The Prescott girls softball team garnered the #3 seed in the fast-approaching WIAA Division 3 State Tournament. Head Coach Nick Johnson and his club will host #6 Tomahawk on Tuesday, May 26. The Hatchets enter the week with an overall record of 9-11 and are currently in fifth place in the Great Northern Conference. The winner of next Tuesday’s opening round game will play the winner of the game between #2 seed Arcadia (15-3) and the #7 seed Crickets of Fall Creek. Arcadia enters the week as the #4 ranked team in Division 3. The Orioles of Stanley-Boyd (14-1) are the top seed in the sectional and are ranked #5 in the most recent Wisconsin Fastpitch Coaches Association Rankings. 

The Prescott Cardinal baseball team returned from Wisconsin Dells after gaining a split with the #13 ranked team in Division 2. After dropping game one of the doubleheader by a score of 7-3, Prescott rebounded with an 8-3 victory in game two. The Cardinals head into the final week of the regular season one game behind Altoona and an overall record of 15-6. Head Coach Brad Matzek’s club wraps up the regular season at Baldwin-Woodville on Thursday. This week Matzek will head to Chippewa Falls for Division 3. Teams included in the Cardinal half of the Cumberland Sectional include Fall Creek (18-3), Elk Mound (19-2), Mondovi (12-6), and Melrose-Mindoro (12-3). The Cardinals expect to garner one of the top three seeds, but as is always the case, WIAA seeding meetings can lead to surprising results. 

According to eyewitness accounts, the behavior of the Wisconsin Dells baseball team left much to be desired.  Reportedly during the game players from the host school were rattling the dugout fence like angry caged primates. The sophomoric, boorish behavior became so bad that remarkably the home plate umpire asked the team to cease and desist. Wow. An umpire admonishing a team for unsportsmanlike bench behavior. Typically, you would have a better chance of getting a clear photograph of Bigfoot than seeing an umpire reprimand a team for such idiotic dugout behavior.  

Pitcher Ella Stewart and the North Dakota State College of Science softball team went a perfect 3-0 in the St. Cloud Junior College Regional Softball Tournament earlier this month and qualified for the NJCAA DIII World Series in Dewitt, NY to defend their national championship. This is the sixth straight Region Championship for NDSCS. After the Wildcats opened the regional with an 8-0 victory over Central Lakes College, Stewart took the hill and was the winning pitcher in game two as NDSCS edged St. Cloud Tech by a score of 3-2. Stewart did not walk a batter or allow a hit over the final five frames and struck out eight hitters in the one run nail biter. The two teams played again for the right to advance to New York. Stewart, once again, was dynamic on the mound, tossing six innings, giving up three hits, one walk, surrendered one run and struck out 12 as the Wildcats punched their ticket to New York. Earlier in the week, Stewart was named 1st Team All Conference and was named Co-MVP Pitcher in the Mon-Dak Conference. Stewart is currently 18-4 and has struck out 167 hitters in 131 innings pitched. Stewart is a 2024 Prescott High School graduate. 

Congratulations to Head Coach Jeff Block and his Wisconsin Badgers Club Baseball team as they qualified for the 25th Annual National Club Baseball Championships in Alton, Ill. this coming weekend. Wisconsin entered last weekend’s regional tournament as the #4 seed and emerged as champions of the Great Lakes Regional that included top seeded UW-La Crosse, second seeded Pittsburgh, and third seeded Michigan. Wisconsin, the #6 seed, will open the national tournament this Friday against #3 seed Florida Gulf Coast. The winner will play the winner of the game between #2 seed East Carolina and #7 seed Creighton. A 1997 Prescott Alumnus, Block is in his 18th season as the Wisconsin head coach. 

Infielder Peter Brookshaw and the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks won four consecutive road games against the Railroaders of Cleburne, Texas to open the 2026 season. The RedHawks began the season with seven games on the road and will host the Kane County Cougars (Illinois) for a three-game weekend series. 

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The DNR reminds Wisconsin hunters that they have until May 31, 2026 to apply for a chance at a 2026 elk hunting license. Wisconsin's elk hunting season is a unique hunting opportunity, open only to Wisconsin residents. With a few clicks, Wisconsinites can purchase their elk license applications online through Go Wild. The application fee is $10 for each of the bull elk and antlerless elk drawings and is limited to one application per person, per authorization type. The DNR recommends that all applicants check and update their contact information to ensure contact with successful applicants. Wisconsin residents can only draw an elk license once in their lifetime, and declining the antlerless license will not count against this limit. Winners will be notified by DNR staff in early June.

Headshaker of the Week. While attending a local youth baseball tournament over the weekend, I found myself thinking about the song “The End of the Innocence” by Don Henley and co-written by Bruce Hornsby. The song reflects on the loss of childhood innocence and how quickly simpler times seem to disappear. Sadly, the thought felt all too appropriate while watching what youth sports have become. As each player approached the plate, dugout speakers boomed personalized walk-up songs just like at a Major League Baseball game. That alone is excessive for a youth tournament, but worse yet was the music itself. Several songs featured R-rated lyrics blasting throughout the park. Attending parents and grandparents seemed oblivious and unbothered by profane lyrics that would have been considered unacceptable in most public places not too long ago. Apparently, this is now considered normal. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but youth sports used to be about learning the game, building friendships and enjoying the innocence of childhood competition. Now, it feels like every young teenager needs a professional-style entrance complete with music better suited for a nightclub than a baseball diamond. Somewhere along the line, we stopped protecting the very innocence youth sports were once meant to celebrate. I just don’t get it, and I probably never will. It’s a headshaker.