December 21, 2018 at 12:57 p.m.
Team preview: RHS/Northland Pines Alpine ski & snowboard
RHS Alpine to focus on development in 2019
Team preview: RHS/Northland Pines Alpine ski & snowboard
Last year's squad was a senior-laden team. This year, the Hodags are light on upperclassmen and light on numbers in general.
"It's definitely a rebuilding year," coach Rod Olson said. "I think coming into this year, we knew that was going to be our situation for about three years until we would make a run at anything again ... On the optimistic side, we've got a good-sized junior high group. It's a lot of fun to develop. It's promising to see the junior high numbers."
The team got its first on-snow test yesterday in a giant slalom exhibition race at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. The Hodags will kick off the Northern Conference season Jan. 8 at Granite Peak in Wausau.
The boys' ski team is led by Northland Pines sophomore Ty Springer, who won the Northern Conference last year and placed 13th overall at the WIARA state meet.
"Ty's definitely going to be a contender for conference again," Olson said. "In the state, as a freshman, he was 15th. Anything inside top 15, top 20. Typically we graduate anywhere from 15 to 20 seniors that were leaders up there. That's good and exciting."
Fellow Northland Pines sophomore Patrick Stemper is back after finishing 19th in the conference. John Krueger and Luke Fritz also return from last year's team.
Three of the five skiers who made up Rhinelander's conference runner-up squad from last year graduated - including conference runner-up McKenzie Imm, who placed in the top 20 at state a year ago.
Haley Seefeldt, who placed 11th in the conference last year, is back along with Alexis Pyrchalla, who finished 19th in the standings.
"We're going to try to do as much as we can with them," Olson said of his two seniors. Junior Marisa McGuire is back, but may miss time as she recovers from an ankle injury. McKenna Nash and Kathryn Borski round out the roster.
The Hodags will not have enough athletes to fill a complete team in either the boys' or girls' snowboard divisions this year. They will also be somewhat down on experience, after graduating former Northern Conference champion Kaiya Shrader.
Kylie White is back after placing eighth in the girls' division last year. Bailey Schwab returns after tying for seventh in the boys' division.
"They're kind of our leaders," Olson said. "We had a real reduction in team size. They're not alone, but it's a pretty small unit there. We're starting to build some units and those guys aren't old, freshmen and sophomores."
A rebuilding year and the benefit of early season snow would seem to indicate an abundance of training opportunities for the Hodags, which held its first on-snow session Nov. 21. But Olson said the team has cut back the amount of structured time on the hill during the season in order to keep the team fresh for the end of the year.
"What I've seen in our years of me doing this is that we've peaked too early in the season. We're not going to so much taper off time on snow, but taper off on directed time on snow in the beginning," he said. "It's a long season. Winter sports, no matter what sport you're in, it's four months. So, for motivation, we're going to shake it up this year. The results that we've gotten at the beginning of the year have carried us, but we want to be strong at the end of the year."
If the Hodags play their cards right, they will be peaking at the start of February right before the state meet. It may also help the team in the conference standings as the final event of the season will take place at the Hodags' home hill at Ski Brule.
"We always like that," Olson said. "The great skiers ski great (anywhere) but there's something about the team stuff, from a team standpoint, it's always nice to host the conference championships. Brule, I think, is one of the better places to have it. They really help us and the parents - even from the other schools that have hosted it - prefer coming there."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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