from the Hip

BY CRIPE OLSON Prescott golfers Ava Salay and Maddie Reiter set a tournament record and took home top honors as they shot a combined 65 in last Friday’s Reedsburg Invitational Scramble. Cardinal teammates Rhianna Stutz and Maddie Rundquist shot an impressive 73 as the Cardinals kicked ou their state title de fense in the 15-team tournament. Prescott enters the season as the #1 ranked team in Divi- sion 2 and hopes to become the fifth team in WIAA golf history to win three WIAA State Championships.

Congratulations to the Prescott Pirates on qualifying for the Wisconsin Baseball Association State Tournament over the weekend. It is the 15th time in team history the local amateur heroes have qualified for the state tournament. The Pirates won the state championship in 2014 and finished second in 2007 and 2012. Since 1995 the Pirates have an impressive overall record of 540-254 and an equally impressive 318-99 in league play over the last 27 years. The eight-team WBA State Tournament will take place this weekend in multiple sites around the La Crosse area.

The Prescott football team escaped last Friday’s scrimmage injury free and are ready to head to Carson Park in Eau Claire to take on the Regis Ramblers this Saturday at 11 a.m. A Division 7 school, Regis is coming ou a 12-1 season a year ago and are expect ed to compete for the Cloverbelt Conference Championship this season. Eau Claire Regis has an enrollment of 200 students. This will be the first time Prescott and Regis will meet on the gridiron.

The Prescott girls volleyball team led by Head Coach Tracey Budworth began practice this week. Budworth expects about 45 girls to participate in volleyball this fall. Additionally, the Prescott boys and girls cross country teams also began practice this week. First year Head Coach Tim Philips and Assistant Coach Emily Calabrese are hoping for up- wards of 45-50 harriers in the program this year.

Speaking of running, this past weekend a group of current and recent Prescott High graduates ran the 200-mile Minneapolis to Duluth Ragnar Road Race. Bravo and Brava to Eric Korfhage, Breckin Schommer, Eve- lyn Sieben, Katie Huppert, Jayde Canfield, Addison Huppert, Kennedy Braun, Rhiannon Fabian, Abby Overland, Rain Engeldinger, Ella Johnson and Madison Schmitz. Each team member runs three separate legs adding up to a total run of 15-20 miles. Congratula- tions and hats ou to all runners who took part in the grueling marathon road race.

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The Department hosted an informational meeting over the weekend inviting patrons to discuss more than two dozen proposed fishing rule changes. Among items discussed included thoughts on lowering the panfish bag limits and allowing dark house spearing for Northern Pike during ice fishing. Also, we are less than a month away from the opening of the early goose and mourning dove seasons that both open on Sept. 1.

Firehall Field will be hosting a total of 11 games this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Four games will be played Thursday and Friday and three games will be played on Saturday. Participating teams will be from the Twin Cities Metro Area.

Headshaker of the week. Crazed fans are chomping at the bit as the NFL regular season appears on the horizon. The NFL Network, ESPN endless pre-season previews, and HBO’s Hard Knocks, all are ramping up for the commencement of the 2022 season. And of course, there’s social media. Nary a day goes by without some testosterone laden rant about the home team’s prospects for the coming year. It’s quite amusing to read the zealous banter and the back and forth among rival fans. However, among my biggest eye rolls of this month has been commentary on social media regarding NFL practices. Countless video posts of NFL quarterbacks completing passes at practices leading fans to engage in chest pounding rhetoric and constant virtu- al high fives. You can read countless social commentary from fans going bananas over a posted video of Aaron Rodgers completing a pass to Randall Cobb or Kirk Cousins com- pleting a bomb to Justin Jeuerson. Posting a completed pass at practice? Going nuts at Allen Lazard catching a 10 yard down and out? You have got to be kidding me. One thing for sure, it’s a headshaker.