It was an aerial bombardment unlike any other last week as the Prescott Cardinal girls’ basketball team opened the Middle Border Conference season with a hard fought 66-64 victory over Somerset. The Cardinals drained 15 three pointers with Violet Otto leading the way with seven treys. 

The Somerset Spartans boys’ basketball team opened the 2023-2024 season with a 100-58 rout of the Colfax Vikings last week. This Friday, the Prescott Cardinals open the season at home against the #6 ranked Spartans who are picked to finish first in the Middle Border Conference. Head Coach Nick Johnson enters his 13th season with an impressive overall record of 245-56. 

Prescott Head Wrestling Coach Ian Ruble and his grapplers open their season this Saturday in the Ellsworth Invitational Tournament. Once again, the Middle Border Conference will feature some of the best wrestling teams in the state of Wisconsin. Amery senior Koy Hopke is the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the United States. Hopke has won three straight WIAA Championships and will wrestle at Minnesota next season. 

The Michigan Tech Huskie women’s basketball team traveled to Duluth last Saturday to take on the 25th ranked UMD Bulldogs. The Huskies led 51-48 after three quarters but the 2023 NCAA II runner up shut down Michigan Tech over the final six minutes winning 69-59. Prescott alumna Isabella Lenz scored 13 points in the loss. On Sunday Michigan Tech rebounded with a 72-66 victory over previously unbeaten St. Cloud State. Lenz scored 14 points and dished out a team-leading seven assists for the Huskies. 

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources…In total, hunters registered 92,050 deer statewide during the opening weekend of the 2023 gun deer hunt, compared to 103,623 registered for the same period in 2022. This is a 16% decrease from 2022 and 10% below the five-year average. A total of 51,870 bucks were registered on opening weekend, compared to 56,638 in 2022. This is a 13% decrease over 2022.

Speaking of deer, hunters in Pierce and Polk counties are still talking about the impressive buck harvested last month by Prescott local bowhunter Dave French. The 1994 Cardinal alumnus downed the impressive whitetail this past October whilst hunting on the family property in Polk County.

“There is a difference between the bucks in Pierce and Polk County,” says the affable French. “Here in Pierce County the deer are a bit more domestic and have a certain cockiness to them and are much easier to shoot. But up in Polk County the whitetails are more elusive and reclusive. You’ve got to do your homework up there if you want to bag a shoulder mount.” 

Did you know…longtime Minnesota Viking placekicker Fred Cox invented the Nerf football? George Blanda is the oldest player to ever play an NFL game. A Pennsylvania native,  Blanda played in his last game in 1975 at the age of 48 for the Oakland Raiders and played quarterback for the Raiders at the age of 46. 

Amery Middle School science teacher and head baseball coach Jeremiah Fisk has resigned from his teaching and heading coaching position. A Rice Lake alumnus, Fisk was the head baseball coach for the Warriors for the past 13 years and has accepted a position with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Fisk’s departure means seven of the eight current Middle Border Conference baseball coaches have been the head coach of their respective program for seven years or less. In the spring of 2022, Fisk was one of the featured speakers at the Prescott Baseball Banquet celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the 2012 State Championship season. 

Headshaker of the week. I had a discussion with a long-time local hunter last week wondering if his days of participating in Wisconsin’s traditional nine-day gun season are over. After hunting for over 50 years the seasoned woodsman said it “has nothing to do with age or the discomfort sometimes associated with the elements.” With a frustrated tone the Prescottonian wondered aloud, “Doesn’t anyone teach hunting etiquette anymore?” He went on to describe his opening day hunt. “Since I hunt on public land I made sure I got out to my spot early around 6:30 a.m. and put up my portable ladder stand.”  He went on. “At 7 a.m. I hear the crunch, crunch, crunch of footsteps. It was another hunter. He clearly saw me and proceeded to sit on a stump within 100 yards of me. Unbelievable. There we were, figuratively shaking hands in the woods on the first day of gun season. I was hunting and he believed he was as well. Throughout the time he was there he was taking pictures and selfies with his cell phone and some kind of video game. After 90 minutes he was finished and left his stump. As he left he paused and looked up from his cell phone and gave me a wave. The funny thing is, he thought he was being polite.” 

It’s not just young people spurning the woods today, it’s veterans like the above who have had enough of 21st century gun deer hunting. It’s a headshaker.