Tournament. The 152-pound senior state qualifier Murphy finished the year with 34 wins and ended his preparatory career as one of Prescott’s finest wrestlers of the last decade.

Peter Brookshaw and the North Dakota State Bison split last Saturday’s double header with Dixie State losing game one by a score of 6-2 and winning the nightcap by the same score. Brookshaw finished the day 3-7 including his first home run of the season in game one. In game two, the Bison shortstop went 2-4 as the Bison evened their season record at 3-3. The Bison will travel to Long Beach State this coming weekend for a three game series followed by a 6 p.m. game on Tuesday, March 8 at US Bank Stadium against the Minnesota Gophers.

Isabella Lenz scored eight points off the bench as the Michigan Tech Huskies earned the #4 seed in next week’s conference tournament with a convincing 78-63 victory over Lake Superior State. Michigan Tech will open the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference Tournament against #5 seed Northwood on Wednesday. The Huskies are 17-10 overall on the season.

From the Department of Natural Resources: The Department is seeking volunteers to help care for state parks and public lands. Volunteers are an integral part of providing excellent customer service to visitors, expanding recreation and education opportunities. Whether you volunteer for a few hours or a couple of weeks, your service makes a world of difference. To make volunteering easier than ever, the DNR launched their Volunteer Impact System, a new online volunteer portal. The online system helps people search and sign up for volunteer opportunities across a variety of Wisconsin state parks, trails, recreation areas and forests. You can see, share and apply for a variety of volunteer positions across the state on your web browser.

Headshaker of the week. Contrary to popular belief, no basketball, football, baseball, softball, track, wrestling, volleyball, cross country, or hockey official wants to make a call that has an impact on the outcome of a game. Remember that. Don’t make a fool out of yourself by bombarding, absolutely bombarding, officials with disparaging remarks. It is so juvenile. It is so sophomoric. It is so embarrassing. It’s a headshaker.

By Cripe Olson