January 2024

Middleton athletic director Jamie Sims and a panel of eight others will conduct interviews Friday for the school’s vacant head football coaching position.

Sims said there were 16 applicants for the job, and the panel will interview six finalists.

Sims said if things go well, he could have the Cardinals’ next coach in place by the weekend. He’s also open to conducting second interviews next week.

“We’ll do whatever we need to do to get the right person,” Sims said.

Joe Poehls and Tim Simon served as co-head coaches in 2023 when the Cardinals went 9-2, but lost to arch-rival Verona twice, including a 28-26 setback in Level 2 of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs.

Many believed Middleton’s 2023 team had more talent than any MHS team in decades and were disappointed the Cardinals didn’t achieve more.

Sims met with Poehls and Simon on Dec. 13, then opted to post the job.

Up and down, loopty-loop.

No doubt, Middleton’s boys basketball team went on a thrilling roller-coaster ride last Thursday night against Verona. Fun as it was while it lasted, though, the Cardinals were sick to their stomach when it was over.

Their emotional comeback went for naught and for the third time in three weeks they were dealt a close loss in league play, this time suffering a 79-73, Big Eight Conference defeat at the hands of the Wildcats.

Middleton trailed by 10 at halftime and again by 10 with 4 1/2 minutes gone by in the second half, but slowly clawed back, ultimately going in front 72-67 with 2 minutes, 50 seconds remaining.

Then the Cardinals’ fortunes changed.

“We kind of got sped up at the end there — threw a couple bad passes,” said 6-foot-5 senior Avery Houden, who was integral to the comeback with 10 second-half points after being shut out in the first half. 

A group gathered at the Hubbard Center Jan. 24 to create mushrooms... needle felting mushrooms. It’s the art of sculpting polypay wool by repeatedly stabbing the wool with a barbed needle.  Per its instructor Erin Ehlert Maddocks , “it’s very therapeutic.” The stabbing sculpts the wool with the needle angled at 90, 45 and flat angles depending on the stage of the process. Pictured above, Elizabeth Montemayor gauges an amount of wool to be used as the mushroom’s stem. See more on page 5 of this week's edition. Photo by Mary Langenfeld. 

If revenge is indeed best served cold, it seemed only fitting that when Middleton hosted Madison Memorial on Jan. 16, the high temperature was zero.

When these teams first met on Nov. 30, Memorial routed the Cardinals, 50-34.

Six weeks later, the Cardinals got their payback on frigid, bone-chilling night with an impressive 71-58 win.

Middleton snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 7-4 overall and 6-3 in the Big Eight Conference. Memorial fell to 5-9, 4-5.

Middleton also defeated Memorial for the fifth time in seven meetings.

“They played a lot more man this time around and our guys were very confident and ready for whatever they were going to bring on both ends of the court,” Middleton coach Kevin Bavery said. “It didn't matter to us man, zone, or some of the combination defenses they've run in the past.”