November 11, 2021 at 7:50 a.m.
Winter practice notebook
Rhinelander hockey carries momentum into new season
Winter practice notebook
On Monday, preparation for the Hodags' encore performance officially began. Practice started for the boys' hockey team and four other RHS sports teams, beginning the short run-up to the start of winter sports competitions.
For coach M.J. Laggis' squad, there still was the matter of trying to regain its skating legs, but otherwise, the team is eager to build off of last year's successful late-season run.
"The expectation is higher. The bar is raised that we want to be successful," Laggis said. "I think there's a lot of carryover with the guys that were involved, but I think they also realize there's just no free lunches."
The Hodags didn't lose many players off last year's 15-7-0 squad, but they were impactful ones including all-conference recipients Harlan Wojtusik and JC Adams.
Joe Schneider, the team's leading scorer last year was on the ice practicing Monday as he has nearly fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in August that cost him the entire football season.
Laggis said his team still has plenty of talent, it will now be a matter of replenishing the depth last year's squad had.
"Conditioning and staying out of injury trouble is going to be huge for everyone, but it's going to be real big for us," he said. "We're going to be a little thinner on the bench than we were last year and we're going to have to make the most of everyone."
The Hodags don't get a of time to prepare. The team will scrimmage at East/Merrill next Thursday and will open the season at home Nov. 23 against Ashland. That kicks off a busy opening week for the Hodags, which also includes a holiday weekend tournament at Amery.
"The first week is skill, skill, skill and then you have to start putting systems in hard and heavy next week and the end of this week and be ready for that scrimmage already next Thursday," Laggis said. "I have a good feeling on some kids we want to see together, so we want to see line combinations. We want to see our defensemen play fast and move the puck and we want to see what our goaltenders can do."
Girls' basketball: The student becomes the teacher
Ryan Clark begins his ninth season on the bench for the Rhinelander High School girls' basketball team with a throwback to his first year with the program.
The Lady Hodags welcome back Sydnei Smith, the Great Northern Conference player of the year in the 2013-2014 season, as an assistant coach.
Smith was a senior when Clark took the helm of the program and now will coach alongside he and longtime assistant Terry Nordine.
"It's awesome to have her here and it's nice to have a female on staff too to work with these kids," Clark said. "She was player of the year in our conference, played college basketball (at UW-Platteville). Syd wants to get into coaching someday, so I said, 'I have all kinds of things I'm going to throw to you as far as scouting, administrative (aspects).' I'm excited to work with her, especially since she's such a great young lady and she works in our district, so it's kind of nice to see those kids come back."
Numbers are again light for the Hodags. Clark estimated his numbers program wide will be in the high teens by the time everything shakes out. There's also an unusual dichotomy with this year's team. Rhinelander brings back five players from last year's rotation but, after that, do not have a single player who has played at the varsity level.
"We have great leadership," Clark said. "Our seniors are great kids. I think they'll do a nice job of pulling the younger ones in to help them out. We need our underclassmen to fill roles on the bench for varsity and we'll probably be using three halves for all of those kids because they just need game minutes and game experience."
The Hodags went 11-14 overall last season and placed fourth in the GNC. This year's squad will need to replace its two all-conference selections from last year, including unanimous first-teamer Rebecca Lawrence, who was the team's leading scorer a season ago. But Clark said the team's five returning varsity players - seniors Megan Brown, Brynn Brzycki, Annika Johnson, Audrey Schiek and junior Ava Lamers - have made significant improvements in the offseason.
"Probably for the first time I could say they made the most improvement from February, when our season ended, until now. They're way better," he said.
Rhinelander took part in a three-team scrimmage at Edgar on Thursday and will tip off the season against Crandon next Thursday at the Miazga Gym.
Girls' hockey: Northern Edge beginning to assemble
Monday night was a small gathering for Northern Edge girls' hockey coach Tom Roeser, but that was by design.
The team's first official practice on-ice was set for Tuesday, based on the ice time it has at the Rhinelander Ice Arena. So Monday, the team was split into the three schools that primarily comprise the co-op - Rhinelander, Antigo and Lakeland - for some individual, dryland training.
"That's kind of the tough thing about our yearly schedule is we're not on the ice on Mondays," Roeser said. "Those girls in Antigo and Lakeland will get to know those new coaches. I've got two freshmen here, they get to know me and then tomorrow night we're on the ice."
Numbers are down the program due to graduation and a couple of players moving out of the area. Roeser expects his squad will fall in around the low to mid-teens by the time all is said in done. That's a workable roster, but one that does not leave a lot of wiggle room.
"It's a little lighter than I'd like, especially with COVID," he said. "I think fewer games will be getting canceled just because of vaccinations, however, you could be without two kids due to contact tracing and it takes you down to 10-11 right there. It will be a struggle, but every team's going to deal with it."
As for practice, Roeser said when the team's on the ice the next couple of weeks, it's going to be almost exclusively skill work and conditioning as the team gears up for the season. It will not be an easy start, either, as the Edge will head to Fond du Lac over the Thanksgiving weekend to take part in a four-team tournament that includes Fox Cities, the Fond du Lac co-op and the MSO Icebergs from the Madison area.
"It will be good, a trial by fire and we're going to see some of the better teams in the state doing it," Roeser said.
Gymnastics: Hodags try to hit the ground running
The RHS gymnastics team spent Monday trying to get back into the swing of things and knock off some of the rust. Most of the team has not been able to spend any time on the apparatus since the end of open gyms in late summer.
With the exception of junior Genna Fugle - who was still training for her upcoming trip to tonight's WIAA Division 2 girls' swim state meet - coach Heather Sturtevant said she had a full roster at practice Monday.
"We have 11 girls on roster right now," she said. "We might even get another one so very excited. It's always working through the kinks. We haven't been here in a few months so we're trying to find everything, but we'll get into our swing."
Though it has been a while since the team was last together, Sturtevant said many athletes put the summer to good use, which helped to make the start of practice go more smoothly.
"We at least have quite a few floor routines at least blocked out, music chosen and choreography," she said. "On beam we have skills, at least what we hope to have in our routine so we're not starting from scratch. I think we'll be able to jump in pretty quick and really get some nice consistency now that we can be back in the gym every day."
The Hodags also have the benefit of a long preseason to prepare. Its first meet will not be until the annual Snowflake Invite in the Hodag Dome Dec. 11. Sturtevant said there will be some added comfort in beginning the season at home.
"That gives un an extra week than we've had the last few seasons and it's kind of nice to have our first meet actually be on home territory," she said. "Yes, we'll still have those first-meet jitters, but it's at least on equipment we're used to. I think that will give them a little more confidence going in, even though it's the first meet."
Alpine skiing: A return to normalcy
Due to direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rhinelander/Northland Pines Alpine ski team faced a challenging 2020-21 season. As dryland training for the upcoming season commenced Monday, coach Rod Olson welcomed a return to normalcy.
"What we're all celebrating right now is a normal year," he said. "We didn't get affected as some of the other sports did. I went to a lot of basketball and those poor kids were gassed a minute or two in (having to wear masks while competing). We didn't have to deal with that. But we couldn't go in the lodges to warm up and we had a horribly cold winter last year."
More importantly for the Hodags, is that they will be able to return to their home hill, Ski Brule, this year. Last year the Iron River, Mich. ski resort did not make snow and had limited operations due to the pandemic.
"They're happy to be with us. Everything worked there," Olson said. "Powderhorn was great and they did a lot to accommodate us, but it wasn't our hill so, as coaches, every practice or meet we had to set everything up and we weren't efficient because of what we didn't know."
Olson said numbers are lower, but spread out evenly between skiers and snowboarders, and that this year will likely be more of a developmental season for his squad. The team graduated 2021 girls' snowboard state champion Kylie White as well top boys' skiers Ty Springer and Patrick Stemper, among others. Furthermore, two-time defending Northern Conference girls' ski champion Tommie Jo Springer will likely be sidelined for at least part of the season as she continues to recover from an offseason knee injury.
That development began off snow on Monday as the team did its annual combine, getting some baseline readings on a number of exercises. Olson said the team will repeat the tests toward the end of the season to gauge individual growth and the effectiveness of the team's training program.
For now, Hodags are waiting on is snow. A high temperature near 60 Monday wasn't the most wintry greeting to the ski season, but with a drastic change in the weather pattern starting today and going through next week, Olson is optimistic that Ski Brule and others will be able to make some snow and that perhaps the team can begin to hit the slopes by Thanksgiving weekend.
"These guys want to be on the snow and you do too much dryland and they start to get bored, and you don't want to have that," Olson said.
The Hodags' competition season will likely start in early January, though the Northern Conference has yet to finalize its 2022 racing schedule.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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