Top-10 Stories of 2021: The WIAA season returns at long last

At the end of each calendar year, our staff reflects on the most interesting stories of the past year. Through the end of the month, we’ll be counting down some of the most impactful headlines that affected Wisconsin’s baseball community, ending with our No. 1 story of 2021 revealed on New Year’s Day.

The pandemic we’ve been enduring forced us to postpone and pause many events, and the 2020 Wisconsin high school baseball season was among them. The lack of a 2020 WIAA campaign left a void within our perennial baseball coverage as one of our favorite times of the year, and its return this past spring created a cause for celebration.

The WIAA rearranged its athletic calendar for the 2020-21 school year, pushing opening day to April 27, but the Wisconsin baseball community was eager and thrilled to have the sport back integrated into our lives.

We’re spending some time today reflecting on some of our in-season coverage throughout this past spring season. For a refresher, here’s how our final edition of our state’s Power 25 Rankings shook out, following the state championship tournaments where Sun Prairie, Denmark, St. Joseph Academy, and Boyceville captured state titles at the D1 through D4 levels, respectively.

FINAL POWER 25 BOARD

On The Bubble (Listed Alphabetically): Adams-Friendship (20-6), Amherst (17-5), Beloit Turner (19-3), Bloomer (20-2), Boyceville (15-1), Catholic Memorial (16-8), Coleman (20-2), Columbus (15-5), Dodgeville (20-2), Eau Claire Memorial (17-7), Germantown (16-6), Kenosha St. Joseph (19-1), La Crosse Aquinas (23-3), Markesan (16-2), Milton (21-6), Mineral Point (23-3), Jefferson (20-6), Neenah (14-8), Ozaukee (13-0), Seymour (15-7), Stevens Point Area (17-5), Verona Area (16-5), Viroqua (21-5), Wautoma (19-3), Wauwatosa East (18-6), West De Pere (19-5).

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK