August 17, 2020 at 10:11 a.m.
Hodag Alpine presents awards, looks to future
Hodag Alpine presents awards, looks to future
A combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and juggling summer schedules pushed the banquet back to nearly six months after the season came to a close, and roughly three months before dryland training is supposed to start for the 2021 campaign.
RHS/NP coach Rod Olson told the assembled group of athletes and parents at Hodag Park that he expects some sort of ski season to take place this winter, thought what that will look like remains to be seen.
"I've had daily conversations with our athletic director and we're about the safest of all the sports that you can get, with the exception of the lodge," Olson said. "It's hard to say what ski areas are going to allow, but we do have a great ski area (at Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich.) and they'll give us a little space. We know of some coves our team can be in that the general public won't."
Olson added there is discussion within the Wisconsin Interscholastic Alpine Racing Association as to if or how next February's state championship will be held. He said, initially, there is some opposition to holding the meet from schools in the southern conference, which includes the Madison area.
"Those high schools are at the epicenter of being ultra locked down and they're trying really hard to make it so there won't be a state meet this year if they can't participate," Olson said. "The rest of us conferences are fighting against that."
Additionally, Olson pointed to fundraising concerns, noting there is a chance the team's annual fundraising dinner at Holiday Acres may not take place this year, also that additional funds may be necessary for transportation to adhere to any social distancing protocols either the School District of Rhinelander or the Northland Pines School District put in place.
As for the awards, Olson and the coaching staff decided on most valuable and most improved awards for each gender in both skiing and snowboarding.
Total points was the primary metric used for the MVP awards, which went to siblings Ty and Tommie Jo Springer in downhill skiing, Bailey Schwab in boys' snowboarding and Kylee White in girls' snowboarding.
The Springers dominated the Northern Conference this year on their way to individual championships. Ty, a junior, won 14 of the 15 individual runs this season while Tommie Jo, a freshman, was a perfect 15 for 15 in conference and then had an impressive debut at the WIARA state meet, taking second place overall in a field of 149 skiers. Ty Springer had his chances at a second consecutive top-10 overall finish at state derailed by a crash in giant slalom, but finished seventh at state in both slalom and Super G.
Schwab finished third in the Northern Conference in boys' snowboarding and was the top finishing Hodag at state, taking 13th overall. White was third in the Northern Conference standings and placed fifth at state.
John Krueger and Izzy Haverkampf were the team's most improved skiers, while Joey Sturzl and Madesen Van Order won the most improved awards in snowboarding. Krueger crept into the Hodags' starting varsity lineup at the end of the season, and was 127th in slalom at state. Haverkampf was a senior in her first year of competitive skiing. She placed 19th in the Northern Conference and 99th at state. Sturzl, back after transferring out of the district as a sophomore and an injury-plagued freshman year, was eighth in the Northern Conference boys' snowboarding standings and 38th overall at state. Van Order, who also has been plagued by injury, came on during the second half of the season and finished seventh overall at state.
Coaches awards were presented to Brandon Bacon, Lily Berger, Miles Wentworth and Robert Masini, while White, Kathryn Borski and Patrick Stemper were honored as team captains.
"All of these awards are going along with having some competition for varsity spots this year," Olson noted. "We had some decisions to make. Not everything was a clear-cut slam dunk. We added points up. We looked at performances, looked back some years to see who improved the most and worked the hardest."
While the COVID-19 pandemic has left the squad with plenty of questions and unknowns, Olson said the need to recruit more skiers is an absolute must, especially given that the team is saying farewell to seven seniors.
"Get out there and recruit. We're losing a heck of a lot of seniors this year, like 50% of our team is graduating. We need to build it up," he told the team. "We are rebuilding our numbers and we had a lot of competition at the end of the season. We had seven, eight, nine guys we were trying to use at the end of the year. We could only use so many for state, but we had some competition. It kept athletes honest."
As for what the pandemic may do to the season, Olson said the team is accustomed to being reactive due the uncertainty of Northwoods weather in the winter. The pandemic just adds another layer of uncertainty, he noted.
"We're just going to keep our heads down, train, and get on the snow," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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