August 25, 2021 at 12:01 p.m.
Team preview: RHS boys' soccer
Hodags seek encore of last year's success
Team preview: RHS boys' soccer
With six returning all-conference honorees, coach Nathan Bates said the team is eager to match, if not improve upon, last year's success.
"I have high hopes for our group of boys and I believe in all of them," he said. "I believe we're one of the top two strongest teams in our conference. I think we're going to have a great season again this year."
The Hodags, who opened the season last night at home against Hayward, graduated a couple of big pieces from last year's team. That includes leading scorer Hugh Wiese who was co-offensive player of the year in the Great Northern Conference. It will be difficult to replace Wiese's 15 goals from a season ago, and Bates said this year's squad may score more by committee than focusing its offense on one or two players.
"Formations is going to be the big thing with us," he said. "We have to focus more on our passing game. Hugh was so explosive in the middle and owned the middle part of that field because of how aggressive he was, how fast he could move the ball and his shooting abilities. We'll have to change up to more of a passing team and stick to our game plan every single game."
The good news is Rhinelander returns seven different players who scored in GNC play a season ago. Speedy senior forward Beau Howard, who finished with 13 goals last year, leads that list. Shane Petrick and Braden Mork, third and fourth on the team in scoring last year, are back, along with midfielder Tucker Frederickson and junior Andrew Henrichs on the outside.
Howard was an all-conference first-teamer last year while Mork and Frederickson each received honorable mention.
"We still have some very deadly attackers on our team," Bates said. "You've got Shane, you've got Beau, you've got Tucker, you've got Braden, you've got Andrew. We have a large amount of speed on the team with a lot of finishing qualities as well with these guys."
Kyle Wiese, Hugh's younger brother, figures to get more time in the midfield this year, while Frederickson and Mork run things in the middle.
"They're great at the defensive side of things. They're great at distribution and they both can shoot the ball from far distance," Bates said.
Defensively, it starts with returning first-team all-GNC goalkeeper Gavin Ostermann, who was 12-2 last season with a 0.92 goals against average.
"Gavin, I still will tell you he's the best in the conference. In my eyes he's the best goalkeeper we have in the conference," Bates said.
The rest of the defense should be solid, too. Though the Hodags must replace second-team All-GNC selection Joseph Heck, they return all-conference recipients Charlie Heck and Alexx Huff. Leo Losch and Matthew King will likely also figure prominently in the team's back four plans.
Bates said depth may end up being the team's greatest asset. The Hodags went undefeated in a limited JV schedule last year and a number of those players could be called upon in spot situations.
"We have a lot of young guys that are sophomores and freshmen that if you put them in, they're still going to be an asset for our team," he said.
As for the conference, though Bates expects his team to be in the mix, a case could be made Medford, Lakeland, Mosinee and Northland Pines - who all return key pieces from a season ago.
"Any one of those teams can definitely do something this season, but I just know my team and I know what we're capable of doing, and I'd definitely put us in the top two of this conference," Bates said.
The Hodags will open GNC play at Medford this coming Tuesday night.
Another deep tournament run is definitely possible. Rhinelander appears to have a favorable half-sectional draw in Division 3 with Ashland, New London, Shawano and Waupaca joining the entire GNC, minus Northland Pines, in the nine-team bracket. Rhinelander sees Waupaca during this weekend's home invite and will travel to Shawano Sept. 17.
Bates said he feels his team has the talent to be successful. It's just a matter of if the team gels as well as last year's squad.
"Team atmosphere, in my opinion, plays a very crucial role in how your team's going to perform on the field," he said. "The big thing for me is keeping the guys all mentally together and playing together as a team. If they can keep that together, we're going to have a very, very successful year."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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