December 30, 2021 at 10:16 a.m.
Team successes highlight top local sports stories of 2021
Team successes highlight top local sports stories of 2021
Over the past 365 days, we have bore witness to six Rhinelander High School conference titles, and five team sectional championship or runner-up finishes. We also saw a number of individual state triumphs.
For some, like the Hodag boys' and girls' swim teams, 2021 was the continuation of a recent run of success. For others, like the Hodag boys' cross country team, 2021 brought with it a magical run that very few could have seen coming.
While the two overriding stories of 2020 on the local sports season - the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of the Hodag Dome - were still impactful in 2021, this year, the attention turned back to the successes on the playing field.
And there were plenty of successes to celebrate.
With that, I unveil what I consider to be the top 10 local sports stories of 2021.
1. RHS girls' swim team continues dynastic run
While perhaps equaled or slightly overshadowed by the success of others the past couple of years, there is no question the Hodag girls' swim team stood above all others locally in 2021.
No, the Hodags did not win a Division 2 state title like they did in 2020. That honor went to swimming factory Madison Edgewood, which returned after opting out of the traditional fall season in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, one could argue that the Hodag swimmers were just as dominant this year, if not more.
The Hodags were the state runners-up, with a plethora of podium finishes as the D2 state meet. That came on the heels of dominating the Great Northern Conference for a third straight season and winning a WIAA Division 2 sectional title for a third year in a row.
"Coming into the year I thought top three would just be amazing. To take second place overall is just really, wow, it's just really amazing," coach Jenny Heck said following the team's performance at state. "I'm so proud of these girls. They really pulled together and did what they needed to do to make that happen. They worked really hard and were up against some fast girls. They kept it all together and really pulled it off."
That's not even counting all the records this year's Hodag squad set. Along the way, Rhinelander set varsity records in five different events, Heck Family Community Pool records in six events and Great Northern Conference records in six events.
Senior Malia Francis spearheaded the efforts of the squad in a year that saw her accomplish goals far beyond the high school pool. She closed out her high school career with state titles in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard backstroke, breaking the D2 state record in the process. That gave her eight individual state championships in just three years at RHS - the most all-time in Hodag history.
For Francis, who will follow in her older sister Kiah's footsteps and swim collegiately at Division I Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., the year included an even greater thrill - qualifying for and competing in the U.S. Olympic Swim Trails.
Francis achieved a qualifying time in the 100-meter backstroke for the Olympic Trials during a national club event in Orlando, Fla. in March. She followed that up with a 16th-place finish in Wave I of the trials, after sneaking into the B finals of the event with the 16th-fastest qualifying time.
"It puts things in perspective, and that happens to me a lot when I go to these bigger meets. I just realize how big swimming is, how close it is and how fast people actually are," Francis told the River News afterward.
While Francis earned the headlines, she was far from the only swimmer to make an impact. The Hodags had six swimmers qualify for the WIAA D2 state meet - Malia and Karis Francis, Abi Winnicki, Noelle St. Pierre, Genna Fugle and Ellyse Younker. All six placed on the podium by finishing in the top six in at least one event.
2. Hodag hockey wins GNC, gets within one win of state
The Hodag boys' hockey team fulfilled the role of Cinderella once, and nearly a second time, during a magical three-week stretch to end the 2020-21 season.
Rhinelander pulled off a pair of upsets to claim a share of its first ever GNC title as it won the conference tournament. The Hodags nearly did it again, making a run to the WIAA Division 2 sectional finals, before getting stopped by Lakeland in the championship game.
"I'm proud of the kids for the season. It was nice to get to a sectional final, but it's a lot nicer to win it," Hodag coach M.J. Laggis said. "We did a lot of good things but, at the end you want to find a way. Credit to Lakeland, they worked really hard."
The Hodags were the No. 4 seed for the GNC tournament and began their run with a 7-5 home victory over Waupaca. Rhinelander then downed top-seeded Northland Pines 5-2 in Eagle River before skating against Mosinee in the GNC tournament championship. Joe Schneider scored four goals in that contest as Rhinelander won 5-3 to earn conference co-champion honors with the Eagles and the Indians.
"It honestly just feels surreal," senior captain Jake Losch said. "We definitely got the team to do it this year, I knew from the beginning. We've got a pretty young team but there's so much talent. For Hodag hockey, it's only up from here. It's only going up."
Rhinelander ran through Waupaca and Northland Pines again in the WIAA tournament before falling 5-1 to the Thunderbirds. Rhinelander ended up 15-7-0 overall on the season, winning nine of its final 11 contests.
3. Rhinelander baseball teams get tantalizingly close to state
One could argue that Rhinelander baseball was only a handful of outs away from giving the RHS girls' swim team a run for its money in terms of the No. 1 position on our list.
The RHS baseball and Rhinelander Post 7 American Legion clubs both saw potential state tournaments bids vanish less than six outs from the finish line exactly five weeks apart.
The losses stung for different reasons, but both squads had special playoff runs just to get to that point.
For the high school club, it started with a 1-0 victory over Antigo in the WIAA regional semifinals and continued with a thrilling 5-4 victory in nine innings over Shawano in the regional finals the following day.
The run continued with a 6-1 win over Seymour in the sectional semifinal round, which gave the Hodags a game against No. 1 Denmark in the sectional finals for the right to go to state. Rhinelander clung to a 1-0 lead going into the sixth inning, but the Vikings scored three runs in the sixth, thanks in part to a couple of seeing-eye hits and took the sectional title, 3-1.
Denmark would go on to win the D2 state title the following week.
Many of those same players were back on the diamond the very next day to begin the American Legion season. The Rebels ended up as the No. 2 seed in Great Northern Legion Conference regular season play but then used tight wins over Minocqua and Mosinee to claim the GNLC tournament crown.
Rhinelander hosted the Class AA Region 2 Legion tournament and had to claw its way through the loser's bracket after falling to Medford in Day 2 of the double elimination tournament. Rhinelander did just that, rallying for five in the seventh to beat Merrill 12-10 in an elimination game, before beating Medford to force a winner-take-all championship game.
Rhinelander led 5-0 in the sixth inning of that championship game when it simply ran out of arms. Medford plated 11 runs against what was left of the Rebels' bullpen and again Rhinelander was left wondering what might have been.
"It's heartbreaking," Rebels manager Dan Huhnstock said. "It's really heartbreaking. The kids worked so hard to have one bad inning ruin it."
4. Continued success for Hodag football
This is another case of a team that had a strong season that could have been even stronger had a couple of close games went their way.
The 2021 Rhinelander Hodags finished 8-2 on the year, the team's second straight eight-win campaign, but were only two touchdowns away from their first conference championship since 1989 and a 10-plus win season.
The Hodags met Mosinee Oct. 1 in a battle of conference undefeateds, but Rhinelander's offense was stopped cold in a 14-7 loss. Only one offensive touchdown was scored in the contest, and it proved to be the game-winner as Mosinee's Trevor Garski found Davin Stoffel for a seven-yard TD pass less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
Though it was Rhinelander's lone loss of the regular season, the Hodags were saddled with a No. 5 seed from the WIAA computers and forced to travel to fourth-seeded Baraboo for Level 1 of the WIAA tournament. The Hodags led 7-6 at halftime, but Baraboo scored on the opening drive of the third quarter as a pass attempt from Luna Larson slipped through defender Arik Beske's hands into the end zone and deflected into the arms of Brady Henry for what proved to be the go-ahead score.
Rhinelander's offense, held in check most of the night, drove down to the Baraboo 9 with less than a minute to play, but quarterback Jacksen Smith overshot Beske in the end zone on fourth down in an attempt to tie the game.
"These guys, they did every thing they could tonight to win a football game tonight and just came up short," Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said.
Despite the two setbacks, there were plenty of bright spots along the way. Rhinelander defeated Medford 28-14 a Week 5 rematch of last year's conference title game. It was the Hodags' first win over the Raiders since 2010. The following week the Hodags rolled to their third straight Bell Game win in historic fashion, defeating Antigo 42-0 at home. The game marked Rhinelander's most points scored and largest margin of victory in the 87-year trophy trade series.
The Hodags moved to 22-7 in three seasons under Kraemer, including 6-0 in trophy games. Rhinelander dispatched Lakeland 32-7 in the Northwoods Axe Game.
5. Hodag cross country makes improbable run
Coach M.J. Laggis wanted to be optimistic about the RHS cross country team's chances this year. But, entering the season, the sting of a COVID-ravaged 2020 campaign was still fresh in his mind.
"Every time I think we're right on the cusp and we have that team, we've been bitten by so many things - the injury bug, another year it was a different sickness where I had three or four kids sick right at the end," he said prior to the season. "Last year, was obviously COVID. I just feel like I'm a broken record, but it's honestly. We want to be in that top three and challenging."
Injuries hampered the Hodag girls' 2021 campaign but no one quite expected the magical run by the RHS boys' team that saw the team win a conference title for the first time since 1987 and qualify for state as a team for the first time since 1997.
Maybe Rhinelander winning its home invite should have been a sign. The Hodags were competitive from the onset of the season and by October were legitimate Great Northern Conference title contenders.
The Hodags delivered on conference meet day at Minocqua Winter Park. Cal Laggis finished third overall and the team had six finishers in the top 16 to defeat Medford by 18 points for the conference crown.
Rhinelander quickly turned its attention to sectionals the following week, where it was projected to finish third behind Shawano and Freedom with only the top two teams moving on to state.
The Hodags, again, exceeded expectations. Rhinelander placed five runners in the top 20 to Freedom's one to finish second at sectionals and end a 24-year state meet drought.
"It's surreal, honestly," Cal Laggis said. "If someone would have told me at the start of the year you guys are going to make it as a team, I would have thought no way. Just to see how this group of guys has come together this year and how we've just dropped time and dropped time, it's been awesome."
Rhinelander exceeded expectations one more time at state. Projected to finish 13th, the team finished ninth - led by Cal Laggis in 19th overall.
6. Full first year for the Hodag Dome
From sporting events by the bunch, to commencement exercises, to a high-level state government meeting and even a visit from a couple of country music stars - the Hodag Dome has seen plenty in its first year of operation.
Though the 128,000-square-foot structure began hosting some sporting events last December, it officially opened to the public Feb. 1. Since then it has hosted several RHS sporting events - some planned, and some spontaneous - along with youth and college level tournaments. The Dome hosted a hearing of the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Finance Committee in April, was used for RHS graduation and when country duo LOCASH needed a little down time after performing at last July's Hodag Country Music Festival, the Hodag Dome is where it ventured.
"Overall, it's been a huge success," Hodag dome manager Janet Jamison said. "We certainly have learned some thing along the way that we plan to change and modify in the year to come, but overall, it's been great."
In terms of the local sports scene, the hosted a WIAA Division 2 sectional gymnastics meet in February and proved to be a handy insurance policy a number of times during the spring and fall months when inclement weather forced a number of RHS sports teams indoors.
So far the dome has hosted games for eight different varsity sports, as well as a subvarsity football game.
All of that is not even counting the community and school uses for the dome. Jamison said more than 1,200 community members have passes to use the dome and she estimates nearly 200 community members a day use to dome during the winter months for walking, tennis, pickleball or other activities.
7. COVID impacts to sports lessen, but still noticeable
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local sports scene in 2021 pales in comparison to 2020 when entire sports seasons were canceled due to the virus. But saying things went back to normal this year would be a misnomer.
2021 began with the RHS boys' basketball team having to pause for two weeks due to contact tracing following a positive test. The Hodag Nordic Challenge ski race was canceled due to concerns race organizers had over the virus. The Hodag wrestling team had a severely condensed schedule - both in terms of the number of meets and the number of teams at each meet. Many teams that competed indoors were still required to wear a facemask.
It took through the end of July for the sports calendar to get back on its normal cycle. The winter season was shortened and the spring season condensed and shifted to accommodate an alternate fall season in March and April for teams that opted out of the traditional WIAA fall sports season due to the pandemic. The spring sports season lasted until June 26, when the RHS track team competed at the state meet. Just over five weeks later, the fall sports season began with football practice.
The number of COVID-related cancellations has been sporadic during the fall and winter seasons, with a few notable anecdotes. Though the Hodags got through the fall without a major stoppage due to the virus, down the road in Antigo, the Red Robins lost three of their nine scheduled games this season due to a combination of low numbers and players unable to compete due to health and safety protocols. The last of those forfeits - a Week 9 game at Mosinee - officially handed the Indians the outright GNC title by a game over Rhinelander.
Also, the Northern Edge - a girls' hockey co-op comprised of Rhinelander, Lakeland, Antigo and Wabeno - was forced to cancel or postpone its first four games of the year due to a combination of low numbers and health and safety concerns.
8. Kylee White wins state snowboarding crown
The Rhinelander/Northland Pines ski and snowboard team added to its history of individual state success this past February as senior Kylee White became the program's fifth individual girls' state champion.
White did it in dominating fashion on Mt. La Crosse, the same hill that ended her sophomore season in a training accident that resulted in a broken arm. White won the slalom, giant slalom and boardercross races to win the overall combined title with ease.
"She did a lot on her own outside the season and within the season," coach Rod Olson said. "She became a student of the sport. She went the extra mile and sacrificed. She's a really good kid. She worked hard over the summer and in the offseason. She did more training, dryland-type stuff this year, improved her strength. She did all those things and. It paid off for her."
White joined Amy Babcock, Emily Babcock, Sarah Babcock and Claire Hjelle as Rhinelander individual girls' snowboarding state champions.
9. Hodag Little Leaguers make it to state
While their older counterparts were knocking on the door of a state tournament berth, the Rhinelander Little League 12U all-star team made it there this past summer, becoming the first Hodag Little League squad to do so since 2012.
The Hodags did it in dramatic fashion, using a pair of walk-off wins over Appleton National to capture the District 5 title. Rhinelander wound up going a perfect 6-0 in district play, with five of the six wins coming against teams from Wausau and Appleton.
Rhinelander went 2-3 at the state tournament, but ended up fifth in the six-team pool. A one-run loss and pool play to Kennedy Madison ended up costing the Hodags in a tiebreaker for the fourth and final spot in the state semifinals.
10. Coaching changes
2021 brought about a few head-coaching changes for the Hodags. Overall, there were four new faces at the helm of programs this season. All of them were familiar faces within their respective programs.
The one known change at the start of 2021 was Matt Nichols taking over the RHS boys' tennis program for the retired Bob Heideman. Nichols had already taken over the Hodag girls' tennis team the previous fall and had success in his first run with the Hodag boys, who went undefeated in dual meets and captured the GNC title.
The second domino fell in February when Paul Ellenbecker stepped down after his second stint at the helm of the RHS wrestling program. He endorsed assistant coach Scottie Arneson for the position. About 2 1/2 months later Arneson, the son of former RHS individual state champion and longtime Merrill head coach Scott Arneson, was officially announced to take over the Hodag program.
"I think, just getting my own opportunity to make a program my own and see what I can do, I believe I was the right candidate for this job," he said. "I know I'm going to have a lot of people around me to support what I need to grow a successful program."
The most abrupt coaching change took place this past April when Richard Kotula stepped down as head coach of the RHS girls' soccer team just days before the team's first game, citing health concerns. Head boys' soccer coach Nathan Bates stepped in on an interim basis, leading to a 6-7-2 record that included a penalty-kick shootout win over Marshfield in the WIAA regional finals.
Finally, the Hodag volleyball team saw yet another coaching change when Jim Povolo stepped down in May after one season at the helm. Assistant coach Dan Wolter became the team's sixth different head coach in nine years. Rhinelander won four matches this season under Wolter - two more than the previous three years combined.
Honorable mentions
• While the RHS boys' swim team did not have as much success as its female counterparts at state, the Hodags still had an extremely strong year once again. Rhinelander won its third straight GNC title, and its third straight sectional title in 2020-21. The Hodags went a perfect 11-0 in dual meets last season and won their sectional title at home. Rhinelander finished ninth overall at state, led by a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.
• Rebecca Lawrence became the second Hodag in coach Ryan Clark's tenure to reach 1,000 points in her varsity girls' basketball career. Lawrence achieved the milestone Jan. 19 in a home contest against Ashland. Lawrence averaged 22.6 points per game as a senior, which earned her a spot on the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association D2 North All-Star team.
• The Rhinelander/Northwoods Composite mountain bike team picked up where it left off in 2019, after the 2020 Wisconsin High School Cycling League season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hodags repeated as WHSCL D2 state championship, winning the team standings in all five of the leagues races this season. RNC had two individual state champions as Megan Lester claimed the varsity girls title while Joey Belanger won the D2 JV-2 category.
• A longtime staple of fastpitch softball in Rhinelander likely saw its final high school game in June as the Hodags defeated Lakeland 14-1 June 9 at Pioneer Park. The RHS softball team is set to move to the Haug Family Softball Complex behind the Hodag Dome this spring. In addition to hosting the RHS softball team, Pioneer Park was a hotbed for men's fastpitch softball through the Rhinelander MUNY League and tournaments from the 1950s through the mid 1980s.
"It's kind of bittersweet. We have two brand new fields going in behind the dome, but Pioneer Park's got a lot of history of fastpitch and I really like that park," coach D.J. DeMeyer said. "There's a lot of old-timers here that played a lot of ball at that field. I hope it gets to stay and the city doesn't tear it down right away so we can still play Little League (softball) there and maybe even have a varsity game there every now and then."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.