Head Coach Owen Hamilton and the Prescott girls basketball team started practice this week ready to defend their Middle Border Conference title from one year ago. Hamilton, a 2017 Prescott alumnus, is in his first year as head coach of the Cardinals who along with Atloona and Ellsworth have been picked as the teams to beat in the conference this year. Prescott has won the last three conference titles. Joining Hamilton’s coaching staff will be Prescott alumni Payton Bartsch and Georgia Bowen.

At Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association District meetings two weeks ago, coaches around the state expressed concerns about both the WIAA competitive balance proposal and the computerized tournament seeding process. One coach remarked that “In order to figure out the competitive balance proposal, you need all your fingers and toes, a slide rule, an abacus, and a calculator to understand it.” And, when it comes to seeding the WIAA tournament, another coach said “There needs to be some way to add a human element to the process and not just let the modern-day version of Hal The Computer from Space Odyssey make all the decisions.” Hopefully the WIAA leadership will make some adjustments after what happened in both the post season for both volleyball and football.

North Dakota State senior shortstop Peter Brookshaw breathed a sigh of relief recently after a right ankle x-ray came back negative. Brookhaw and his Bison teammates are coming off a conference championship season and are picked as one of the Summit League favorites, along with Oral Roberts, in the spring of 2023.

Michigan Tech sophomore guard and Prescott alumnus Isabella Lenz had 14 points, five rebounds, and three assists in the Huskies 68-64 exhibition loss to Division I UW-Green Bay.

“I thought for our first time out we play really well,” said Lenz, Prescott’s all time leading scorer. “Hopefully we can stay injury free and healthy this season and just continue to get better throughout the year.”

Michigan Tech will open the season this Friday as they travel to Liberty, Mo. to take on William Jewel on Friday and Lewis College of Illinois on Saturday.

The last of the Middle Border Conference football teams were eliminated last Friday from the WIAA tournament. The Panthers, ranked in the top 10 all season, were ridiculously forced to travel four hours by bus to take on the #2 ranked Columbus Cardinals. Why not choose a neutral site rather than have the #4 ranked Panthers figuratively travel to another time zone to play a Friday night football game?

Junior Parker Nielsen and the #5 West Texas A& M Buffalo basketball team opened their season with a 78-62 loss to #1 ranked Northwest Missouri State, the NCAA Division II defending champion. The two teams played to a 36-36 tie at the half. It was a fivepoint game midway through the second half, before the Bearcats pulled away late. The following day the Buffaloes lost a heartbreaker to Florida Southern College by a score of 92-90.

Tiny Regis High School has advanced to the semi-finals in the WIAA Division 7 Football Tournament with a 53-8 victory over perennial football power Edgar. Champions of the Cloverbelt Conference, Regis enters the state semi-finals as the #1 ranked team in Division 7. Local fans remember the Ramblers sneaking past the Cardinals by a score of 13-6 in the season opener for both teams. This week Regis will play Bangor, a school with larger enrollment for the right to advance to the Division 7 title game. In fact, Regis is the second smallest Division 7 school remaining in the tournament. Wisconsin High School football fans recall last year Regis lost in the championship by a score of 28-22 to Coleman High School, another school with a larger enrollment than the Ramblers.

From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: The DNR is seeking public comment on the future management of department properties in the Western Coulees and Ridges Region. A regional master plan establishes the levels and types of resource management and public use permitted on department- managed properties. The Western Coulees and Ridges Region includes all or portions of 22 counties, including Pierce and St. Croix. Members of the public are invited to engage in the DNR’s planning process and share their thoughts on the future use and management of DNR properties in the region by visiting the DNR’s Western Coulees and Ridges Regional Master Plan webpage or by attending one of three public open house meetings. The nearest meeting will be held at the UW-Eau Claire Davies Center on Wednesday, Nov. 16 beginning at 5 p.m. in the Council Oak Room.

Headshaker of the week. Since 1976, the New York Yankees have maintained a strict appearance policy, specifying that players’ hair must not touch their collars and that they may have mustaches but no other facial hair. The policy came from then-franchise owner George Steinbrenner, who believed that regulating his players’ appearance would instill a sense of discipline. Obviously no such rule is in place for the Philadelphia Phillies players Jayson Merth, Alec Bohm, and Brandon Marsh. The Grizzly Adams – Rasputin the Wild Monk look looks so dumb. Sporting a look resembling that of a deserted Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway or Leonardo DiCaprio playing Hugh Glass in the Revenant? It’s a headshaker.