It was an impressive career high 34-point performance by Lila Posthuma last Tuesday at Somerset. The talented junior scored from everywhere and added 12 rebounds as the Cardinals opened their conference season with a crucial road victory over the Spartans. Many Prescott fans are likening the game demeanor of Posthuma to that of Isabella Lenz, the Cardinals all-time leading scorer. That is good company to keep for the talented junior. Additionally, Posthuma is on pace to become the Cardinals next 1,000-point scorer following Lenz, Kaycee Charette, Haylee Yeager, and Kollyn Severson (Eichman).

Heading east on Highway 10 another junior is poised to join the 1,000-point club, Ellsworth Panther Molly Janke. Playing for Panther Head Coach Jason Janke, Molly’s mother Chanda Janke (Most) is a 1991 graduate of Prescott High School.

Granted, growing up hunting whitetail and mule deer in Nebraska is not the same as hunting deer in Wisconsin. But like the Cornhusker State, hunting in America’s Dairyland has undergone quite a metamorphosis. The increased influence of trail cameras has led to the pursuit of primarily trophy bucks and little else during the traditional nine-day gun season. Talking with a few veteran local hunters, all waxed poetic about the way things used to be. “People don’t hunt anymore. All they do is sit in their stands all day next to their portable heaters. I guess it pays off to be lazy,” said one hunter. “No one moves deer either,” another hunter chimed in. “We used to do deer drives for two reasons, to see more deer and to just to warm up.” While nodding in agreement, another hunter said, “They need to change the name of the season from ‘deer hunting’ to ‘deer sitting.’” Speaking of deer hunting, congratulations to sophomore three-sport athlete Teddy Bernick on harvesting a nice buck opening weekend near the town of Spencer, Wis. According to several sources, the impressive 10-pointer tipped the scales at around 200 pounds. Bravo young man.

Head Coach Nick Johnson and the boys basketball team open the season this week on the road in Durand and Somerset. The Cardinals will open their home season next Tuesday when they host the St. Croix Central Panthers.

New wrestling Head Coach Ross Wargula and his grapplers will open their season this Saturday as one of eight teams participating in the Ellsworth Invitational Tournament. Action begins at 10 a.m. at Ellsworth High School.

A few Prescott basketball fans well remember the hard court exploits of Mickey Crowe, who for a while led the nation in scoring his senior year with a 41.8 average and finished his prep career in 1975 with a then-state record 2,724 points. Despite facing double-team and box-and-one defenses every night, he scored 1,001 points in 1974-75, still the third-highest single-season total in Wisconsin prep history. It was estimated Crowe took over 60% of his shots from beyond the three-point line. Crowe had games of 72, 64, and 61 points during his senior season. However, after high school bouts with alcoholism and drug addiction led to homelessness and despair. Those interested in learning more about the storied legendary Wisconsin hoop star can read the book “Over and Back – Mickey Crowe; The Strange and Troubled Life of a Wisconsin High School Basketball Legend,” written by Brett Christopherson in 2013.

Isabella Lenz scored 13 points as Michigan Tech humbled St. Cloud State by a score of 82-49 last Saturday. On Sunday, the Huskies then took on the University of Minnesota-Duluth and defeated the Bulldogs by a score of 61-46. Lenz again scored in double figures finishing with 14 points and added six rebounds as Michigan State improved to 6-1 overall on the season. Lenz, a 2021 Prescott alumnus, is averaging 13 points per game for the Huskies. Another Prescott alumnus, UW-Stout forward Haylee Yeager pulled down a game high 10 rebounds as the Blue Devils trounced UW-Superior last Tuesday by a score of 7344. Stout improves to 3-1 on the season.

While I wile away the hours during retirement, listening to talk radio has become one of my entertainment mainstays. One thing I have noticed living and listening to sports radio in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan area is the exorbitant number of Wisconsin fans, especially the Green Bay Packer faithful, who continually call in to Minnesota Sport Radio shows. Today with live streaming, one would think the Wisconsin faithful would be more inclined to tune into sports talk radio out of Milwaukee, Madison, or Green Bay. Perhaps they do. But what might be even more intriguing is these seemingly obsessed Wisconsin fans light up the KFAN switchboard even on weekends when neither the Vikings and Packers, or the Gophers and the Badgers play each other. Interesting. Intriguing. Strange. After 20-plus years, I am still trying to figure out the mindset of western Wisconsin sports fans, especially the Packer faithful in this part of the Badger state.

The Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association recently announced their 2023 Hall of Fame inductees. Rob Johnson of Eau Claire North, John Hamilton of Westby, Rob Hamilton of Sun Prairie, Dave Bahr of Lake Country Lutheran, and John Matera of Kenosha Tremper will be honored at the WBCA State Clinic and Banquet this coming February. All the inductees have won in excess of 300 games in their coaching careers.

Prescott Ice Fishing Club Head Coaches Kyle Schmidt and Jason Brazzale and about a dozen members of the Prescott High School fishing team are gearing up for the fast-approaching season. The season opens on the Chetek Lakes Chain on Jan. 7 and will be hosted by Prairie Farm High School.

Headshaker of the week: It happens after every nine-day deer season. Driving along country roads and seeing the unprocessed rib cages of harvested whitetail deer lying in the ditch. First of all, how unbelievably lazy can a hunter be to not trim the rib cage while processing. And second, throwing the carcass along the road in the same way the same person tosses an empty beer can out the window. What despicable behavior. Find the culprit and suspend their license for a year. Wasting venison … it’s a headshaker.