The IHSAA softball season came to a close Saturday at Purdue’s Bittinger Stadium.

Here’s who is leaving West Lafayette with state championship trophies:

HIT REFRESH FOR UPDATES.

Saturday, June 14

Class 4A: Crown Point 2, Center Grove 0 (READ MORE)

Class 3A: Cathedral 5, Hanover Central 4

Class 2A: Tecumseh 2, Andrean 0 (READ MORE)

Friday, June 13

Class A: North Newton 2, Clay City 0

Read more: 33 years later, North Newton trailblazers finally see Spartans win softball state title

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.

GAME COMING UP AT 11. THE HIGH SCHOOL SPRING SPORTS PLAYOFFS CONTINUING TODAY IN BASEBALL, SOFTBALL AND LACROSSE AS TEAMS TRY TO ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND IN CLASS A GIRLS LACROSSE. TOP SEEDED KENNEBUNK HOSTED THORNTON ACADEMY. THE TROJANS STARTED OFF THINKING UPSET SOPHIA SIROIS, PUTTING THORNTON ACADEMY UP THREE NIL IN THE FIRST QUARTER, BUT KENNEBUNK WOULD RESPOND. CAMDEN KEEGAN SETTING UP THE GOAL BY MADELINE DOWLING, THEN KEENAN HELPS OR KEEPS IT FOR HERSELF. FOR THE GOAL. WE EVEN PASS THE DEFENDERS. KENNEBUNK CLIMBING BACK TO WIN IT 11 TO 7. THEY’LL TAKE ON CAPE ELIZABETH IN THE SEMIS IN CLASS A, BOYS TOP SEEDED FALMOUTH HOSTED DEERING. THE NAVIGATORS TOOK CONTROL, JOEY GARRETT GIVING FALMOUTH A 4 TO 1 LEAD. 41 SECONDS LATER, PETER KERN SETTING UP ZACH SMALL IN FRONT OF THE NET. THAT WILL MAKE IT 5 TO 1. EVAN YALE SCORED 18 SECONDS AFTER THAT, AND FALMOUTH CRUISES 18 TO 6. THE WIN. THEY FACE CAPE IN THE SEMIFINALS. IN CLASS B BOYS, FREEPORT HOSTED BRUNSWICK. THE DRAGONS WERE IN A QUICK FIVE NIL HOLE BEFORE ROBERT BOWEN PUTS BRUNSWICK ON THE BOARD. FREEPORT ANSWERING JUST OVER A MINUTE LATER WHEN HUNTER RICHARD FINDS THE BACK OF THE NET LATE IN THE FIRST HALF. HERE, RANDALL WALKER WORKING FROM BEHIND THE NET FOR THE GOAL, GETS IT OVER THE GOALIE’S HEAD. FREE

A sister and brother in rodeo earned the WyoPreps Athlete of the Week honors based on performances from June 2 through June 8, 2025. Hadley and Turek Thompson excelled at the Wyoming High School Rodeo Association’s State Finals in Buffalo on June 5-7. Hadley scored in five events, and Turek finished in the top three in the average of two events at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.

WYOPREPS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK WINNER 6-13-25

Girls Winner

Hadley Thompson won the goat tying average, placed in the top six in barrel racing, breakaway roping, and team roping, and scored in pole bending. She finished with 151.50 points across the five events. Hadley finished in the top five of all events in the season-long points standings. She qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) in Rock Springs next month in four events and is the alternate in the fifth.

Read More About Previous Athlete of the Week Winners from WyoPreps

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 6-5-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-29-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-21-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-15-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-8-25

WYOPREPS ATHLETES OF THE WEEK 5-1-25

Boys Winner

Turek Thompson won the steer wrestling average at the State Finals. He and his partner, Trigg Thompson from Cheyenne, took third in the team roping average in Buffalo. Turek scored 90 points across his two events last weekend. Turek and his partner finished second in team roping in the season standings and qualified for the NHSFR. He placed sixth in steer wrestling during the season.

WyoPreps spoke to the sister-brother duo about their efforts at the state finals. We asked Hadley about scoring in all five events and placing first in goat tying, and she discussed the conditions during the competition. Turek described his feelings on capturing the bulldogging and his team roping weekend as the header. We asked both Thompsons about reaching the NHSFR.

Congratulations to Hadley and Turek on being selected as the WyoPreps Athletes of the Week!

From Bidwell (the park’s 120th birthday celebration) to Biggs (the Wolverines’ incredible CIF NorCal softball championship) and from Plumas (firefighters make quick work of lightning strikes) to Pride (Chico’s annual celebration), there were no shortage of things to celebrate around Butte County and beyond this week.

But, just a week after going all-positive with a multi-hit column, we’re going to have to mix in the bad with the good this week. There are a lot of discouraging things going on right now — so bad that even our hits have a bit of a weary feel to them …

HIT — We’ll start with news that Chico is advertising for an in-house city attorney.

Two words, spoken with always-perfect 20/20 hindsight: about time.

The legal landmines that were Martin v. Boise and Warren v. Chico have left an impact that’ll be felt in our community for years to come. It’s impossible to look at the present-day situation objectively and not come to this conclusion: Chico should have done better, and the legal advice from out-of-town attorneys often wasn’t up to par.

How else to explain the fact the city is still playing Whac-A-Mole with expensive homeless camp evacuations — more than three years after the City Council entered an agreement it thought would make enforcement easier, not more difficult?

And, how else to explain that the city will be bound by terms of that agreement for another two years, while the rest of the western states are free of Martin v. Boise?

To be fair, some of the judges’ rulings haven’t helped much, either. But better legal counsel ahead of time could have and should have helped prevent that.

There’s no guarantee things would have gone better with a local attorney, but we’re having a hard time imagining a scenario where it could have gone much worse.

With less than two years left on that agreement, it’s a good time for the city to start coming up with a better plan. Hiring a new city attorney is a great start.

MISS — There are times that the headlines of the day leave us wondering what in the world has happened to our humanity.

“Man arrested for allegedly dropping infant on street while on cocaine” is among the worst we’ve seen in ages.

The story is just as horrifying as the headline implies. According to Oroville police, “Witnesses reported seeing the suspect place the child on the street, walk in and out of traffic and describe him as ‘flinging the child around like a rag doll’ … At one point, the suspect was reportedly armed with a knife and made motions as if he were attempting to harm the child.”

Again, this was the infant’s father.

There’s no kind or politically correct way to say it: Some people are simply a danger to society and should not be allowed to live freely on our streets. Law enforcement officials are frustrated that it’s so hard to keep criminals locked up these days; who can blame them?

HIT — We’ll go uplifting again for a moment and offer congratulations to the thousands of area high school and college graduates who received their diplomas in the past few weeks.

Even there, we can’t help but wonder if it might be time for some schools to have a change of heart.

From Paradise to Butte Valley and beyond, there was an unwelcome sight at some graduations this year: EMTs giving medical care to spectators who had spent too much time in the heat.

Some schools have moved graduation time back to 8 p.m. or even later, which beats the often-still-blazing-hot sun of 6:30 or 7 p.m. There just isn’t a lot of shade at most of our facilities, and spectators — often the elderly — are at real risk of serious health issues as a result.

Meanwhile, it’s been several years since Chico State rolled many of its ceremonies back to 9 a.m. With each passing year, it’s making more sense to us.

It’s time to consider replacing “it’s easier to be off on a Friday night” with “it’s safer to have these ceremonies in the coolest part of the day” as the mindset for this sort of thing.

MISS — Meanwhile, President Trump says he’s going to phase out FEMA — tough to not think of the valuable post-Camp Fire trailers whenever we see those four letters together — and the City of Oroville is making a push to ban fluoride from the city’s drinking water, following a trend that’s even seen the entire state of Utah adopt a similar stance.

We are glad Cal Water has agreed to the Oroville City Council’s request to hold some public hearings on the matter. Regardless of which path Oroville follows, this is a topic that cries out for the highest levels of public participation.

Hits and misses are compiled by the editorial board.

WILKES-BARRE — Ethan Van Gorden, Research Analyst at The Insitute, this week said although income is the most widely used metric for economic mobility, it is also impacted by factors such as education, health and home ownership.

“Even things like access to preschool and broadband make a big impact,” Van Gordon said.

A recent report from The Institute explores the factors affecting upward economic mobility in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Economic mobility refers to people’s ability to improve their households’ economic conditions, and it is usually measured by a person’s change in income over the course of their life.

Van Gordon said home ownership is a significant contributor to upward mobility because it is an act of asset building, for example, yet the strength of the asset is shaped by the value of the home. Home values can reveal important information about a region, such as economic health, desirability, and investment potential.

In the cases of Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties, there are larger shares of housing units in lower- to middle-valued brackets compared to the entire Commonwealth. Factors that can influence home values include location, size, condition and age, and market conditions. Low- and middle-value housing stock is good for lower- to middle-income households attempting to obtain affordable home ownership. For them to continue moving upward, however, higher-value housing must also be available.

Van Gordon said health and well-being affect upward mobility as well. Historically, structural barriers in core aspects of economic mobility — (i.e., housing, health care, education, and employment) — have limited the progress of people with disabilities toward upward economic mobility.

For example, Van Gordon said people with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses have numerous expenses (e.g., medication, personal care equipment, and personal care attendants) that others do not incur. Additionally, unreliable paratransit services may impede access to employment.

“These structural barriers cause adults with disabilities to experience poverty at nearly twice the rate of those who are not disabled,” added Van Gorden. “As such, Medicaid is often the only option through which those with disabilities can access long-term services and support.”

Van Gordon said the program restricts coverage to people with limited incomes, however, so these individuals may risk their Medicaid coverage by entering or returning to the workforce.

Van Gordon said research points to several options to help foster upward mobility. Home-ownership programs offer valuable support for asset building, and zoning reform may support more housing development at multiple price points. It is also important to address the ‘benefits cliff’ and ensure that workers are equipped with high-demand skills.

The benefits cliff refers to the decrease in public supports that can occur with an increase in earnings. As the loss of benefits is often greater than the newly increased income, lower-wage workers are prevented from achieving upward economic mobility or climbing the economic ladder.

Critical areas affected by benefits cliffs include housing, childcare, and healthcare coverage. Although living expenses in the region are generally lower compared to the Commonwealth as a whole, there are significant childcare gaps as well as a considerable share of residents with public health care coverage — (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, and VA health care).

“Upskilling refers to the enhancement of an employee’s existing skillset,” Van Gordon said. “Reskilling is a matter of learning new skills unrelated to the employee’s current job. Consequently, the likelihood of sustainable employment may be increased, along with quality of life and economic mobility.