May 2024

PRAIRIE DU SAC – When the Middleton 29ers last won the Home Talent League championship, a youthful Drew Farrell was a bulldog on the mound and at the plate.

But while Farrell was one of the team’s rising young stars on that 2013 squad, he opened a new HTL season on Sunday as the elder statesman of the team.

“I don’t know how many years or games I’ve got left. It’s all special, and I don’t take it for granted,” said Farrell, who arrived back home on Saturday evening following a week of golfing in Ireland, but was ready to roll at game time. “I’d love, one more run. Since that 2013 championship, I think we’ve been to four or five Final Fours. We just couldn’t close the deal. Getting there is an accomplishment. I’d love to have one more shot at it.”

Although Middleton suffered a 3-2 loss to the host Sauk Prairie Twins on Sunday, Farrell said he liked what he saw from his younger teammates against the perennial league power Twins.

Cautiously optimistic.

That’s how Middleton girls soccer coach Mary Duffy feels as her Cardinals are ready to tackle the postseason.

Middleton received the No. 4 seed in its sectional and will host 13^th-seeded Madison East in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Firefighter’s Park.

If the Cardinals win there and the seeds hold, they’d host fifth-seeded Verona on June 1.

The sectional semifinals are June 6 and the sectionals finals are June 8.

Kettle Moraine is the No. 1 seed in the sectional, while Madison West, Waunakee, Middleton and Verona round out the top five.

The Cardinals are coming off an impressive week in which they lost a 1-0 decision to No. 7 DSHA, routed Sun Prairie West, 6-0, and rolled past Madison Memorial, 4-1.

Middleton improved to 9-3-3 overall.

Here’s a recap of the Cardinals’ week.

The 10^th annual ‘Strikeout Cancer’ baseball game between Middleton and Sun Prairie on May 16 raised $23,100 for pediatric cancer research. The event — which was started in 2015 by former Middleton manager Tom Schmitt and former Sun Prairie skipper Rob Hamilton — has now raised more than $200,000 for American Family Children's Hospital Kids Cancer Research.

Schmitt and Hamilton are no longer managing, but current skippers Brent Jorgensen (Middleton) and Jack Marchese (Sun Prairie) have done yeoman’s work keeping this game going.

This year, Middleton honored Lauren Droste, a Family and Consumer Science Teacher at Middleton High School.

Droste discovered she had metastatic breast cancer on Dec. 23, 2021 at just 28-years-old.

The decision about the new literacy/biliteracy curriculum that will be in place in Middleton/Cross Plains Area School District classrooms in the fall was announced at the May 13 school board meeting. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Silvia Romero-Johnson said the committee had selected two Savvas products for K-8 students.  Director of Secondary Education Keith Schneider, a member of the 25-member committee, said that typically the selection of a new curriculum stretches out over many months if not years but that the schedule was truncated due to the passage of Act 20 in the Wisconsin Assembly last July.