Rainy conditions greeted runners Thursday at Ellsworth Country Club for the Middle Border Conference championship meet, where Prescott’s girls and boys teams each finished seventh in the team standings. St. Croix Central swept both team titles, with Osceola placing second on both the girls’ and boys’ sides. Senior Kyra Dix led the way for Prescott, placing third overall to earn first-team all-conference honors. Sophomore Dawson Langer also brought home conference recognition, finishing 12th to secure second-team all-conference honors. Head Coach Tim Phillps and his Cardinal harriers will travel to Rice Lake this Friday to compete in the WIAA Division 2 Sectional Meet. The top two teams qualify for the state tournament along with the top five individual runners who are not members of the qualifying teams. The WIAA State Tournament will be held once again at The Ridges in Wisconsin Rapids on Halloween. 

Congratulations to Head Coach Chad Salay and the Prescott girls’ golf team on another great season. Brava to seniors Lilly Vesperman, Macy Reiter, and Layla Salay on their exceptional high school golf careers. Conference, Regional, and Sectional Championship hardware will soon find its place in the Prescott High School trophy case and on its walls. The three seniors have helped write another impressive chapter in Prescott girls’ golf history. Hats off to all. 

According to Bound Wisconsin, more than 70 new head boys basketball coaches and over 60 new head girls basketball coaches will take over programs for the 2026–27 season. The coaching carousel continues to spin, and sadly, there appears to be little indication that it will slow down. Behind those numbers is a troubling reality: coaching has become increasingly difficult to sustain. The loss of family time, conflicts with parents or other adults, and the overwhelming workload are among the primary reasons coaches are walking away. Add in the unrealistic expectations surrounding time commitments, year-round basketball, summer camps, and the growing list of responsibilities that extend well beyond the season, and it becomes easier to understand why so many are choosing to step aside. It is a sad trend for a profession that can have such a meaningful impact on young people. When the demands become unreasonable and the personal cost becomes too great, even dedicated coaches eventually reach a breaking point.

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The DNR joins the nation in celebrating Forest Products Week from Oct. 18-24, 2026. Wisconsin’s forests cover nearly 17 million acres of public and private forested land, roughly half of the state’s land. Many of those forests provide raw material to the forest products industry. Forest Products Week recognizes the people who work in and care for our forests, the industry workers who make the forest products we depend on, and the many ways forest products contribute to Wisconsin’s economy and quality of life. Whether it be paper projects, lumber to build homes, flooring and furniture, firewood and telephone poles, Wisconsinites depend on forest products daily. And let’s not forget the fruits, nuts, and maple syrup. No doubt Prescott High School Tech Teacher Kyle Schmidt will be doing the griddy all week as the Department celebrates the importance of the lumber industry in the Badger State. 

Middle Border Conference football runner up Baldwin-Woodville earned the #5 seed and will travel to Mount Horeb/Barneveld to open the Division 3 football playoffs this Friday. In Division 4, Conference Champion and #3 seed Osceola will host #6 seed Ashland, and #7 seed Somerset will travel to undefeated #2 seed Northwestern. In Division 5, the Amery Warriors will head to Mayville to open the postseason. 

Headshaker of the Week. There are moments when you realize that the world you remember isn't coming back. Sometimes, that's perfectly fine, other times, it's a little sad. This week's rendition comes from a simple observation at high school sporting events: fewer students seem willing to stand for their school's song. When I was in high school, you stood for two things - the national anthem and the school song. Years ago, I can remember when bands even played the visiting team's school song. There was something nice about that. You could compete fiercely on the court and still recognize the other school had traditions and pride of its own.

Somewhere along the way, that tradition faded. Today, the school song can play while many students and fans of all ages remain in their seats. Meanwhile, today student-section chants sometimes focus less on celebrating their own team and more on making fun of the opponent. Maybe that's just the evolution of student culture, but I can't help wondering whether we've lost a little something along the way. Of course, times have changed. Kids don't grow up with the same television shows, activities, or experiences that shaped previous generations. The rotary phone is gone. Andy Griffith, Gunsmoke and My Three Sons are relics of another era. Letter jackets aren't the rite of passage they once were, and the Friday night game doesn't necessarily serve as the community's central social event anymore. Students have jobs, cars, phones, laptops, and countless other things competing for their attention. Their world is different, and expecting them to live exactly as previous generations did would be unrealistic. But traditions aren't valuable simply because they're old, they are valuable because they give people a sense of belonging. They connect students to their school, their community, and the generations who wore the same colors before them and standing for the school song is a small gesture. It doesn't demand that anyone agree with everything about the past. It simply asks students to pause, show pride in their school, and recognize that they are part of something that existed before them and will continue after they graduate. Not every tradition deserves to survive forever, but I think this one does. So, the next time you attend a high school game and the school song begins, please stand. The world will keep changing. It always has. We won't bring back the rotary phone, and we probably won't convince today's teenagers to spend Friday nights watching My Three Sons. But we can still stand for the school song. And if that simple tradition has become too much to ask, well, that's a Headshaker.