The Wisconsin Sports Network released its 2024 preseason football rankings and have private school La Crosse Aquinas as the #1 ranked team in Division 4. The Somerset Spartans are the top ranked Middle Border Conference school at #11, Baldwin-Woodville picked is at #13 and St. Croix Central is ranked #14. Prescott, Ellsworth, Altoona, and Osceola are picked as teams to watch this fall. 

Head Coach Jordan Hansen and the Prescott football team participated in a multi-day scrimmage with Holmen High School last month. The Cardinals return more than a dozen seniors from a year ago and are picked to finish in the top half of the always tough Middle Border Conference. Hansen said the team emerged from the annual scrimmage 100% healthy. 

University of Wisconsin golfer Ava Salay is a month away from beginning her second season with the Badgers. A 2023 Prescott alumnus, Salay and her teammates will open the season at University Ridge Golf Course on Sept. 8-10 when Wisconsin hosts the Badger Invitational. 

Speaking of golf Prescott Head Girls Golf Coach Chad Salay and the powerful Cardinal golf team are two weeks away from kicking off their season. The prohibitive Middle Border Conference favorite, Prescott will compete in Division I during the WIAA Tournament series. 

From the WIAA: The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association performance factor initiative has advanced through the process for the third time with a review of the spring sports for implementation in 2024-25. An ad hoc committee consisting of 11 superintendents/district administrators, six athletic directors, one principal and one principal/athletic director proposed the performance factor process, which was approved by a 265-115 membership vote at the 2023 Annual Meeting for implementation in 2024-25. The initiative promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period. School programs reaching the six-point performance factor threshold during the past three seasons are placed in the division containing the next largest set of enrollments from where the schools’ enrollments would place them for each respective sport other than track & field and swimming & diving–which do not have a team component to advancement in the Tournament Series–and sports with only one division. Schools are restricted to moving up a maximum of one division from the previous year’s placement. St. Croix Falls baseball team will move up to Division 2 as will the La Crosse Aquinas baseball team. The Amery boys golf team will move up a division as will the Grantsburg softball team. 

A trio of Prescott alumni are poised to begin the season on the University of Wisconsin-River Falls football team this month. Sophomore linebacker Brady Block, junior linebacker Jack Olson, and senior offensive lineman Austin Fox will all play for the Falcons this fall. 

Infielder Peter Brookshaw and the rest of the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks are one and a half games behind the division-leading Sioux Falls Canaries. The Redhawks have one month left in the regular season before playoffs begin. Brookshaw remains among the team leaders in several offensive categories.

Michigan Tech All Conference returnee Isabella Lenz and her Huskie teammates will open the 2024-25 season in Wisconsin Dells for the JustAGame Crossover, facing Great Lakes Valley Conference affiliate Lewis–an NCAA Tournament team a season ago on Nov. 8 and Great Midwest Athletic Conference affiliate Thomas More-Kentucky on Nov. 9. Both games are scheduled for a 1 p.m. tip off. Lenz is a 2021 graduate of Prescott High School. 

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The DNR is seeking volunteers to promote safe, responsible and ethical hunting practices as hunter education instructors. Volunteer opportunities are available in all parts of the state. Since the program's creation in 1967, more than 20,000 volunteer instructors have trained and certified more than one million hunters across Wisconsin. These efforts have helped make hunting much safer, with a 95% decrease in hunting-related incidents since the program's start. In addition to shaping the future of Wisconsin's hunting tradition, becoming a volunteer instructor is a great way to obtain hands-on teaching experience, work closely with DNR staff and engage with your local community. There are two ways to become a certified volunteer hunter education instructor. Interested volunteers can serve as apprentices under a sponsoring instructor for at least two complete courses or attend a certification training session hosted by a DNR Outdoor Skills Trainer. Once certified, the DNR provides volunteer instructors with all the materials and equipment required to teach a hunter education course. Instructors must teach one class every three years to remain certified, although many teach more.

Headshaker of the week. This week’s rendition is connected to the game of pickleball. Invented by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum in 1965 at Pritchard's summer home on Bainbridge Island, Wash., the three dads wanted to create some fun for their kids during the summer, and improvised paddles and a wiffle ball to play with a badminton net after they could not find a badminton birdie. Over the last two decades participation in the sport has exploded. Nary does a day go buy when local players are not showcasing their serves, and hitting sizzling forehands and spinning backhands on the playing areas adjacent to the middle school. In Prescott, providing pickleball courts for the increasingly popular activity has been a wise investment by the community. Well done. However, true to form, an eye rolling aspect of the sport has sadly emerged. Fantasy Pickleball. Yep, Fantasy Pickleball. Headquartered out of Texas, Major League Pickleball has partnered with Franklin Sporting Goods to provide game enthusiasts the opportunity to win money by betting on the sport. For you cynics out there who believe this is made up here is the address:  https://www.fantasypb.net/ . You have got to be kidding me. Fantasy Pickleball? Now that’s a headshaker.