February 25, 2021 at 8:12 a.m.
Hodag Dome hosts collegiate, club softball games
Hodag Dome hosts collegiate, club softball games
It was the perfect weather for ... softball?
Welcome to the luxury of having a massive climate-controlled indoor facility in your own backyard.
The Hodag Dome was filled with collegiate and club softball teams for a three-day event that began last Friday night and ran through Sunday.
"It's not very often you get to play softball in February in Rhinelander, Wisconsin," said Rhinelander High School softball coach D.J. DeMeyer, who coached one of the club teams in the tournament.
A total of 18 teams took part in the event - five NCAA Division III programs from around the state, three two-year NJCAA squads, six U18 teams and four U16 teams.
The event was put together by Terry Wagner, head softball coach for Milwaukee Area Technical College. It marked the season-opener for virtually all of the collegiate teams, and the first time they've been able to compete since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought the 2020 season to an abrupt halt last March.
"The ladies want to play," he said.
Wagner has vacationed in the Northwoods previously and knew DeMeyer from the recruiting trail. So when he learned that Rhinelander had completed construction on a 128,000-square-foot facility that is able to accommodate two softball field simultaneously, his interest was piqued.
"I knew they were putting the dome up, so I just popped in, talked to them and talked to D.J. a little bit because I've been recruiting some of his players, and his daughter (Addi, a sophomore at RHS), to play ball for us in college. One thing led to another," he said.
Hodag Dome manager Janet Jamison said Wagner first approached her about using the facility for this event in early December. Things took off from there.
"It's been in the plan for a little while now," she said. "Throughout the time we've been working on how to make it COVID-safe and make it a fun event for the girls.
"The college teams have some pretty strict COVID rules and precautions they have to follow. We wanted to make sure we had that all figured out and we were able to accommodate those rules so that the kids could play safely."
The collegiate teams, especially, had to follow strict protocols. Players are tested up to three times a week and must adhere to tight regulations in order to play.
"Their teams are basically quarantined within the system," Wagner said. "The NCAA, NJCAA and NAIA, we all have different testing policies and, depending on what city we're in, we have different requirements, and what conference we're in."
The collegiate games were only one aspect of the weekend tournament, as 10 clubs teams from around the state also were in attendance. For Wagner, it made the trip to Rhinelander twice as fruitful. Not only did his team get to play, but he and the other college coaches in attendance had an opportunity to watch some high school-aged players who may one day end up on their rosters.
In addition to the teams in attendance, every game from the event was live-streamed over the Internet, allowing even more potential collegiate exposure for the players.
"I wanted to make it both a college and a U18/U16 (event)," he said. "That way the high school kids get the exposure to the college players that are up here. They see each other. I've got requests from over 80 college coaches right now for the rosters on the different teams. I'll send those out to their institutions after this weekend's events."
As for the facility itself, while there's enough room for two fields, there was a little creativity involved to make sure all the ancillaries where in place to play ball. A soccer goal was set up along the third base line for a dugout along one of the fields, while one of the batting cages along the east end of the dome was used for a dugout on the other. An inflatable batting cage was erected between the two fields.
Those are common improvisations teams have to make when playing indoors and, overall, Wagner said he was impressed.
"It's a gem that I don't think the community realizes they have," he said. "I've been in a lot of different domes, so I see a lot of different things, but basically you couldn't ask for anything (more), being the first weekend open to do something like this."
The nearest indoor facility even comparable is a 90,000-sqaure foot inflatable structure in Wisconsin Dells operated by the Woodside Sports Complex, where DeMeyer will take the Stevens Point-based FirePro club team this weekend for a tournament.
"This is twice, if not three times better," he said. "I'm not taking away anything from the dome down in the Dells, but for softball, they've got a low (ceiling) where home plate is. A lot of balls hit the ceiling. Here, they hit it, but not as much, because it goes up higher. It's a better facility. It's a newer facility. The turf is better."
Last weekend's tournament is not scheduled to be a one-off event. Wagner said he's looking to help organize as many as four club softball tournaments at the dome next winter, along with potentially a summertime tournament and a coaching clinic.
Ripon College plans to be back at the Hodag Dome March 6-7 for a pair of doubleheaders against Marian University and Northland College, and Jamison said there a few other collegiate games are also either on the docket or in the works.
"We actually have quite a few scheduled in the next few weeks," she said. "Our weekends are pretty full between now and May."
Those events also help the dome's bottom line.
"Any time we have groups from the outside coming in, they're paying a rental fee to use the facility," Jamison said. "That helps the dome, certainly, but some of the teams stay in hotels or order from our restaurants and spend some money at our gas stations. It's a boost for Rhinelander overall."
In addition to collegiate events, community use and district classes, the dome will be busy during March and early April as RHS spring sports teams gear up for their seasons. Though spring sports practices do not officially begin until April 19, the WIAA has granted spring sports teams up to 15 contact days to use leading up to the start of practice coming off a 2020 spring season that was canceled due to COVID. All six RHS varsity sports will be utilizing the dome for those contact days.
"A lot of girls want to get in here," DeMeyer said. "They want to play. It gets their juices flowing to play softball and it's just going to build our program."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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