August 16, 2021 at 9:25 a.m.
Springers siblings tabbed as RHS/NP skiing MVPs
Springers siblings tabbed as RHS/NP skiing MVPs
Coach Rod Olson said a number of factors, including where to hold the banquet and coordinating everyone's busy schedules following the end of the high school season, contributed to the delay in the ceremony.
"Quite a few teams, both school and USSA programs that did their (banquets) in the summer," he said. "What's different with our sport is after the state meet, we still have a lot of people that continue to snowboard and ski race. The season kind of goes on."
State champion Kylee White and Bailey Schwab were the team's most valuable snowboarders. Max Durkee, Madeline Ewan and AJ Gillespie were the team's most improved athletes and McKenna Nash received the coaches award.
Ty Springer, a senior, won his fourth straight Northern Conference individual championship this past winter and had third-place runs in giant slalom and Super G at the WIARA state meet in La Crosse. Only a mishap in slalom cost him a chance at a top-10 finish, or better, in the overall standings at state.
"Four outstanding years in high school racing. Four-time conference champ, it's unheard of," Olson said during the banquet.
Slalom also caught out Tommie Jo Springer at state. A straddled gate eventually led to a disqualification that knocked to sophomore down to 76th in the final standings after finishing as the state runner-up last year. But the younger Springer did show off her elite-level speed, winning the Super G race at state by a whopping 1.66 seconds.
She then put together a strong late winner outside the high school realm, taking first both the downhill and Super G titles at the Rocky/Central U16 Championships held in March in Colorado. Springer also finished fourth in the girls' combined.
Tommie Jo Springer won her second straight Northern Conference title, despite missing the first race of the season while attending a developmental ski camp and a suffering a mishap in slalom at Christie Mountain cost her an overall title in the second race of the year. Springer came back to sweep the final three events to lock up the individual crown.
"She cleaned up, not only in our conference, but she would have cleaned up at state," Olson said. "She had a couple miscues, but won the state downhill race and went out west and just clobbered everybody."
White won the girls' snowboarding MVP by default, as the only girls' snowboarder on this year's squad - but her performance on the snow was more than MVP-worthy. She took first place in four of the five Northern Conference races this season before winning the state title at Mt. La Crosse, becoming Rhinelander's fifth individual state champion in girls' snowboarding.
"You've got to give it to the state champion, I suppose," Olson quipped when presenting White her MVP award.
Bailey Schwab won three races to take the individual boys' snowboarding title and was in line for a top five finish at state before a chase in the slalom competition.
The Springers, Schwab and White all repeated as MVPs from the 2019-20 season.
Olson said the team looked at a number of metrics, including race performance, effort in training and overall attitude to determine most improved awards this year. Gillespie finished seventh in the Northern Conference standings and then placed 79th at state in boys' skiing. Durkee was Rhinelander's top-placing boys' boarder at state with a 36th-place finish and was fourth in the final Northern Conference standings. Ewan was 28th in her rookie season in girls' skiing.
Nash was seventh in the Northern Conference girls' ski standings and Olson said played a key role as the Hodags were able to edge Wausau for the team conference title.
"She was everywhere we needed her do be, did the right thing, worked hard and got some improved results," he said. "She was in (the conversation) for most improved, in there for most valuable, just a great job and a great partner with the coaches."
Olson thanked the athletes and their parents for sticking with the program in an unusual season, between restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging weather conditions and finding a new home after Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. opted not to make snow for the 2020-21 season.
The Hodags overcame those obstacles to win every team and individual Northern Conference title available last season.
"Everyone was pretty resilient," he said. "Even though we missed out on some time, it was good for our team to go to different hills and different hills and different places, to get used to that. It helped our performance at the end of the year."
Olson said that the team does plan to return to Ski Brule this year, though it still may occasionally train at other hills, including Granite Peak in Wausau.
The 2021-22 season is only a few months away, and Olson said the team's No. 1 goal in the interim is to recruit more athletes to replace the nine athletes who graduated.
"We're losing a huge chunk of people, a lot of seniors. It's great that all the seniors had such a great year for our program, so a lot of momentum going forward, but we need to recruit," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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