Prescott, Amery, and Bloomer enter this week ranked in the Top 10 in the most recent Wisconsin Sports Network State rankings. There are no other boys teams in Prescott’s Sectional ranked heading into 2025. Amazingly, in the top half of the WIAA Division 3 Tournament Bracket, only Prescott, Amery, and Ellsworth enter the new year with a record above 500. In the southern part of the bracket Elk Mound (6-1) and Berlin (8-2) appear to be at the top of the heap. In the Prescott girls’ top half of the Division 3 sectional, conference leader St. Croix Central (7-2), Amery (9-1), and Baldwin-Woodville (8-3) enter 2025 with solid records. In the southern half of the bracket, Elk Mound (10-0) enters the new year ranked #7 in Division 3. Wisconsin Dells (9-0) and Mauston (7-2) also sport impressive records in the bottom half. 

The next victory for Head Boys Basketball Coach Nick Johnson will be the 275th of his impressive coaching career.  

Bella Lenz drained a trio of three pointers and scored 17 points as Michigan Tech evened their conference record to 2-2 with a 68-60 victory over Davenport University (Grand Rapids, Mich.) With her performance, Lenz has scored 1,136 career points, good for 20th place all time. At her current pace, Lenz will most likely finish her impressive college career among the Top 10 scorers in Michigan Tech women’s basketball history. 

Lila Posthuma and the Bradley University women’s basketball team enter the week with an overall record of 8-6 on the season. A member of the Missouri Valley Conference, Bradley enters the week coming off a weekend sweep of Evansville University and Indiana State University. Posthuma, a 2024 Prescott grad, has played in all 14 games for Bradley this season. 

The Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association publishes the best pre-season yearbook in the United States. In fact, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown purchases an edition each year, with all 33 editions housed at the venerated baseball museum. Each October all Wisconsin head coaches receive a survey from the association requesting information about the upcoming season. Sadly, not all head coaches or athletic directors take the 20 minutes necessary to fill out the requested information and this year’s naughty list includes 32 schools who failed to respond to the survey, whilst 420 coaches did their due diligence and sent their information. 

During the 1950’s there was a movement toward school consolidation in the state of Wisconsin. In the first half of the 20th century, seemingly every small hamlet had a high school of their own. Today that no longer rings true. Let’s take a nostalgic look at some of the public high schools of the past, their mascots, the year the school closed, and the name of the current school their young residents attend. When it comes to athletics, perhaps the most noteworthy is Milltown High. In 1937 Milltown High School advanced to the WIAA State Basketball Tournament and were the smallest Class C school in the field. The Wildcats entered Madison with an overall record of 17-3. The school closed in 1957 and Milltown youngsters attend the Unity School District. Some other now defunct high schools include: Hammond Bluejays - 1960 (St. Croix Central), Centuria Raiders - 1957 (Unity), Balsam Lake Warriors - 1957 (Unity), Maiden Rock Rockets - 1957 (Ellsworth), Hawkins Hawks - 1967 (Ladysmith), Tripoli Tornadoes - 1969 (Prentice), Iron Belt Hornets - 1957 (Hurley), Iron River Wolverines - 1967 (Maple Northwestern), Saxon Knights - 1964 (Hurley), Cable Eskimos - 1969 (Drummond). Next week we will take a look at Wisconsin private high schools. 

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The DNR is hosting Free Fishing Weekend Jan. 18-19 to share the fun and excitement of winter fishing. During Free Fishing Weekend, anglers of all ages can wet a line in any Wisconsin waters open to fishing without a fishing license, trout stamp or salmon stamp. All other 2024-2025 hook and line regulations including bag limits, size limits and species restrictions remain in effect. Additionally, the department is now accepting applications for Wild Turkey, Pheasant, and Waterfowl Stamp funding. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 14, 2025.

Headshaker of the week. It always makes me chuckle when I hear sports fanatics refer to their favorite players by their first name. Names like “Brett,” “A-Rod,” and “Reggie” remain commonplace among Green Bay rooters and “Fran,” “Randy,” and “Chris” were used widely by Viking fans. It is so silly. Almost as childish as using words like “we” or “us” when talking with your friends about the professional team you root for. Referring to professional football players as if they live next door to you - it’s a headshaker.