October 31, 2018 at 11:42 a.m.
Hodag bowling team gears up for another season
Hodag bowling team gears up for another season
After all, it's a challenge to replace a state champion.
That's the task for the Hodags, who bid farewell to 2018 state champ Darin Bloomquist as well as a couple of other seniors from squads that finished in the middle of the WiHSBC District 9 pack. A total of seven bowlers from last year's high school squads are back.
"It's going to be a rebuilding year a little bit. I've got a few returning kids, but I have a few kids moving up," coach Mike Bourcier said during practice last Wednesday at Hodag Lanes. The team opens league play this Sunday with a doubleheader at Dale's Weston Lanes.
Like last year, the Hodags have enough bowlers to field separate boys' and girls' squads this season. The Hodags lost seniors Bloomquist and Dylan Haagen from Eagle River from the boys' squad. Junior Calvin Schneider will look to fill the anchor position vacated by Bloomquist while Jacob Wagler and Jeremiah Braun also return.
The team welcomes Kody Litzen and A.J. Blasius from the middle school level and picked up a first-year competitive bowler this year in Rhinelander senior Jeremiah Bellow.
"I'm expecting Calvin to take the next step up and be the stronghold," Bourcier said of his boys' team. "Kody, coming from middle school, has always been solid. We're going to give it a shot. The returning ones are there, we've just got to work on it a little more and be more consistent and we'll be there."
Last year's girls' team was relatively young, and Molly Wagler is the only graduate off that squad. The team's top two bowlers from last year - Katrina Blasius and Mackenzie Bourcier - return for their sophomore campaigns. Senior Brooke Mork and Alexis Kriesel are also back while freshman Bella Walkowski rounds out the five-player squad.
"We're going to be in about the same boat in terms of skill level," Mike Bourcier said of the girls' team. "Everyone's getting a little bit better. I see the girls being about the same (as last year). If a couple of them can pick up their spare shooting, we have a chance to be in the league."
Formal practices for the team began only last week but several members of the team have been at it for a number of weeks now, participating in the junior bowling league that Hodag Lanes sponsors on Saturday mornings. According to Bourcier, shaking off the rust is the key to the early-season practices and meets.
"The first meets are just to get their approaches down a little smoother, where their finishing poses are, just getting them in the mindset of this is where we are and this is what we have to do," he said. "We've got a bunch of drills lined up that we are going to do. Bowling is just like every other sport. We work on a few drills to get going here. The first meet will be nervous for some of them that are new, but everyone's pretty much in the same boat."
The WiHSBC schedule will take a couple of weekends off around the Thanksgiving holiday and recess again for a month from mid-December to mid-January until a stretch run to the end of the season.
The district tournament will once again be a two-week, four-round affair. The difference this year is Rhinelander will host the first two rounds of the tournament Feb. 3. Additionally, Bourcier said the district singles tournament is tentatively scheduled for Rhinelander Feb. 15-17.
"That's going to be pretty good," Bourcier said. "When we've got conference here, that's a good start. We'll have plenty of practice. They feel more comfortable at home and usually can do better. That's a good thing to have."
While Bourcier said he would love for his high school teams to bowl well and have a shot at qualifying for the WiHSBC state tournament March 1-3 in Ashwaubenon, he said this year will be focused on individual improvement.
"Basically the ones that have been here before, we just want to build on their fill percentages," he said. "That's what we're going to work on. We need to get the 50 percents up into the 60s, just try to get 10 percent more fills and concentrate on the spares. The new ones, just have some fun and work with it."
The club's middle school team will pretty much mirror the high school team's schedule, which the exception that its district tournament will be held over one day March 19 at 5-Star Lanes in Plover.
Unless it finds another bowler, the Hodags will be ineligible for state competition this season because its roster currently includes a fourth-grader. Cody Bednarz and Calvin Welch return from last year's middle school team. Johanna Dellenbach, Alex Hall and Cody Hall are newcomers to the program.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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