December 3, 2018 at 1:23 p.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
It's deja vu all over again for Hodag football
Shoutouts & Callouts
Given some time to ponder and process last week's news that Rhinelander High School is moving on from Chris Ferge as its head football coach, I cannot help but feel as if it's 2014 all over again.
Looking back at columns I wrote roughly 4 1/2 years ago about this football program in the wake of Jim Moore's dismissal and Ferge's subsequent hiring, the same messages ring true and the same questions remain unanswered.
In January 2014, I wrote I was not sure the district made the correct call in firing Moore and the answer would only come with time.
If you look from a pure wins and losses standpoint, the answer was no. Ferge won two fewer games (9-35) in five years than Moore did in his final five years at RHS (11-37). What's more, Ferge's record in the Great Northern Conference (2-28) was markedly worse than what Moore's was from 2010-2013 (6-16).
Yet, just as in 2014, I cannot sit here and tell you today that the district made the correct decision in moving on from Ferge. Despite the lack of success, the move feels one year too soon. In 2018 Rhinelander faced a tough set of circumstances with a young roster that featured more sophomore and junior starters than it did seniors.
Yet the Hodags' point differential this year was less than it was in 2017 (minus-89 compared to minus-118), despite losing two more games. Also, the Hodags did not have a game go into running clock this season. It's been a while since that's happened.
Flip the script next year and most of those starters will be seniors and juniors. That, coupled with successful JV and JV2 seasons, shows there is reason for optimism next year. Ferge saw it himself.
"I think they're in a great spot where they're going to win next year," he said last Wednesday after he was let go.
That wasn't lip service or coach speak. One needs to look no further than two hours to our north in Ashland for proof. The same Oredocker team that went 3-6 overall in 2017, and 2-4 in the GNC, went undefeated in the conference this year and 8-2 overall. The coach was the same, as Travis Larson earned conference coach of the year honors in his second season at the helm of the team after previously serving as its defensive coordinator.
The biggest change was that a talented group full of underclassmen and potential, put in the time in the offseason, came of age and became seniors. Sound familiar?
If wins and losses represent the primary argument for dismissing a coach - and let's face it, it was in this case - then why not wait to see what a coach would do with what has the potential to be Rhinelander's most talented roster since 2006, when the team went 4-5, won the Bell for the last time and was a win away from qualifying for the playoffs in the Wisconsin Valley Conference? Next year's class, by the way, that would have been his first crop of players to have gone completely through his system from they time they began playing middle school football in seventh grade until the time they were seniors. If Ferge had failed to deliver results with the group he had coming back in a Great Northern Conference that, overall, is getting weaker then the case for dismissal based on performance is crystal clear.
The district has said the decision to move on from Ferge came down to more than wins and losses, that too many people raised concerns about communication issues and the overall direction of the program.
There is merit to that point. Ferge is a lot of things, but he struggled as a schmoozer and politician. Speaking from my professional dealings with him, it is my opinion that too often his interviews came off as tone deaf and contentious. The most glaring example came in the form of his comments regarding the community following a home loss to Merrill in 2016. That night the Hodags were considered heavy underdogs against a preseason conference favorite and lost by only six points - after having a potential game-winning touchdown negated by penalty with less than two minutes to play.
"I've heard a lot of negative things said in this community and none of those people that talk those negative things know anything about these kids," he said during the rant. "These kids are amazing and this loss is on me."
Was his assessment incorrect? I don't believe it was, but calling out a community is not exactly the best strategy for rallying its support. Ultimately, that lack of support played a role in where we stand today.
Still, I contend, if the Hodags were 8-1 this fall instead of 1-8, no one would care about communication issues.
However, again using the Merrill rant as an example, once you cut through the rhetoric, you see exactly where Ferge's heart and soul were. It was with his team, those young men who had the courage to put in the time, put in the work and put themselves out there for the community to see, even when the odds were stacked against them.
I have no question whatsoever that Ferge's heart was in the right place and he wanted the best for his players and his program.
So was Ferge's dismissal the correct choice? I don't know. Was it the easy choice for parents and administration to make, considering his numbers? Yes. Just as it was five years ago when Moore was dismissed.
Here's the problem and the cold hard facts. Beginning with 1990, the Hodag football team has had five head coaches. None of them have won more than 27 percent of their games. That's less than 2 1/2 wins per year in a nine-game season for those scoring at home. Only one coach in that timeframe (Bill Makris) has produced a winning season and only one (Moore) has produced a WIAA playoff berth.
It seems when five coaches in 29 seasons have produced similar results, the problem extends beyond who's calling the plays and patrolling the sidelines. The problem, as I wrote in 2014, is much deeper than that.
When Moore was dismissed, I wrote, "Perhaps more than any other sport played at the high school level, football is a number's game. A team's numbers - both in quality and quantity - will determine its ultimate success. Numbers have been a problem for Rhinelander for as long as I have been on this beat.
"A lack of numbers meant Rhinelander had players playing twice as many snaps as their opponents, who had enough depth for separate offensive and defensive units. It also meant a lack of internal competition for positions, which in the elite programs provides the motivation for players to make sacrifices to get better and, in turn, improves the overall quality of the unit."
In other words more players means more starters and more players competing in the weight room and on the practice field for starting spot. Yet, here we sit, five years later, with more than half of the team's starters playing both ways and several players who weigh less than 200 pounds being asked to play on the offensive and defensive lines.
I wrote in 2014: "There are plenty of unanswered questions regarding the future of Rhinelander football. Can Rhinelander attract a quality coach with its current facilities, its pay structure for coaches and its overall lack of football success? How can the football program recruit and keep the school's best athletes instead of losing them to other sports? How can the program minimize the attrition that occurs between the youth, middle and high school levels? How can all of this be accomplished while maintaining academic success and teaching valuable life skills, which ... are still vital metrics at the high-school level?"
To be sure, several improvements have been made to Mike Webster Stadium since 2014, and there is more that could be done provided the proper private capital is secured. There have been changes to the coaches' pay structure that have further incentivized success. But, by and large, the same questions I posed then are relevant today.
What worries me is the mentality remains that the district seems content to spin the coach merry-go-round with its football program until it stumbles upon the second coming of Vince Lombardi.
Superintend Kelli Jacobi, along with activities director Brian Paulson, ultimately made the call to end the Chris Ferge era. However, when asked how the district administration, and community in general, can go about turning around and helping to build a successful football program for the future, Jacobi went right back to the next hire.
"We'll hire the strongest candidate that we can find and, clearly, communication skills will be an important strength that we are looking for. That's critical in building a strong team that has the support of players and parents," she said.
When asked a follow-up question about what the district or administration can do to help further foster a successful program, Jacobi paused for a moment and replied, "Not that I can think of off the top of my head."
Therein lies the problem, not necessarily with Jacobi specifically, but with the overall attitude in the community that someone will come in and magically transform this program. It takes more than a new coach. It takes all parties involved - the coaches, players, parents, administration, youth levels and the community as a whole - pulling their weight equally and in a unified direction. I have covered the Hodag football beat for 15 seasons, have now been through two head coaches and have yet to see that happen.
For those who say Chris Ferge failed the team and the community and deserved to be relieved of his coaching duties, I can see their argument.
However, I contend we failed Ferge just as much. The choice lies in the hands of the community to supporting this team - either through financial support, volunteering to help the Gridiron Club or by showing up for games and by living up to the famous words of Todd McEldowney Sr., "win or lose, it's always a good idea to back our Rhinelander Hodags."
If we are unwilling to do that then we should own the fact that a winning football program is not a priority of this community and accept our place as an afterthought in the prep landscape. If that's the case, we should focus more on the life lessons that sports teach and less about what the scoreboard says on Friday night. If winning is not a priority to the community, and the next coach is producing good kids in the classroom and the community, then he should be given the opportunity to stay as long as he wishes, regardless of what his record reads.
I've got to hand it to Jerry Freeze who, in the article we wrote about Ferge's hiring in 2014, posted a web comment that said the following. "I will lay a hundo ($100) down right now that within 5 years all this newspaper has to do is re-print the same article they did when Jim Moore was forced out and change the name of the coach."
Well done, Jerry. It was 4 years, 6 months and 9 days, to be precise, from the time Ferge was hired until he was let go. That was the easy solution. Now the hard work has to begin.
It's on the School District of Rhinelander, the parents who wanted Ferge gone and the community as a whole to get the next search right and do everything in our power to support the new head coach and the Hodag football team.
If not, I'm afraid, I'll be writing this same column again five years down the road.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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