The Cinderella season of the Prescott Cardinal volleyball team came to end at Barron Saturday night. After dispatching the Mounders of Elk Mound, state ranked Marathon, and #5 ranked Stratford all on the road, the Cardinals ran into a buzz saw in the #2 ranked Barron Bears. Seniors Natalie Ptacek, Aubryn Ennenga, Kelsey Sterud, McKenzie Sterud, and Marisa Cogan made Cardinal volleyball history advancing to the WIAA Sectional Championship for the first time in Prescott History. Well done girls and Head Coach Geoff Snyder on a remarkable season. 

Congratulations to Head Coach Tim Phillips, and assistant coaches Carl and Emily Calabrese and the Prescott girls cross country team on their tremendous 2024 season. Brava to sophomore Kyra Dix on her 12^th-place finish in Wisconsin Rapids wrapping up a stellar season for the talented 10th grader. The Cardinals will return the bulk of their team for the 2025 season. 

It was a generation ago when a Prescott football team won nine games during the season. Despite Saturday’s loss to a very good Freedom team, the Cardinals’ coaching staff and players can take solace in the fact that throngs of fans at home and on the road experienced over two decades of unmatched gridiron success this season. The fall of 2024 featured a team with a high-powered offense, aggressive defense, and a roster loaded with all conference performers. Congratulations on a fantastic season. 

From the WIAA: Beginning in June 2025, the State Softball Tournament will expand to a four-day format to address early start times and the time-constraint concerns of conducting seven games in a single day. The revised State Tournament schedule will begin Wednesday and run through Saturday. Additionally, the department discussed requiring ejected fans to complete a free online sportsmanship course before attending a home contest. Interesting. Perhaps the requirement should be extended to coaches and players who have been ejected. 

The Michigan Tech women's basketball team was predicted to finish fifth in the 2024-25 GLIAC Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll announced Wednesday. In the same release, Huskies guard Isabella Lenz was tabbed to make the GLIAC First Team. Lenz was the team’s leading scorer a year ago, scoring in double figures in 20 games and shot 78-for-87 from the charity stripe for a free-throw percentage of 89.7. The Huskies open the season in Wisconsin Dells this Friday against Lewis University of Illinois. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. Lila Posthuma and Bradley University kick off their season on Thursday when they host the University of St. Francis-Illinois. 

Reese Ptacek, a 2024 Prescott High School alumnus, and the #8 ranked Kansas Jayhawks volleyball team hosted West Virginia on Saturday and improved to 20-1 overall and 11-0 in Big 12 play with a 3-0 sweep of the Mountaineers.

Head Coach Nick Johnson and the Prescott boys basketball team are ranked #7, according to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association preseason rankings. The Cardinals, who are also picked to win the Middle Border Conference this season, return a strong contingent of players from last year’s State Tournament qualifying team. Altoona, Amery, and Baldwin-Woodville are picked to round out the top four spots in the conference and each is also ranked as Honorable Mention by the WBCA. Johnson calls the conference “the most balanced and competitive in a few years.”

From the Department of Natural Resources: The DNR will host four open houses in mid-November to share information about proposed changes to the state’s deer management units (DMUs). Three of these open houses will be in-person, with a fourth being entirely virtual. The DNR reviews deer management unit boundaries every few years. This year’s review is focused on the management units in the Northern Forest Zone, the Metropolitan subunits and the boundary lines between the Central Forest and Farmland Zones. The Farmland Zone units are not being reviewed at this time. DNR staff members will be present to talk with the public about the DMU review process and the specific proposals being considered. Come learn more about the history of the DMUs in Wisconsin, the key metrics that go into the decision-making process and the proposed boundary changes being considered. These open houses are a great opportunity to learn more about the DMU review process and talk directly with staff. You can find additional details about these upcoming open houses on the DNR’s Meetings and Hearings calendar.

Headshaker of the week. As Ronald Reagen said famously to Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale during a 1984 debate, “There you go again.” The WIAA State Volleyball Tournament will be held at the Resch Center in Green Bay on Nov. 7-9. The Division 5 field includes four private schools: Eau Claire Immanuel, Columbus Catholic, Sheboygan Christian, and Wausau Newman Catholic. Enough said. It’s a headshaker.