August 15, 2018 at 1:25 p.m.
Fall practice notebook
New VB coach Scheuermann settles in on first day
Fall practice notebook
Welcome to the gig, coach.
Aside from that little hiccup, Scheuermann said her first official day as head coach of the Hodags went well.
Granted, Scheuermann has a bit of leg up in her first head coaching job, given she's only four years removed from playing for the Hodags and served as junior varsity coach a season ago under the since-retired Kathy Wawrzynowicz.
"I know a lot of these girls from last year, so it's just a matter of picking back up from last year and picking up where we left off," she said.
The process is moving quickly for the Hodags as Scheuermann said her goal was to have her varsity, junior varsity and JV2 squads established by Wednesday. The team will take part in a four-team scrimmage at Merrill on Saturday and will host a four-team invite to kick off the season this coming Tuesday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Considering the Hodags graduated virtually their entire starting lineup from last season, Scheuermann said it will be key to get this year's varsity squad to gel as quickly as possible.
"We're definitely trying to break off as soon as we can so that we can start getting repetition with the teammates, kind of feeling how they work with each other and getting to know their teammates, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses," she said. "Definitely looking forward to Wednesday so we can get into our own little groups and working on what we need to work on as a team."
Because Scheuermann wasn't officially hired until late July, she did not have much of an opportunity to work with the team during the offseason. She organized a couple of open gyms prior to the start of practice, but she said attendance was hit or miss.
"The ones that we able to come, they got a lot of reps in. That was good," she said.
Boys' soccer: Hodags face the heat to start practice
Two warm, muggy days greeted the Rhinelander High School boys' soccer team this week, but the weather did not slow down the Hodags as they took to the pitch for the first time this fall.
Late afternoon practices helped somewhat, as the heat index climbed into the low 90s both Monday and Tuesday, but otherwise coach Dan Millot said it was business as usual.
"We're going to go ahead with our practice schedule as planned, give our kids the breaks they need, but they have to get used to playing in the weather," he said. "There's no sense avoiding it. Again, it's just making sure we acclimate them to the weather the best we can."
Much of the team's first two practices were spent on conditioning, ball handling and evaluating players. That proved to be easier for some players than others as Millot said the amount of time each individual put into the game during the offseason varied greatly.
"I have to see what we have," Millot said. "I have to have kids challenge each other because, right now, there's a lot of positions that have to be filled. They'll get one week, basically, to try out for varsity. Hopefully, come next Monday, we'll have a varsity team decided."
Not only will Millot have to decide who's on varsity and who's on JV, he'll also need to determine who may bounce back and forth between the two sides. With only 30 players registered, Millot said having some players who play both varsity and JV is a matter of necessity.
"I think those players that get the opportunity to do that benefit a lot because they get a lot of playing time."
The Hodags' first games are set for next Friday and Saturday in an invitational at the Hanson Lake Soccer Complex in Rhinelander.
Cross country: Numbers skew in favor of girls
Coach M.J. Laggis was mostly pleased with the number of athletes he had sign up for the Hodag cross country team this season, however there was a definite trend on the roster - which skewed heavily female.
Prior to the first practice, Laggis said of his roughly 30 athletes, nearly three quarters of them were girls - great for the girls' side, but barely enough for the boys' to field a full varsity unit.
"We've got to try to get another five, six boys for sure," Laggis. "Ideally, I've always thought if you had 15 girls and 15 boys you'd have just the perfect cross country team to make up a nice varsity and JV on both sides. Hopefully, we'll add a couple of boys here as we go. That's kind of typical at the start of the season."
The actual attendance on Monday provided a little bit or relief, with 10 boys present for the first run of the fall, but Laggis said the team is still hoping to recruit a few more runners before next Thursday's opener at home.
As for the workouts, Laggis said the team started relatively easy on Monday and will gradually pick up the intensity throughout the week.
"We're going to have a slow, easier route today to just kind of get our feet wet again," he said prior to Monday's practice. "Then we'll start with 1,000s (1,000-meter repeat runs) tomorrow. We'll have a speed workout later in the week and Friday we're going to end with a triathlon where we do a little swim, bike and run. I think it will be a pretty good first week. We'll try to get a little team unity going and try to make this as fun as we can."
Laggis said a change to the meet schedule will also benefit his team to start the season. Lakeland is not holding the Ted Voigt Invite this season, which always occurred on the first possible date for a race. Rhinelander's first competition will now be its home invite next Thursday. Not only does that give the Hodags a couple of extra days to prepare, the relatively flat RHS cross country course will not be nearly as challenging as the hilly terrain the Voigt ran on at Minocqua Winter Park.
"The last few years we've done the Ted Voigt and, to be honest, that's pretty rough to come back and do our meet. I'm excited that our home meet is our first meet," Laggis said.
The opener will also be a preview of the Great Northern Conference meet, which comes to Rhinelander Oct. 13.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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