May 29, 2020 at 11:43 a.m.
The lost season: RHS boys' tennis
Heideman saw potential for 'spectacular' final season
The lost season: RHS boys' tennis
The Hodags would have needed to replace six seniors from last year's starting lineup, and would have done so with a roster that included no seniors this year. But longtime coach Bob Heideman was encouraged by a group of underclassmen who put in significant time in the offseason, by a GNC field that was certainly wide open and by a change in the WIAA Division 2 tournament assignments that would send the Hodags west instead of east, eliminating two tennis powerhouses from its subsectional.
"It had the potential year, I thought, to be a spectacular season, but it could have gone the other way, too," Heideman said.
As it turns out, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hodags won't win a ninth conference title this year, nor will they have a chance to make a deep run in the WIAA tournament. What's more, Heideman has coached his last match, having announced his retirement earlier this month after a 36-year career at RHS. He finishes with 591 career wins between the boys' and girls' tennis programs. Win No. 600 would very likely have come this spring, had there been a season. Here are five storylines that we would have followed.
No seniors
The Hodags were faced with a tough reloading task after graduating six seniors from last year's squad. Pretty much all of its singles lineup graduated between Russell Benoy at the No. 2 flight, Freddy Wisner at No. 3 and Ian Conkey at No. 4. Additionally, the Hodags' No. 1 doubles team of Logan Oestreich and Connor Young, which received a special qualifying invitation to the WIAA D2 state tennis tournament, graduated, along with Bridger Flory from the team's conference championship-winning No. 3 doubles team.
"One of the things I've felt over the years -Â and (last year's) senior class was an example - if you can keep freshmen out and end up with a number of seniors in your lineup, that year, you'll probably have a good year," Heideman said.
That's what would have made this season such an anomaly. The Hodags did not have a single senior on the roster, though numbers were good overall with 26 players out for the program. Heideman said he could not recall a year during his Rhinelander tenure in which he did not have at least one senior on the team. But he said the team wasn't viewing that as a handicap, but rather an opportunity.
"It wasn't a case of the athletes saying, 'Oh, we miss six seniors. Gee, we're going to have a down year.' I think it was, 'Hey, we've got some shoes to fill, and those are big shoes, but we're going after it,'" he said.
Returning experience
Part of the reason for optimism was that the team still had a fair number of experienced pieces returning to the fold.
"I thought we had a core of people who really committed themselves to kind of filling the gaps that those seniors left - not only just filling the gaps, but realizing how badly they were needed," Heideman said.
Jacob Weddle, who ascended to the No. 1 singles spot last spring, was back following a sophomore season that saw him go 21-7, win conference singles player of the year honors and earn a trip to the sectional round of the WIAA tournament.
"Jacob led the charge. He put in a lot, a lot of hours," Heideman said.
Luke Ring and Elijah Evers were set to be back after going 20-11 together at No. 2 doubles as freshmen, though Heideman said he was almost certain that he was going to split the pair, moving them to Nos. 2 and 3 singles, in an effort to double their winning potential in dual meets.
"I'm almost reticent to say it, but we were going to move them to singles. Luke and Elijah, they both put in a lot, a lot of hours," he said. "We had to get two wins out of them, instead of one. But, of course, in doing that - shoring up the singles - what we did was unshore the doubles."
The fourth returning starter from last year would have been junior Billy Berwig, who likely would have made the jump from No. 3 doubles, where he went 21-9 last season, to No. 1 doubles.
New faces
In addition to the four returning starters, the Hodags had a few other players who would have likely factored prominently into the starting lineup.
For one, Joey Sturzl returned to the team. He played JV for the Hodags as a freshmen before transferring to Saint Mary Catholic in Neenah last year. He earned a varsity spot for the Zephyrs last year and, coincidentally, faced Conkey at No. 4 singles in the WIAA subsectional round, losing in straight sets.
The team was also counting on sophomore Jack DeNamur to make a big leap from JV to its No. 1 doubles team with Berwig. Additionally, Heideman said junior Joseph Heck and incoming freshman Eli Lundt were also in the varsity mix heading into the season.
"With Jack, Joe and Joey, what looked like maybe not such a strong year coming in all of a sudden looked like a pretty good year coming in," Heideman said. "I think No. 4 singles was going to be a crucial part of that team, and whether Joseph Heck would fill that. I know Joey Sturzl played No. 4 for Saint Mary, but that was a question mark. Looking at that group, I needed to get somebody out of Eli, Joey or Joseph to be a good No. 4 singles players."
Heideman said the two players out of that group who did not play No. 4 singles likely would have been paired together at No. 2 doubles, and the team would have used its first few practices to solidify its No. 3 doubles position.
Window of opportunity
Though the Hodags had a number of question marks coming into the season, they won last year's conference title by 42 points over Antigo. Heideman liked his chances in the conference this year, considering that most teams took hits due to graduation and Wausau Newman folded its boys' tennis program due to a lack of numbers.
"I do not think it was going to be an extremely strong year in the conference," Heideman said. "I just didn't see - and not that I think we were the odds-on favorite even to win the conference, having to replace those seniors, but I think it was it the realm of possibility."
What's more, the sectional had Rhinelander going to the Eau Claire area, rather than the eastern part of the state in Kohler, this year. That meant the Hodags would have avoided Green Bay Notre Dame, which won Rhinelander's subsectional last year and ended up taking the overall D2 state crown, as well as Appleton Xavier, which was a clear-cut runner-up in the subsectional.
Without having to compete against those teams, Heideman felt the path to sectionals, and perhaps beyond, opened up for the team at a number of flights.
"This year had the biggest swing potential that I can remember in a long time," he said. "Because we were replacing so many people, that's one big factor, but the other factor was how the subsectional and sectional opened up with the removal of those two teams."
What's next?
The team will have a chance to reconvene in July for a couple of weeks, culminating with a pair of double-duals against conference rivals Antigo and Lakeland in the middle of the month, but things will look a lot different when the team meets again.
Heideman will not be present as he rides into the sunset. His replacement has not yet been named, but it is expected that JV coach Matt Nichols will skipper the team this summer in his absence. Though Heideman said he would have been able to coach a few more years, he felt by turning over the reins now, the program has the best chance for long-term stability and success.
While he has left the program, all of this year's projected starters will be back, which makes whatever development the team gets this summer a benefit. Plus, with the Hodag Sports Complex expected to be completed this fall, and with four multi-purpose sport courts to be included in the massive indoor structure, the opportunity for players to work on their game in the winter has never been greater. That desire to get better, Heideman said, will ultimately dictate the direction of the Hodag tennis program moving forward.
"You know where you fit as far as your skills, but always want to take that a step further," he said. "I think, in the game of tennis, there are just no shortcuts to that. You just want to get better and be willing to pay the price for that.
"We've always had a core of kids who were willing to pay the price and I thought that a lot of my role was to just provide the opportunity if there was somebody who had the tennis fire that they could go somewhere to help quench that."
Also in the offing will be a hall of fame call for Heideman. He was scheduled to be inducted into the Wisconsin High School Tennis Coaches Association in March, however the event was canceled due to the coronavirus.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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