August 12, 2021 at 10:36 a.m.
Notebook: Hodag girls' swim team reminded of last year's success
Notebook: Hodag girls' swim team reminded of last year's success
Within the last couple of weeks, the RHS activities department placed a mural in that location, depicting the Hodag girls' swim team in the Waukesha South High School Natatorium celebrating with their WIAA Division 2 state championship trophy.
"That was a good reminder of what we did and also a good motivator for what we want to still do," Hodag girls' swim coach Jenny Heck said. "I think that's a really great honor for all these kids who really made a really difficult season a fantastic one."
The 2021 Hodags began practice on Tuesday, with the memory of last year's incredible season fresh in their minds. Five of the seven state qualifiers from that championship squad are back, and there were 19 swimmers in total at Tuesday's first practice.
Though 2020 ended with a state title, Heck said it took a lot of sacrifice to get there - especially trying to compete and stay healthy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the Oneida County Health Department warned of an uptick in COVID cases the day before practice began, the start of practice began with the hope that this year will feel a little more like a normal season.
"Overall, everyone who's here is really excited to be here," Heck said. "Most of these kids went through all the grind last year and it wasn't very fun a lot of times because it wasn't very social. A lot of us do high school sports because we want social times too. These kids, I give them a lot of credit. It was a lot of hard work without the fun last year and they came back and did it again. They have some fire in them and something to prove again."
Whether this year's Hodags will match last year's success remains to be seen. A couple of traditionally strong D2 programs - Edgewood and McFarland - are back after opting out of last year's traditional fall season. Yet, when addressing their teammates, captains Malia Francis, Noelle St. Pierre and Maria Heck, spelled out process-oriented goals - such as focusing on the small details and pushing each other at practice -rather than result-oriented goals.
"It's a process," coach Heck said. "All of August is kind of a grind. It's a lot of work and you don't get to see much of the benefit, or any benefit sometimes, in August, or until the end of the season. I think it was good for the captains to point out they need to put in the work. It's a process to get to the end of the season. It doesn't happen overnight and they have to put in the time each and every day if they want to see the results."
Of those in attendance, coach Heck said there was a wide gap in how much work put in during the offseason. Some have not been in the water since last November while others have continued to train through the winter, spring and summer months.
"The first week is kind of seeing where everyone's at, what kind of shape everyone's in, kind of getting back into the water for some of us," she said. "Some of it's just finding out what we need to be working on to get to where we need to be. We have to hit it hard, pretty fast. We don't have a lot of time to figure things out."
The Hodags start the season with Merrill's Fun in the Sun Outdoor Relays next Thursday and will also take part in the Colby/Abbotsford pentathlon before beginning the Great Northern Conference season at home against Tomahawk Sept. 2.
Hodag girls' tennis team gets back to work
The Hodag girls' tennis team hit the ground running on Tuesday morning. It needed to because, as is typically the case, the start of the season will be a whirlwind.
The Hodags open the season next Monday with the first of three two-day invites in Wausau over the first two weeks of competition. Overall, unless Mother Nature intervenes, the Hodags will have a stretch where they play matches in nine out of 13 days to start the season.
Luckily, second-year head coach Matt Nichols said much of the team already had a head start on the season - taking part in open hits this winter in the Hodag Dome and/or doing the annual summer tennis lesson series put on by Nichols and the Hodag coaching staff. That allowed the team to hit the ground running Tuesday, and jump in to challenge matches to help determine the team's varsity lineup on Thursday.
"That was nice to get a little more year-round hitting, a little more continuity," he said. "I'd say three quarters of the girls who came out were at the summer tennis lessons, which is huge. We had four weeks of hitting every single day. That brought them in really strong. They know a lot of the routines. We went through different types of shots, different strategies. They know all those and we can just build on it from there.
"We have a fun group girls that all worked hard, so I'm excited to see where this goes."
The Hodags went 7-1 in dual meets during last year's COVID-condensed season. The one loss came to Antigo, which denied Rhinelander its ninth Great Northern Conference title in the 10 seasons it has been a part of the conference. During Tuesday's practice, the players stated one of their goals was to unseat Antigo and reclaim the conference title. But, to do that, the team said it first needs to compete against itself.
"I want to see the girls competing," Nichols. "One of theirs goals, which was awesome was competing against yourself at every practice. I love to see that and if they can do that and carry through on that, that's just going to be a success in itself."
The Hodags will scrimmage Wausau West Saturday at the RHS tennis courts. In concert with the late-week challenge matches, Nichols said the scrimmage will be an opportunity to experiment with the lineup a little bit and determine who plays at which flight when the matches start counting next Monday.
"The scrimmage is going to be huge in solidifying our lineup going into that, but also just helping all players at every level just get back into the gameplay or, if they haven't played in matches before, just getting comfortable and familiar with that," he said.
Tuesday's first practice was held at the auxiliary courts next to Rhinelander High School as the main RHS tennis courts were undergoing maintenance. The main courts were expected to be ready for use in time for Wednesday's second practice.
The final wave of fall practices kick off next week with the Hodag volleyball and cross country teams starting on Monday. The Hodag boys' soccer team will hold its first practice next Wednesday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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