SHOTS from the Hip

Head Coach Justin Poirier and the Prescott wrestling team open their season this Thursday in Osceola. The Cardinal grapplers will square off with both Osceola and Somerset in their first conference match of the year.

The traditional nine-day deer gun season has ended. Preliminary numbers show the harvest is down from last year along with the number of hunters who participated in the annual November hunt. Regardless, numerous media sources list Wisconsin as the #1 state for Boone and Crockett white tails. Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota round out the top six. When it comes to overall harvest, Texas tops the list when it comes to both overall population and annual harvest.

Congratulations to Prescott tninh grader Owen Bayer on harvesting an impressive 10-point buck opening weekend of gun season in Pierce County. The high school freshman credits his dad for the successful hunt and also weekly hunting tutelage from his Grandpa Gary. Bravo Owen.

Prescott grad Isabella Lenz scored seven points off the bench as Michigan Tech defeated Northern Michigan last Saturday by a score of 81-69. The Huskies improved to 5-1 on the season and open conference play this Saturday against Northwood University. Nicole Dalman, another 2020 Cardinal alumnus, pulled down a game high six rebounds as St. Catherine’s defeated St. Scholastica by a score of 7552 and improved to 2-1 in conference play. Finally, 2019 Prescott alumnus Haylee Yaegar and the UWStout basketball team open conference play this Wednesday in River Falls.

As we enter a sportscrazed time of year where professional football, basketball, and hockey are coupled with the same at the college level, television viewers will be bombarded with play-byplay commentators and 24hour sports reporting chock full of seemingly endless and tireless sports cliches and idioms leading to eye rolls and pursed lips among viewers. Players, reporters and coaches, please stop using the following. “Play one game at a time.” I can’t remember any team playing two games at one time. “He/We gave 110%.” Dumb. Because of the overuse of this idiotic cliche I am beginning to think some people believe 110% is the total amount possible. If that is the case, I guess it’s time to start giving 120% in games. Finally, “They came to play.” Stupid. I hope the people wearing the uniforms, along with baseball gloves, shoulder pads and carrying hockey sticks came to play. I am quite sure they did not show up to buy a set of snow tires.

Mark Hallberg has been named the new third base coach of the San Francisco Giants. An alumnus of Barron High School, Halberg was a teammate of recent Prescott Hall of Fame inductee Nick Schommer and former Cardinal All State outfielder Alex Ross in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All Star Game in 2004. Halberg went on to play baseball at Illinois-Chicago and Florida State University. After being drafted and playing in the minors for several seasons, Hallberg began coaching at the Minor League level in the Giants organization and was promoted to the big league club this past year. The Giants will be playing at Target Field Aug. 26-28 this season. Incidentally, Hallberg was born in Saudi Arabia.

Peter Brookshaw and the North Dakota State Bison will be playing the Minnesota Gophers twice next season. NDSU will play the Gophers at US Bank Stadium on Tuesday, March 8 and at Siebert Field on Tuesday, April 5. The Bison are coming off a record 42-win season and a NCAA Tournament berth. Brookshaw was recently awarded the Northwestern Mutual Bison Excellence Award. Another Cardinal baseball alumnus Hunter Daymond will wear #1 as an outfielder for the Bemidji State Beavers next spring. The former Middle Border All Conference outfielder last played for Western Technical Junior College in La Crosse.

Headshaker of the week. As mentioned earlier, we are on the cusp of the college bowl season. From the Rose Bowl to the granddaddy of them all, The First Responder Bowl, the NCAA Division I post season means additional revenue to participating teams along with countless hours of viewing for football-crazed fans. As many have argued, it is time to expand the current fourteam national championship playoff to 12 teams. Mind you, the current system isn’t nearly as bad as what existed before the current final four playoff; however, this year especially shows the glowing weakness of such a system. Teams can still qualify for the glimmer and glitch connected to The Pinstripe Bowl or Gasparilla Bowl. As they do at all the lower levels of NCAA football, it’s time to change the current system. A four-team playoff? It’s a headshaker.

By Cripe Olson