The Prescott boys basketball team heads into the break as the #4 ranked team in Division 3. The Cardinals humbled Amery 97-66 and head into the holiday break with a record of 4-0 in Middle Border Conference play and 6-0 overall. West Salem is ranked #1, Brillion #2, and Carmen Northwest #3. The top ranked girls basketball team is the Irish of Freedom High School. There are no teams from the Amery Sectional ranked in the top 10. Speaking of rankings, senior wrestler Ben Olson is now ranked #2 in the 106-pound division. The talented 12th grade grappler went 4-0 in last Saturday’s Cameron Dual Invitational Tournament. Juniors Nolan Thomley and Lono Thomason also wrestled well and finished the day with a record of 3-1. Head Coach Ross Wargula and his squad will wrestle in the Northern Badger Invitational in River Falls on Dec. 29 and 30. The Michigan Tech Huskies will head into the Christmas break with an overall record of 10-2 after a convincing 76-44 victory over Finlandia. Prescott grad Isabella Lenz dished out a team high seven assists as the Huskies won going away. Lenz is averaging 13.4 points a game, is shooting over 45% from beyond the arc and is tied for the team lead in assists. The Huskies are currently ranked #24 in the nation. Haylee Yeager and the UW-Stout Women’s basketball team improved to 9-1 overall with two convincing non-conference victories last week. Early in the week, Yeager pulled down a game high seven rebounds as the Blue Devils trounced Northwestern-St. Paul by a score of 83-45. Stout followed with a pedestrian 64-46 win over Cornell College of Iowa. The Blue Devils have received honorable mention votes in the most recent NCAA Division 3 national rankings. Speaking of Cardinal alumni, senior North Dakota State infielder Peter Brookshaw and his Bison teammates will once again play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation. Games against Sacramento State, San Diego State, Arizona, Arizona State, Texas State, Houston, Nebraska, Texas, and Texas Tech will do more than prepare the Bison for the defense of their 2022 regular season Summit League Title. Last spring Brookshaw was among the team leaders in hits, runs scored, doubles, homeruns, and runs batted in for a Bison team that finished 31-19 overall and 17-5 in conference play. Nature photographers have been on cloud nine over the last few days. Even novice lensmen using their cell phones have been able to capture incredible images unlike any we have seen in the Prescott area in a long time. Ellsworth High School graduates and the brother combination of Sam and Charlie Stuhl are piling up the wins this season for the Augsburg Aggie Wrestling team. Junior Sam Stuhl is ranked #4 nationally at 141 pounds and has won 19 matches this season. Sophomore Charlie Stuhl is ranked #14 nationally and has won 16 matches for the Aggies. Augsburg, a long time NCAA Division III powerhouse, is currently ranked #2 behind Wartburg College of Iowa. The 22nd Annual CAB Company Banquet is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, March 24 at the Old Ptacek’s Events Center. Finally, the 2023 Pro Bowl will feature skills competition between AFC and NFC teams during the first week of February and culminate with a flag football game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. For many years and for obvious reasons, players participating in the game showed no interest in jeopardizing their careers by being injured in a completely meaningless contest. In fact, over the last two decades adult supervisors have witnessed more contact at recess on the Malone Elementary playground than those watching the game on national TV. Bravo to the NFL for finally recognizing the obvious. Other than sports video games, perhaps someone out there will receive some old-fashioned sports related gifts. Maybe someone will receive Rockem Sockem Robots, Smash Up Derby, or Super Toe. Perhaps the board games Strat-O-Matic Baseball or Sports Illustrated Football will find their way under the tree. Possibly a pair of ice skates, a nerf football, or baseball glove, or a basketball will magically appear Christmas morning. Whatever the gift, enjoy. Merry Christmas. Headshaker of the week. Professional football fans who are a half century and older likely remember NFL Films narrator John Facenda. The longtime Philadelphia radio and television sports broadcaster’s highly recognizable baritone voice was the perfect match for the highly dramatic nature of the slow motion game footage he narrated for NFL Films. For Packer fans, such game nostalgia begins and ends with the Dec. 31, 1967 NFL Championship against the Dallas Cowboys on “the frozen tundra” of Lambeau Field. Dubbed the Ice Bowl due to below zero temperatures, the game featured the greatest block in the history of the game. The block by Packer Guard Jerry Kramer allowed Bart Starr to score on a quarterback sneak late in the fourth quarter giving the Packers the NFL Championship. For many a Packer fan, the 1960’s were the heyday of Packer football. Fast forward to 2022. Today there are a good number of Packer rooters who believe professional football games should be played in less than optimum conditions. Recently, I overheard a couple of Packers rooters exclaim “real football is played in the snow” and “football is supposed to be played when you can see the breath of the linemen on TV.” Really? Real football only exists when the thermometer reads zero or below? Both hilarious and foolish. In fact, it’s a headshaker.