April 9, 2018 at 1:19 p.m.
Team preview: RHS boys' tennis
Hodag netters primed for another GNC title run
Team preview: RHS boys' tennis
With seven of 10 starters returning from last year's squad - including five returning individual conference champions - the Hodags have the foundation for another successful season which, weather permitting, is scheduled to begin at home Thursday against last year's conference runner-up Antigo.
"Yep," coach Bob Heideman replied when asked if another conference title was the team's goal. "And if we do, I think it will be the first time (we've won) four in a row since the late '60s."
The Hodags do have a couple of holes to fill, however, and they begin at the top where the team graduated No. 1 singles player Logan Wild - the conference's player of the year in 2016. Wild narrowly missed out on defending that title last year and finished 14-14 overall in the top flight.
Senior Markus Johnson is positioned to take that spot. He went 21-8 last year at No. 2 singles, winning a conference title and placing third at sectionals.
"Not only does he look, skill-wise, the strongest, oddly enough he's put in the most time since last year," Heideman said.
Rhinelander also graduated Matt O'Melia (13-4), who won back-to-back conference titles at No. 3 singles, and Marshall Bessette, who teamed with Logan Oestreich to win a GNC title at No. 3 doubles last year.
Junior Russell Benoy returns after taking the conference title at No. 4 singles last year. The rest of the singles lineup is up in the air. Among the players in the mix are returning players Freddy Wisner, Ian Conkey, Cade Aschenbrenner and Bryan La, along with freshman Jacob Weddle, the younger brother of RHS girls' tennis No. 1 singles player Belinda Weddle, Heideman said.
The doubles lineup remains virtually intact from last season. The senior duo of Grant Gilbert and Jared Fabich, who went 16-11 a year ago at No. 1 doubles. Senior Jared Haug and junior Connor Young made up the second doubles tandem last year, posting a 22-8 record. Those teams will likely be Nos. 1 and 2 again in some order, though Heideman noted Haug and Young were close to unseating Fabich and Gilbert for the top doubles spot prior to the start of last season.
"I think (Fabich and Gilbert) won (a challenge match for the spot) 6-5 with practice time running out. It was that close and I think it's going to be that kind of a dogfight this year," he said.
Logan Oestreich, a junior, is back after holding down a spot at No. 3 doubles much of last season. He and Bessette went 14-3 together last season.
Oestreich will need a playing partner. It's possible that Wisner or Aschenbrenner could fill that spot, given that both got spot starts with Oestreich last year.
While it would stand to reason an experienced team would be eager to get outside, Heideman said the team's stint indoors hasn't been time wasted. For starters, he said many of his returning players come in showing very little signs of winter rust.
"I liked what I saw in terms of the skill level," he said. "In terms of doing some real simple drills, I had to keep fighting the urge to go through them quicker because they seemed to be doing them fairly proficiently. That's a good sign."
What's more, with the timing of spring break affecting attendance during the first week of practice, Heideman said more time indoors allowed the players to refine their strokes without the pressure of playing a challenge match for a varsity position or an actual match with conference points on the line.
"I think in our situation it's a benefit," he said. "I like, at the beginning, to really tell a kid at the beginning, 'Make this change. You'll be better for it and don't worry about (the results).' If you have a larger block of time where you're not competing, they have a larger block of time to do that in. I like that idea."
The team has also spent that time to break in a new assistant coach as Felicia Schuster joins the staff to assist Heideman. Schuster played her high school tennis at Wausau East, qualifying for the WIAA state tournament in doubles in 2003.
"Felicia's played tennis in high school. She coached tennis after that and she's coached her entire teaching career. It's good to have her," Heideman said.
Once play finally begins, it remains to be seen who will emerge as Rhinelander's top threat for the conference title. Antigo finished second last season, but has graduated eight of its of its 10 varsity starters from last season. Medford also lost much of its squad while Lakeland, which placed fourth in the GNC, returns eight of 10 starters and brings back former No. 1 singles player Jack Garcia, who skipped his junior year to run track. "(Antigo) lost 8 out of 10 (varsity starters) and 10 out of 14 of their whole team but, (RHS AD) Brian (Paulson) called down there and they said they had 20 players. So how they filled that and what they've got, I don't know. That's a question mark," Heideman said. "Lakeland had a pretty good singles lineup. That could give some people some trouble."
Pacelli makes its GNC debut this year, replacing Phillips. While new to the conference, the GNC schools saw Pacelli at last year's subsectional meet in Rhinelander, in which they won only one match. The Cardinals are slated to bring back eight of 10 starters from that team, including all six members of their doubles lineup.
"This is a transition year for them coming in. I think they're going to compete in the conference but I don't think they're going to have a full conference schedule," Heideman said, noting that Rhinelander and Pacelli are currently scheduled to play each other only once during the dual meet season.
The Hodags will be busy once the courts clear. The team's scheduled to play an invite in Green Bay this weekend and play four times the following week.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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