March 8, 2017 at 4:03 p.m.
Hodag track begins practice
Haakenson takes over as girls' coach
Hodag track begins practice
The first sport to commence practice on Monday was the track and field team.
The Hodags finished last in outdoor meets in the Great Northern Conference and near the bottom for indoor meets in 2016, but some in-school recruiting seems to have taken place for 2017.
On the first day, 36 girls reported for practice and the boys had just as many.
"We probably have more coming out," Rhinelander head coach Chris Ferge said. "A lot of them are interested in becoming better athletes. That's why they're here. This week's all about getting them into shape, next couple weeks are about getting them into shape and then we have an indoor meet at (Lakeland). That's kind of what we're doing right now. It's good to be around the athletes."
Track is one of the more grueling sports when it comes to training, which thins the herd a bit prior to the first meet.
Ferge hopes that's not the case and the Rhinelander kids have the will to work hard and stick to it.
"What we're hoping is that, for the for most part, they'll want to compete in multiple events and see what they're good at and see that they're talented in a lot of different ways," Ferge said. "We're all lifting together, we're all going to be doing endurance together, we're all doing certain things to show them that they could be good in hurdles, competitive in jumping and we're hoping they'll want to compete with each other and find their niche."
Coaching staff shuffle
The 2017 season begins with a bit of a shake-up in the coaching staff.
Ferge remains as the head coach, but Brittany Haakenson - an assistant for the previous two years - has taken over coaching the girls.
Haakenson, an Antigo graduate, believes this will allow work with individual athletes rather than the entire squad.
"It's really going to allow me to focus on the individual athlete and really focusing on girl event-specific," Haakenson said. "I can look at where they're going to excel rather than looking at 70 kids like last year, where that wasn't designated. For me, 35 girls makes it a lot individualize each athlete, even though we are a team."
Kids, particularly in high school, can sometimes relate better to a coach of their gender.
Haakenson also sees that as a positive to the shuffle, as some of the girls can feel more comfortable working with her on a more regular basis.
"Especially in the weight room, with the strength and conditioning aspect," Haakenson said. "To have a female role model makes a difference, especially in the weight room, for sure. A lot of girls at the high school level are still very self-conscious about themselves and are unsure of them. Being in the weight room with males can be intimidating, so we're hoping to eliminate that fear with conditioning."
Rhinelander opens up its indoor season on March 21 at Lakeland.
Other Rhinelander spring sports will begin in staggered fashion. The Hodag softball team opens practice March 13, the baseball and girls' soccer teams begin March 20 while the golf and boys' tennis teams start practice March 27.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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