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1 week ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — Players jogged onto the field under a cloudless June sky as heat waves radiated from the turf at NBC Spartan Sports Complex. Superior head coach Rob Scott and a handful of assistants gathered with athletes who arrived voluntarily for the defensive secondary camp, one of several new endeavors the Spartans implemented as a result of the WIAA’s new offseason contact day regulations. “The WIAA now allows six weeks of summer coaching contact,” Scott said.
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1 week ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — Ryan Pettingill stood on the perfectly manicured 18th tee and quietly reminded himself that he had one final chance to make magic happen. The Superior junior knew he was hovering around the qualification line for individual state golf, and that a late charge could make him the first Spartan to reach Madison in over a decade. “We didn’t think we were quite there, but we knew we were getting close,” Pettingill recalled.
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2 weeks ago | 
duluthnewstribune.com | Reagan Hoverman
CLOQUET — Bouncing basketballs and children’s laughter created a perfect harmony that resonated through the halls. School had long been released for the summer, but athletes in kindergarten through eighth grade filled the gym with Joe Seymour, Cloquet’s new head boys basketball coach, as part of his “Meet & Ball” program. “I’m trying to get the youth engaged, so I did this K-8 to try to get kids in here and engaged with the program at a young age,” Seymour said.
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2 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
ATHENS, Wis. — It would have been hard for Nate Ahlberg to imagine in April that his team would be playing for a sectional title in June. The longtime Northwood/Solon Springs head coach arrived at the first day of practice and began molding a varsity roster littered with underclassmen and included just one junior and one senior.
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3 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — As Beckett Selden released the disc from his hands, he knew immediately it was special. Selden turned and watched it fly for a few seconds before ultimately landing in a place no other competitor reached during Superior’s meet at Rock Ridge in the final days of April. “I knew it was far,” Selden said. “I threw it, and then the person with the marker went out and stuck it in the ground.
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3 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — Three years ago, Anna Manion and Tayler McMeekin sat on the sideline wondering what went wrong. The Spartans freshman duo looked up at a scoreboard that showed seven Eau Claire Memorial goals and none for Superior. It was a lopsided first-round playoff loss, one that capped off a winless season for the Spartans. Nearly three years to the day since that defeat, Manion and McMeekin flipped the script.
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3 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
IRON RIVER — Austin Lahti was drenched in sweat long before he stepped on the mound for Wednesday’s Division 3 regional semifinal. “I was carrying lumber all day,” Lahti said. “I work for a construction crew, so we worked from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. carrying big 8x8s for a two-story deck we’re building.
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3 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — Paige ‘Jelly’ Johnson emerged from the dugout as her name was called during introductions minutes before the 2023 Division 1 state softball title game. The announcer identified her as Paige B. Johnson, while classmate Paige ‘Peeps’ Johnson’s name was simply read as Paige Johnson. On the surface it was a miniscule difference, but for Jelly, it was the continuation of a trend that made her feel secondary. “That year at state she was Paige Johnson and I was Paige B.
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4 weeks ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
BRULE — A few seconds before Claire Nielsen led off the bottom of the sixth inning, Ellie Peterson walked over and offered some brief words of reassurance. “Ellie told me, ‘You’re the best person who could be in that box, so go get a hit,” Nielsen recalled. “When you hear that from a teammate, that helps me get out of my head. It made me know I can hit, and it gave me the confidence to go do it.” Nielsen stepped into the box moments later and cranked a double to right-center field.
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1 month ago | 
superiortelegram.com | Reagan Hoverman
SUPERIOR — Mattie Schilling heard the crack of the bat and started sprinting. She had just seen fellow senior Jade Bonner blast a single to right field, and as Schilling rounded second, she saw Superior head coach Bobbijean Gidley waving her home. “I looked to Gidley to see what she wanted and her arm was going,” Schilling said. “I was like, ‘Oh no.’ I rounded it, thought I was going to trip and just kept going.
