July 22, 2020 at 12:03 p.m.
RHS football team holds camp
Masks, social distancing and sanitation key as gridders prep for season
RHS football team holds camp
The team's annual summer camp started this week and attendance has been strong as the Hodags look to ride the momentum of a 6-4 record last year, the team's first winning campaign since 1994.
There have been a few, noticeable differences during the camp due to the pandemic. Coaches and players have all been masked, unless they are more than six feet apart from one another. The majority of work has been done in position groups and, at least on Monday, a football didn't make an appearance until late in the 2 1/2-hour session.
Limited in his interactions with players since the onset of the pandemic in early March, coach Aaron Kraemer told the team Monday was the best day he's had for quite some time, simply because he was able to reunite with his team.
"It's like having a part of your life back," he said. "My family is my family and I love them dearly. We spent a lot of time together and it was well-needed and well-deserved, but this is a part of my life that I've missed for the last five months and it was a great day."
The camp began as the School District of Rhinelander moved to Phase 2 of its four-phase athletic plan which calls for a step-by-step approach to contact in hopes of having full practices, scrimmages and games by Aug. 10. It also comes at a time where COVID-19 cases are on the rise. There had been 57 cases reported in Oneida County as of Tuesday afternoon, up from only 20 July 1.
To that end, the team was vigilant all week about wearing masks, maintaining social distance and sanitizing hands and equipment whenever possible.
During a group talk at the beginning of Monday's session, Kraemer told the team wearing masks "saves our season."
"We're going to mask up. We're going to hand sanitize. We're going to clean up afterwards because that is the difference between us playing and us not playing," he said. "We all have to make sacrifices for our team. That's part of our Hodag Way, sacrifice. We tell them that's something they're going to need to sacrifice for us."
Kraemer said he was taken aback, in a good way, regarding the turnout at camp. Roughly 50 players were in attendance on Monday, and he knows there were more players out there who weren't in attendance.
"I know we've got some guys out there, their parents are going to read this story and they're going to read this story and they're going to see that coach Kraemer's talking to them," he said. "I want them to know every single player that's ever played for our program is always welcome. I want them to be here and I want them to be part of what's going to be a very successful season for us. I see it coming."
In addition to whiteboard sessions regarding offense and defense, the majority of the camp was spent with players divided into their specific position groups, either on offense or defense, to help naturally break the larger group into smaller, more socially distant pods.
A ball was not used during the defensive periods of Monday's practice and a ball was only used in position group work on offense, with quarterbacks passing the ball amongst each other, running backs practicing carrying the ball and receivers doing a short period of catching.
When the group did a full team offensive session, they walked through plays without a football. Kraemer said pantomiming taking the ball out of the equation, in addition to limiting a potential contact point for players, helps hammer home footwork and technique.
"Yes, it's a hinderance and we want to use footballs, but we look at it as an opportunity to get better at the small things we need to do to be a great team," he said.
No person-on-person contact drills are allowed during Phase 2 of the district's plan, so even blocking and tackling needed to be done against air.
"You can't block and you can't tackle but everything coming up to that contact is very, very important," Kraemer noted. "We're going to work on all of our USA (Football) blocking and all of our USA striking and tackling so that we can get our feet right, get our bodies right, so that when we do finally get to tackle, we're ready."
Mother Nature also threw the football team a curveball this week as heavy rains canceled Tuesday's scheduled camp day. To compensate, the team is extending its camp into next week, with the fourth day of camp this coming Tuesday and an added fifth day of camp next Thursday. The team can make these changes because, due to the cancellation of 7-on-7 for the summer, Kraemer had all five of his summer contact days available to him at the start of camp. Additionally, due the pandemic, the WIAA extended its summer contact period by one week, allowing football teams to meet for contact any time prior to Aug. 1.
Football practice is currently slated to begin Tuesday, Aug. 4, with players receiving their equipment a day earlier. Assuming everything takes place as scheduled, Kraemer said he's excited about the team he has returning. Though the team graduated three-time 1,000-yard rusher, and UW-Whitewater signee Drake Martin, along with defensive leader and Minnesota State Moorhead recruit Peyton Erikson, Kraemer said the team has the personnel in place to have another successful season.
"When you look at the rest of the players coming back on the offensive side of the football we have six offensive linemen that have gameday experience," Kraemer said. "We have our starting quarterback (Quinn Lamers) back and our starting H (back, Walker Hartman). We have three unbelievably young running backs that can run and they are fast. Both receivers are back and they have guys behind them to push them. All these guys are veterans. We can start moving quickly. These guys, you saw today, they moved fast and they looked good.
"Defensively, we're going to have to try to replace those guys we lost last year. Peyton Erikson is a big person to replace this year, and we've got some guys that are stepping up and are hungry to do it. Caleb Olcikas wants to work on the defensive side of the ball. We've got some young guys that want to work on the defensive side of the ball and we need to find somebody to replace (Erikson) and somebody to replace our outside linebackers and some of our inside guys that were very good last year."
While some schools in the southern part of the state have opted to either start the fall season late, or are proposing a plan that would shift the fall sports season to the spring of 2021, Kraemer said he's optimistic that the season can begin as scheduled.
He said he hopes this week's camp illustrated how it could be done in a safe, responsible manner.
"I think it's going to be adapting to the changes of the school year, what the WIAA decides and what our school district decides," he said. "My feeling is this, school comes first. We need to get the schools open and I know that our superintendent and the rest of our school board and everybody who's on the committees, they're doing the best they can to make sure the schools get open. Once the schools get open, I think we can safely play the game of football, regardless of if we're at home or at school, I think we can safely do it. But I think it's going to be this new norm. Our coaches are going to have to be dialed in. Our players are going to have to be respectful of our rules and they're going to have to do the best they can to make sure they are keeping themselves safe, but also it's more about their buddies, keeping their buddies safe so we can play."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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