August 2, 2020 at 8:35 a.m.
Putting it all together
An oral history of the AA state champion 2010 Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels
Putting it all together
It has been said that the greatest achievements happen when hard work and opportunity cross at just the right time. That was the story of the 2010 Rhinelander Post 7 Rebels.
The squad went 19-13 overall, did not post a winning record in conference play, and didn't even win its own regional tournament. Yet, a combination of hard work, talented baseball players and an undeniable chip on the team's shoulder following some games that got away met in a beautiful confluence on a late July weekend that spilled in to early August.
Over the span of five days in Merrill, the Rebels played their best baseball and walked off the field Wisconsin American Legion Class AA state champions. It was Rhinelander's first and only state championship in American Legion Baseball and it culminated 10 years and one day ago - Aug. 3, 2010.
This is the story of that team.
Rhinelander's baseball program was trending upward in the late 2000s. After finishing dead last in the Wisconsin Valley Conference in 2008, the Rhinelander High School baseball team tied for second in the Valley in 2009 and matched the feat again in 2010, going 14-10 overall. The team was a whisker away from the sectional round of the WIAA D1 tournament that spring, falling to Green Bay Southwest in nine innings, 7-4 in the regional final game.
The Hodags had three first-team All-WVC selections that spring, senior Sam Huebner, junior Dan Kellen and sophomore Kyle Comer. Junior Alex Henkel received second-team honors that season.
Sam Huebner: We knew we had a good group of guys. We didn't really have anybody coming back from previous years, so it was going to be the same group of guys (from the high school team). The cool thing is, it wasn't just baseball. It wasn't just hockey. Outside of those things we all spent time together. It was an awesome group of guys. We got along. We all worked hard. We expected it out of each other.
Dan Huhnstock, Rebels manager: They were all exceptional ball players and they all got along so good. They had initiative. You'd see them down at the batting cage working on their own, doing the extra work to get us to the point where we did.
Alex Henkel: Realistically, though we had all the talent we needed. We had the starting pitching. We had the bats. We had the defense. It was just a matter of putting it together.
Going into that summer the Rebels had an ace in the hold in the dugout.
John Huebner, Sam's father, volunteered to help Huhnstock coach the team. The elder Huebner had worked off and on with members of the team coming up through the youth ranks and offered a perspective on the game that few could match, having spent time as a catcher in the minor leagues with the L.A. Dodgers organization in 1988 and 1989. He brought with him a bulldog mentality and a passion for playing the game the right way.
John Huebner: That year Dan needed help and just due to the fact you could see the talent. Not that we didn't try hard every year, worked hard, but the main thing was, once again, every one of these guys, it wasn't something where I had to mention, 'Hey come to practice, blah, blah, blah.' They were all in. It was easy because they were willing to put the work in. Period.
Huhnstock: He was just such a wealth of knowledge regarding baseball. He was such a good teacher of the game. He could break down swings. He could pick up things from the other squads. Lots of times he could pick up pitchers tipping pitches and stuff, defensive alignments. You could not have asked for a better sidekick.
Henkel: He really brought us from the fundamental to the technical. I think that's where a lot of that coming together, really that's where that came from - showing up at the ballpark, getting ready to play. The job started two hours before the game, not at first pitch. He was definitely responsible for bringing all that to the table.
Kyle Comer: We weren't there just to have fun. Certainly that was part of it. If you were screwing around and not ready to play, he would find a spot on the bench for you. It was that simple.
Sam Huebner: My dad had coached all these guys growing up. I think he was harder on them too, just as well as me. Other coaches weren't that hard on guys. I think he knew what he could get out of us. We knew what he expected of us. That's coaching and it worked. I felt like, growing up, I think he was after a baseball game, no matter if I pitched and had 12 Ks and shut out the whole team or whatever happened, went 3-for-4 with two bombs, it wasn't that I got home and heard how good I did. It was, 'Well, you could have done this, or you could have done that. This was something that you could have done better.' That was something that was always there, trying to get better. It wasn't like I felt like I got home and got my ass kissed. It didn't happen. It made me strive to do better, play better, work on all parts of my game. That's what I kind of strived for, to get done with a game an hear, 'You did a good job. You played well.' That's what I wanted.
Led by the Huebners, the team had an undeniable drive and work ethic.
Lucas Michlig, sophomore IF: We were a good team. After a while I thought back on just how much we worked that summer. Normally, Legion, you don't practice that much. We practiced. We did everything.
Comer: How many legion practices have you had in your five, six years of playing Legion? I would say about 90 percent of them were in that one year. It was important to us. It was important to Johnny. It was important to (Huhnstock). They were there when they could be, but we kind of took that and ran with it in the sense of, "Hey, this is kind of productive when they are here. Maybe we can do this on our own. Maybe we can just flip balls to each other in the cage and find a way to get better ourselves."
Despite all the talent and hard work, there were growing pains along the way for the 2010 Rebels, who were still a part of the Wisconsin Valley Legion League at the time. The team started that season against Wausau, which would go on to win the AAA state title later that summer. The Rebels lost 16-5 and 10-1 in a season-opening doubleheader. Overall, the Rebels went 5-9 that summer in the WVLL and were sitting only a game above .500 overall before wins over Tomahawk and Everest ran the team's record to 13-10 entering tournament play.
Michlig: That year, I hadn't played a single inning on varsity, but that summer I played every game at second. It took awhile for guys like me and (Ryan Morris, backup first baseman) to just catch up to everything that was going on.
Comer: There was definitely something to be said about taking those bumps and bruises early on. You have some older leaders there and just some young guys that were getting chances, getting opportunities.
Dan Kellen: We played super mediocre the entire season. I don't even know what our record was in the regular season, but then we just caught a heater at the right time.
The Rebels entered the AA regional tournament in Medford that year in an interesting situation. Though there were four teams in the double-elimination tournament, Rhinelander needed only to finish ahead of Medford and Minocqua to earn a spot in the state tournament. That's because the other regional participant, Merrill, had an automatic spot at state as the tournament host.
Merrill was a thorn in Rhinelander's side that summer, particularly during the regional tournament. The Rebels won their first meeting against Post 46 15-6 on July 1, but gave up a three-run lead in the sixth inning July 13 at Stafford Field to lose 12-10.
In the opening game of the regional tournament, the Rebels - with Sam Huebner on the mound - blew a five-run seventh-inning lead and lost 8-7. Rhinelander bounced back with a 10-0 win over Medford the following day to clinch second place in the regional and a state tournament berth. An 8-6 win over Merrill forced a winner-take-all contest for the regional title.
Nate Schmidt had carried a no-hitter into the sixth and the Rebels found themselves ahead 6-1 heading to the seventh when disaster struck again. Schmidt ran out of gas. Comer, who had pitched a complete game earlier in the day, stemmed the tide enough to force extra innings. Comer was thrown out at the plate on a disputed call in the top of the eighth inning and then gave up a walk-off solo home run to Pascal Paul in the bottom half of the inning as the Rebels fell 7-6.
The way the regional went down started a string of events that ended up working in the Rebels' favor heading into the state tournament. It all began with an uncomfortable ride home from Medford for the Huebner clan following the first lost to Merrill in the regionals.
John Huebner: That was probably one of the most frustrating losses I've ever had in my entire life. (Sam), me and my dad rode home from Medford and it was not a good ride home for him. I took a lot of my frustration and put it on him. It was done for a reason. I knew we had a good enough team that, if we got to the tournament, we could go there and (do well).
Sam Huebner: I definitely got an earful on the ride home from the old man. I think that was kind of my kind of wake-up, I would say. It wasn't a real good moment getting whipped by Merrill going into things. Something was definitely going to have to change.
John Huebner: I was so ticked off about that loss and how we didn't finish it. I actually went to Canada, went up to my hunting camp for a couple days and I just said to Sam, "You guys need to figure it out on your own. How far do you guys want to go in this tournament? It's up to you. I can't do any more."
Sam Huebner: We practiced pretty hard. My dad, he was pretty upset. He went up to Canada and stayed there for about a week and told us to figure it out. I guess we did. It was probably the best move he made. Obviously, I was mad. I was going to show him that I wasn't going to lose in the tournament and whatnot. I had to make sure I went to practice every day. The guys, Dan Kellen and Ben Prom, Comer and all those guys, it was our job to get everyone together and make sure we were still practicing, getting our swings in in the cage and whatnot. I feel like that was the little push I needed from my dad, and probably everybody else, to get it in our heads that we need to show up every day and play every day.
The Rebels certainly had a renewed focus heading into the state tournament and, by luck of the draw, got Merrill on its home field as the nightcap to the opening day of the tournament. It marked the sixth time in 30 days the teams had faced each other. This time around, however, the result was totally different.
A focused Huebner tossed a six-inning shutout with nine strikeouts, while scattering three hits and a walk. The Rebels jumped out to an early lead and then stunned the partisan Merrill crowd with a 10-run sixth inning to defeat Post 46, 14-0. The players delivered a message - not only to the rest of the field, but to their own coaches - that they were ready to play.
Sam Huebner: I heard it the whole way home from Medford. Him taking off and I just wanted to prove him wrong. That was the one thing, even the rest of our team, all those guys, Comer and Kellen. It wasn't just one guy that stepped up. We all did. That was the little push that we all needed. It definitely showed that first game.
Comer: What better way to start a state tournament, playing against a team you know you can not only compete with but probably should have beat more than you did in the regular season. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Knowing we could start hot against a team we were very familiar with, I don't think we could have had a better opening opponent.
Henkel: I think that put a lot of confidence in us too, like, "Hey, we belong here. We really belong here. We're going to go show ourselves."
In part two of this story, which will be published in Friday's River News, we will take a look back at the remainder of the state tournament run, culminating with the championship win over Kimberly.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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