June 6, 2016 at 3:01 p.m.
American Legion Baseball preview
New conference adds element to Rhinelander Post 7 season
American Legion Baseball preview
For the first time since 2010, the Rebels are affiliated with a conference for the American Legion season as part of the fledgling Great Northern Legion Conference.
The GNLC, the brainchild of Lakeland Union High School baseball coach Mike Wilhelm, will have seven teams in its inaugural season, including six of the seven communities that make up the Great Northern Conference in high school baseball. Chequamegon takes Antigo's spot as the seventh team in the legion league.
"I think it will be exciting for the guys to know that they are going to play for some awards," said RHS baseball coach Joe Waksmonski, who is on the Rebels' coaching stuff again this summer. "It's always nice when you play a season that you're able to have some individual accolades at the end and to be able to play for conference championship."
The 12-game GNLC schedule highlights a 21-game regular season schedule for the Rebels, who will have on their roster many of the same players who recently concluded a 15-11 campaign with the RHS baseball team. The Rebels finished behind only Mosinee in the GNC among teams in the new legion conference.
"I hope it will maybe perk up the interest a little bit and keep guys actively involved and wanting to give it their best every day," Waksmonski said.
Dan Huhnstock will skipper the Rebels once again this summer after the Rebels went 10-11 a season ago. Waksmonski said the team has about 14 players committed to playing over the summer and that there was really no break between the end of the high school season last Thursday and Wednesday's legion opener.
"We'll probably have one or two practices early (this) week so that we're ready to go for Wednesday against Lakeland," he said. "We'll see where we're at with our arms."
In addition to the GNLC slate, Post 7 will host four of the conference's teams during the annual Rebel Invite June 17-19 at Stafford Field. Chequamegon, Minocqua, Mosinee and Tomahawk will be in town for the non-conference tournament over Father's Day weekend. The only true non-conference competition the Rebels will see this summer will come June 24 at Rothschild/Schofield/Weston (D.C. Everest) and July 8-10 during a five-team invite at Merrill.
The field and location of the regional tournament has not yet been announced but, if the format of the last five seasons remains the same, Antigo, Merrill and Minocqua will join Rhinelander for a four-team Class AA tournament July 20-23.
While vying for a conference title and a berth in the state tournament will be goals for the team this summer, Waksmonski said he views the Legion season as an opportunity to get a sneak peek at next year's high school varsity team, while sprinkling in this year's senior class.
"It will be nice to hopefully get a lot of our younger arms on the mound, maybe see some of our younger guys in positions we didn't see this spring so we can kind of evaluate what our best team can look like next year," he said.
Wednesday's opener against Minocqua is set for 7 p.m. at Stafford Field. The Hodags will continue GNLC play Friday at Tomahawk.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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