November 11, 2020 at 11:15 a.m.
Hodags' Wiese named GNC soccer co-offensive player of the year
Hodags' Wiese named GNC soccer co-offensive player of the year
Senior midfielder Hugh Wiese was a unanimous first-team selection for the GNC-champion Hodags and was named the conference's co-offensive player of the year. In total, the Hodags had three first-team and two second-team honorees along with three players who received honorable mention.
Voting for the all-conference soccer and volleyball teams was conducted electronically last week. The conference also announced its cross country team, based in the results of last month's GNC meet.
The all-conference awards in football, girls' swimming and girls' tennis will be announced at a later date.
Boys' soccer
Wiese shared the offensive player of the year award with Mosinee junior Toren Holtz. Of the two, Holtz had the stronger statistical numbers by far, tallying 18 goals and four assists in league play to Wiese's nine goals and five assists.
Still, Rhinelander coach Nathan Bates said his fellow conference coaches understood and appreciated Wiese's value on the field - as evidenced by the way they set up their defenses when they played the Hodags.
"He didn't have the numbers of some of the other kids, but every single team we played against this season, they knew who Hugh was and he had a hard go this year. He was double-teamed, tripled-teamed in most of the games we played this year," Bates said. "I think this was a very well-earned award for him this year. The coaches on the other teams thought so as well, based on the voting."
Wiese was one of three first-team all-conference honorees for Rhinelander, but the only one of the three to earn unanimous honors. Forward Beau Howard and goalkeeper Gavin Ostermann also made it on to the first team.
Howard, a junior, tied for fourth in goals scored in the GNC this season with six, and tacked on three more goals against conference rival Antigo when the two teams meet in the regional final round of the WIAA playoffs.
"Beau, he didn't have the numbers in all the conference play but if you look at the overall numbers from throughout the season itself, from last year to this year, Beau has dramatically improved," Bates said. "He put a lot of goals in the back of the net this year and I'm looking forward to having him next year. I believe he's going to improve that much more for that season."
Ostermann got the nod as the conference's best goalkeeper, despite Medford's Brady Hupf having slightly better numbers. Ostermann finished second to Hupf in save percentage (.840) and goals against average (0.89) in league play, but Hupf was forced to miss a couple of games during the middle of the season.
"Gavin, in my opinion, is by far the best goalkeeper in the conference. I know our D did not allow as many shots against him compared to other goalkeepers but, when it came down to crunch time, Gavin stopped a lot of really big shots this year," Bates said. "He's amazing in my opinion, just his reaction times, what it takes from him getting back up to recover to another shot coming in at him. He's just a very talented individual and very good at his job back there."
Three fourths of that defense, which finished second in the conference allowing 1.5 goals per game, received recognition from the conference. Senior Joseph Heck and junior Alexx Huff were both second-team honorees while sophomore Charlie Heck received honorable mention.
Midfielders Braden Mork and Tucker Frederickson also received honorable mention from the conference. Mork was fourth on the team with three goals and three assists in league play this season while Frederickson had a goal and an assist.
Medford's Ty Baker was voted the conference's defensive player of the year while Antigo's Ben Wilhelm earned coach of the year honors. Rhinelander and Medford, which lost last Saturday to eventual state champion Two Rivers/Roncalli in the WIAA Division 2 state semifinals, each had a conference-high eight all-conference honorees. Lakeland, Mosinee and Northland Pines all had five honorees and Antigo had three.
Volleyball
Hannah Worachek, arguably the most versatile player for the RHS girls' volleyball team this season, was the only member of that squad to earn all-conference recognition.
The senior received honorable mention for her efforts.
Rhinelander coach Jim Povolo noted that he nominated Worachek both as an all-around player and as a libero. He said that versatility helped Worachek in the voting.
"She was clearly, I think, our most talented player," he said. "She had been a four-year varsity player. In years past I know she had been nominated and never had gotten any attention. I just kind of went to it and said that she's really deserving of at least an honorable mention, and somebody put in a vote for her."
Worachek led the team in digs (41) and service aces (9) in conference play. Her 11 assists were tied for second on the team and Povolo noted that, after moving her to an outside hitter late in the season to address some depth issues, Worachek had 15 kills and only three errors in 32 total attacks.
Antigo's Clare Aulik was voted the conference player of the year while Mosinee's Justin Jacobs took home coach of the year honors.
Cross country
The all-GNC cross country team was also published by the conference on Sunday, based on the results of the Great Northern Conference championship meet, which was held Oct. 15 at Edgewater Country Club in Tomahawk.
The top seven finishers in both the boys' and the girls' races earned first-team honors and runners who finished eighth through 14th earned second-team honors. New this year, runners who finished 15th through 21st received honorable mention.
As a result, six Rhinelander runners were recognized by the conference. Cody Ruetz (15th), Ty Welk (17th), Daniel Goldsworthy (19th) and Jack DeNamur (20th) received honorable mention for the Hodags on the boys' side, while Ali DeNamur (16th) and Leah Jamison (19th) received honorable mention on the girls' side.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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