Lots of high school athletic events this week as the winter sports season kicks into full gear. Head Boys Basketball Coach Nick Johnson and the team open their season with three games this week culminating with a non-conference clash with private school Chippewa Falls McDonnell at 4:30 p.m. at the UW-Stout Fieldhouse in Menomonie. Prescott wrestlers, under the tutelage of Head Coach Ian Ruble, will open their season on Thursday at Eau Claire Memorial and on Saturday, the Cardinals will compete in the 12-team Ellsworth Invitational on Saturday. And Head Girls Coach Owen Hamilton will head up the road with his charges to University of Wisconsin-River Falls Don Page Arena to square off with the Tigers of Northwestern.
Prescott junior guard Violet Otto eclipsed the 700 career point total this week. The talented two-time Middle Border Conference is easily on pace to  surpass the 1,000 career points either late this season or early in 2025.
Speaking of 1,000 point scorers, Prescott graduate Isabella Lenz continues to move up the list of Michigan Tech’s career scoring leaders. A senior guard for the Huskies, Lenz is ranked #25 and climbing with 1,052 points heading into this week. Lenz and the Huskies split their games over the weekend losing to Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday and defeated Winona State on Sunday. Michigan Tech opens conference play this week and will host UW-Parkside (Kenosha) on Thursday and Purdue Northwest University (Hammond, Indiana) on Saturday.
Prescott alumnus Reece Ptacek and the rest of the Kansas Jayhawk volleyball team is set to host the Colgate Raiders in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this Friday. Kansas has made the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year, and this year the Jayhawks come into the tournament with a 24-4 record, with a 15-3 mark in conference play finishing second to Arizona State in the Big 12. The Jayhawks have five ranked wins this season, and eight wins over teams that made the 2024 bracket.
Congratulations to University of Wisconsin-River Falls Center Austin Fox on being named Honorable Mention All Conference. A 2021 Prescott alumnus, Fox was a four-year letter winner for the Falcons and played in all 10 games for a team that finished 4-3 in conference play and 7-3 overall.
Wisconsin high school basketball history fans well remember prep scoring phenom Mickey Crowe. The eccentric scoring machine finished his high school career in 1975 with 2,724 points, second only to Anthony Pieper of Wausaukee who ended his remarkable career in 1993 with 3,391 points, the highest of any player in state history. There is only one other player in the top 25 who finished their high school playing prior to the onset of the three-point era in 1987-1988 season. That player is Jim Zweifel of Monticello who finished career in 1958 with 2,303 points, good for 17th all time. And on the girls side of the ledger there are also only two players ranked in the top 25 who finished their careers prior to the advent of the three point arc. At #19, Sonja Henning scored 2,236 points for Racine Horlick from 1984-1987 and at #24 Shelly Coyle scored 2,108 points for River Valley from 1983-1986.
Hunters are still buzzing about the Piebald Buck shot by 2023 Prescott grad Tucker Lansing. Harvested opening weekend, the monster whitetail will undoubtedly be visiting an area taxidermy soon. Bravo to Lansing who is known to spend countless amounts of time in the woods and on the water during state hunting and fishing seasons. It is fantastic to see hard work pay off.
From the Department of Natural Resources: In total, hunters registered 89,203 deer statewide during the opening weekend of the 2024 gun deer hunt, compared to 90,831 registered for the same period in 2023. This is a 1.8% decrease from a year ago and 4.7% below the five-year average. Hunters registered a total of 49,038 antlered deer on opening weekend, compared to 51,261 in 2023, a 4.3% decrease. The antlerless harvest was 40,165, which is up 1.5% from last year. Preliminary figures indicate the number of deer hunters in Wisconsin slightly increased compared to 2023. As of 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24, sales for deer hunting privileges (which include gun, archery, crossbow, conservation patron and sports licenses) reached 778,111, up 0.48% from the same time last year.
Headshaker of the week: Sure, college rivalry games are fun. All the pregame hoopla and good traditional back and forth braggadocio makes for an amusing pre-game, hopefully followed by an entertaining one on the field. Today, waning attendance and the eye rolling impact of the transfer portal has taken some of the luster off many of these games. However, possession of Paul Bunyan’s Axe, Floyd of Rosedale, The Little Brown Jug, the Heartland Trophy, and the Old Oaken Bucket still stir the blood of players, alumni, and fans. Today, flags, mascots, and other pregame theatrics usually reserved for college football and basketball contests have now found their way onto gridirons and into the gymnasiums of high school sports around the country. The lines between college and high school athletics are becoming more blurred by the day. Sadly, the ugly aftermath of Saturday’s game between Michigan and Ohio State seems destined to have some prep copycats in the future. What many high school athletes saw last weekend on ESPN, Tik Tok, and other forms of media was widespread coverage of Michigan players, after their upset victory on the road at Ohio State, attempting t  “plant the flag” at the 50-yard line and the Ohio State players physically attempting to stop them from doing so. It was the top story on all sports networks and likely dominated the teen weekend sports conversations. And unfortunately, today we see the negative influence the behaviors of college and professional athletes have on impressionable youth athletes: refusing to shake hands with your opponent before the game, players howling at the moon after making a tackle, a player lending an ear to the crowd, or placing an index finger over your mouth after sinking a three pointer. At some point, my guess is there will be some kind of an athletic altercation. Who knows how it will start. It might be the planting of a flag, a player’s gesture toward the crowd, or the antics of an out of control screaming adult fan. I certainly hope I am wrong, but sadly, chances are it’s only a matter of time that what we saw at midfield of the Ohio State football field manifests itself in some way, shape, or form at a high school sports venue. And it’s a headshaker.