August 19, 2020 at 11:04 a.m.
Uncertainty in the air as RHS fall practices begin
Uncertainty in the air as RHS fall practices begin
A sobering reminder of that reality was delivered Monday evening, when the School District of Rhinelander called a special board meeting for Aug. 24 with the fate of the fall sports season on the agenda. It is possible that some, all or no fall sports could move to an alternate season beginning in late winter, depending on the outcome of that meeting.
Cross country, girls' swimming and girls' tennis, all considered "low risk" according to the WIAA, began practice on Monday still unsure of how exactly their seasons will look, when they will take place or if there will be a sudden change of plans.
"I think the biggest challenge that I'm finding is just the mental mindset of staying positive," RHS cross country coach M.J. Laggis said. "I think it's easy to fall in that trap of, 'Oh, things are going to go bad in a week or two weeks or whatever.' I think that's the No. 1 challenge, staying focused day by day. Then the next challenge is trying to do things as correctly as you can, safety-wise."
"We have high numbers and enthusiasm, lot of talent and a lot of hard workers," added coach Jenny Heck, whose RHS girls' swim team enters the season looking to build off a fifth-place finish at last year's WIAA Division 2 state meet. "All we need is a season now."
Assuming nothing changes in the interim, the first to jump into competition will be girls' tennis team, under the direction of first-year head coach Matt Nichols, who takes over the reins of the program from the retired Bob Heideman. As of now, the Hodags are slated to host Marshfield Columbus this Tuesday to kick off the Great Northern Conference season.
"I think it's still a similar approach, still trying to work on the fundamentals early and then move into more strategy toward the end, but I guess there is that question of is there that end," Nichols said. "Is there a state meet? Are we maybe canceled in a week or two? We still want to work the fundamentals, build a strong game and then build off of that."
In comments to the school board Monday night, SDR superintendent Eric Burke indicated he felt confident that non-contact sports, like the three that began practice Monday, could take place during the scheduled fall season. His concerns centered around the contact sports of football, boys' soccer and volleyball which are slated to start practice Sept. 7 or 8. Burke also indicated that the GNC superintendents were also supposed to meet this week to further discuss the fall sports situation.
"My question to them is, and I personally love football and I love contact sports like wrestling, my question is tell me how that can happen safely," he said. "That's a question I've put out to them. As we're looking at school being done differently, I think the responsible thing is to make sure we asked those questions and try to figure it out."
Monday's practices were the first official in-season practices at Rhinelander High School since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced facilities to close for the remainder of the school year. Some district facilities opened for teams to hold voluntary training in early July, and the Aspirus Fitness Center reopened earlier this month in a limited capacity.
All three coaches agreed being able to hold voluntary workouts in the summer helped Monday with the additional safety protocols recommended by the WIAA and/or the district in regard to social distancing, sanitation and symptom screening.
"I think the summer just got everyone just kind of knowing the routine and feeling comfortable wearing a mask into the pool, answering your COVID (screening) questions, kind of keeping separated," Heck said. "We've been doing that all summer long, so it was nothing new and it didn't feel that strange then."
"Summer was awesome because, outside, you just felt relaxed," Laggis added. "You could separate. You were outdoors. You just didn't feel like everything was on you. Right now, it feels a little less tense because it's not raining, we can be outside. We separated the kids. What happens when it's rainy and nasty and we're indoors? I feel like summer got us ready for where we're at right now, but I think right now, we've got to get ready for what the next couple of weeks is going to bring. We've got to stay a couple of weeks ahead."
River News reporter Jamie Taylor contributed to this report. Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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