E-S title is county’s first since ‘86 Norse

Last week’s Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Championship was a first in Eleva-Strum school history and just the third baseball title won by a Trempealeau County school.

The last county or Dairyland Conference baseball team to bring home a gold ball was the 1986 Whitehall High School baseball squad, coached by Dave Henrickson. That team played in the summer baseball tournament, which only had one division. Trempealeau High School also won a team title, taking the 1968 crown when Ed Hanson’s squad topped Menomonee Falls.

E-S is the first DC team to win a state title since the conference began playing spring baseball in 2012. Though, West Salem — which played summer ball as part of the Dairyland Conference until the switch to spring — won the 2017 Division Two title. West Salem, along with Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau and Arcadia moved from the DC to the Coulee Conference when the schools switched to the spring season. The only other former summer season DC team to make the spring state tournament is Independence/Gilmanton, which took second in 2017.

Area schools summer and spring state baseball tournament records:

Arcadia (10, all summer) – 1968 (0-1), 1988 (0-1), 1989 (0-1), 1996 (0-1), 1997 (0-1), 1998 (0-1), 1999 (0-1), 2000 (0-1), 2006 (0-1), 2007 (1-1) 

Blair-Taylor (including Blair) (3) – Spring: 1950 (1-1), 1953 (0-3). Summer: 1997 (0-1) 

Eleva-Strum (1) — 2024 (2-0)

Osseo-Fairchild (2, both spring) — 2006 (0-1), 2013 (0-1)

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (including Trempealeau) (10, all summer) – 1968 (2-0), 1972 (0-1), 1973 (0-1), 1975 (0-1), 1978 (0-1), 1982 (0-1), 1983 (0-1), 1984 (2-1), 1995 (0-1), 2004 (0-1) 

Independence/Gilmanton (including Independence) (3) – Summer: 2003 (0-1) Spring: 1948 (1-1), 2017 (1-1)

Whitehall (9, all summer) – 1976 (0-1), 1985 (1-1), 1986 (3-0), 1987 (0-1), 1990 (2-1), 1992 (0-1), 1993 (0-1), 1994 (1-1), 2005 (0-1).