Incoming Cardinal senior Isabella Lenz continues to hear from several area schools hoping to entice the talented Prescott guard to their hard court in the 2021-22 season. A member of the National Honor Society and a Top 10 Student, Lenz is being recruited by several area schools including Michigan Tech, Winona State, Minnesota- Duluth, Minot State, and Division I North Dakota State. And, as expected, several NCAA Division III Wisconsin Schools have also been in contact with Lenz.

Congratulations to the team of Connor Loutsch, Brandon Keiper, and Jacob Hintz on winning at a 2012 Prescott Cardinal baseball team alumni virtual trivia contest last week. All were seniors on the team that won the school’s second state baseball title in school history eight years ago.

For over three decades the number of left-handed pitchers logging considerable innings for Prescott Cardinal baseball teams have been minimal. Undoubtedly baseball fans remember the likes of Dan Schommer, Jeff Larson, Dan Knopf, Alex Ross, Brady Schommer, and Eric Tobias. For quite some time there has been a strange dearth of left-handed pitching in the 54021 zip code. However, a host of up and coming Cardinal southpaws with both new and familiar Prescott names have raised the eyebrows of local baseball afficionados. Within the next few years expect more lefties to toe the rubber for the Cardinals.

Long time WIAA Referee/ Umpire/Official Dan Hoffman continues to have great luck on area trout streams. The retired River Falls High School Science Teacher and outdoor enthusiast is known throughout western Wisconsin as among the most relentless pursuers of the popular game fish. Earlier this spring Hoffman returned to the Brule River after a 40 year absence in a hopeful quest that would culminate in the successful landing of a steelhead. Mission accomplished. The affable and popular Hoffman landed a 27 inch beauty. Hoffman’s secret to catching trout…nightcrawlers.

Speaking of the outdoors… The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources now offers annual state park passes for sale online for the first time in agency history. This service is part of the DNR's overall effort to accommodate the high demand for state park stickers and encourage Wisconsinites to visit the state's beautiful array of public land. YourPassNow is a digital marketplace that allows Wisconsin state park visitors to conveniently purchase their annual state park passes online. Stickers available for purchase online include $28 for annual Wisconsin Resident and $13 for Wisconsin Senior Residents. And don’t forget Wisconsin Elk Hunters, applications for the 3rd Elk Hunt in state history are due on May 31st.

Despite the absence of a spring season and postseason All-Star games, Hats off to the Wisconsin Fastball Coaches Association and the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association on recognizing or planning to recognize 2020 graduates by naming deserving seniors to respective All-Star Game rosters. Well done.

Today when pick up basketball games are taboo, neighborhood wiffle ball games are prohibited, and touch/tackle football games are forbidden, I often wonder as to whether or not today’s youngest generation is aware of, or played a board game called Strato Matic Baseball? Those of my generation most likely remember the intricacies and strategies associated with the playing of the once very popular board game that was invented by a teenager by the name of Hal Richman. In Strato Matic Baseball each athlete is represented by a player card, on which are printed various ratings and result tables for dice rolls. A player, who may play solitaire or against another player, is in charge of making strategic and personnel decisions for their team, while determining the results of their decisions by cross-referencing dice rolls with a system of printed charts and tables. Strat-O-Matic's statistical research and game development methods were implemented with the intent of replicating athletes' abilities as accurately as possible, giving the player the feel of making managerial decisions. The game was outstanding. However, my guess today’s generation spurns the idea of a baseball board game for the virtual reality of any number of video games. Too bad,