November 18, 2021 at 8:57 a.m.
Winter practice notebook
Arneson brings energy to RHS wrestling
Winter practice notebook
At a quick glance, it's easy to mistake the fresh-faced Arneson for one of the roughly 30 wrestlers out for this year's RHS team. He's only six years removed from a decorated high school career at Merrill and is now leading the program where his dad, Scott, won an individual state title back in the 1980s.
"You can't prep yourself for how excited you're going to be on the first day," Arneson said. "Lots of high energy, lots of smiles when we got into practice, a lot less smiles at the end because of how hard we worked, but they'll be back for more and that's all I can ask for as a coach - lots of smiles and lots of energy from the student-athletes."
Monday marked the first day of official practice for wrestling, boys' basketball and boys' swim teams in Wisconsin, meaning now all winter sports are in full swing, preparing for competition.
Arneson, who was an assistant coach for the Hodags last year, takes the reins from Paul Ellenbecker, who stepped down following a COVID-plagued 2020-21 campaign. But there were plenty of familiar faces up in the wrestling room with Arneson on Monday - with several long-time assistants back. Hugh Wiese, who graduated last year, was among those helping coach and served as Arneson's wrestling partner as Arneson demonstrated the myriad of moves the team practiced during the first day.
"Just seeing familiar faces that are excited about the program moving forward, or gaining from previous years, it's exciting," Arneson said.
Numbers are up. There were around 20 wrestlers in the room on Monday, though Arneson said several more are expected. That includes a handful of girls as the WIAA gets set to conduct its first ever individual girls' state wrestling tournament in January.
"We had a couple of girls that still needed to get physicals done, so we couldn't have them on the mats today, but my expectation is that we'll have anywhere from six to eight girls on the team this year and, hopefully just keep growing from there," Arneson said.
Even with a number of absences, the wrestling room up in the James Williams Middle School balcony felt packed on Monday. That's fine with Arneson, who says the more, the merrier.
"The more people in the room helps the morale and the energy level in the room. The only thing I can ask for is more and more numbers," he said.
The Hodags first dual is set at home against Crandon Dec. 2. Arneson said there will be a heavy emphasis on the basics in the interim.
"The basics win a lot more matches than the really, really cool moves, I'd guess you'd say," he said. "You can watch all the matches from the World Championships or the Olympics, the things that win the matches are staying in good position, scoring from a front headlock, getting your first takedown, stuff like that. That's our main focus as a coaching staff."
Elsewhere on the practice scene:
Hodag hoops looks to make up for lost time
At the end of July, Rhinelander High School boys' basketball coach Derek Lemmens said his team was behind some of the top contenders in the Great Northern Conference as far as work done in the offseason.
The Hodags looked to make up for lost time on Monday. Practice got underway for the team bright and early Monday morning, part of two-a-day practices this week leading up to the team's scrimmage this afternoon at Wausau West.
With only one returning starter - point guard Jacksen Smith -and only a couple of other rotational players back from last year's GNC runner-up squad, Lemmens said it's going to take a total team effort to keep up with the likes of Medford and Mosinee in the GNC.
"We're behind, physically, skill-wise, but how we buy into what we want to do as a team is really going to be what goes on here," he said following Monday's opening session. "We need mass buy-in. Some years you have your key guys and as long as a couple other guys fall in line (you're OK). This is one of those years where we need every single player buying in, moving in the right direction, if we really want to achieve anything special."
Luckily, the schedule affords Rhinelander a bit of a window to round into game shape before the ball goes up for real. The team's first contest is not until Dec. 3 at D.C. Everest and conference play does not begin until Dec. 10 against what figures to be a much-improved Northland Pines squad.
"We've got to make that an advantage for us," Lemmens said of the longer than normal preseason. "We're going to be playing against teams that already have a few games under their belt. There's the disadvantage, but can we be a team that has had an opportunity to really be good at our stuff and be playing at a high level that very first game? We have the practice time, now we just need to be able to do it."
Lemmens said the team wants the fundamentals in order by today's scrimmage in Wausau, and it will use the next two weeks to flesh things out ahead of the opener.
"Before the scrimmage, we just need the skeleton. We just need the foundational pieces in - the passing, cutting, moving, basic positions on defense. It just comes down to how hard are we willing to work and finding where we need to expand," he said. "By the first game we really want to have a lot in. We want to have a couple of sets. We want to know who we are offensively and defensively and we want to know how we can be successful in different situations, have situational groupings and everything. That much practice time, that much competing, hopefully our mindset and what we do is established and we're ready to go."
Boys swimmers back at it
The "offseason" for Rhinelander swim coach Jenny Heck lasted all of 66 hours.
That was roughly the amount of time between the Rhinelander High School girls' swim team wrapping up its runner-up finish at the WIAA Division 2 state meet and the first practice of the winter for the RHS boys' swim team.
"I woke up thinking about the meet and then I woke up the next day thinking about boys' season," Heck joked. "It's all good and I'm really excited for the boys' season. It's probably good just to keep it going."
The geared changed quickly, but there was still plenty of excitement in the Heck Pool as the Hodags boys look to keep pace with the success of their female counterparts. Like the Hodag girls, Rhinelander's boys squad has won three consecutive Great Northern Conference championships, and three consecutive D2 sectional titles. With 14 swimmers out this year, including a number of freshmen, the Hodags are looking for more of the same.
"I'm really excited for these guys," Heck said. "They've been swimming for a few weeks now together at the Y(MCA of the Northwoods) or on Sundays here. They're really a motivated group. We have a large group of freshmen, that's awesome. I think it's going to be a good season."
Heck stressed efficiency as the team hit the water for its first official practice of the winter. The team just added a pentathlon at D.C. Everest this coming Tuesday to its schedule. The Hodags had two meets to fill after receiving late word that Medford has folded its boys' swimming program for this season due to a lack of numbers.
"It all happens really fast," Heck said. "So, ready or not, we have to go. I think they're ready. It will be fun and we're looking forward to having invitationals. I'm not sure what's up with all the dual meets, but it will be interesting."
Nordic skiers go 'rouge'
Dryland practice for the Rhinelander Nordic ski team started on Monday, but the team spent last weekend in the woods for the unofficial kickoff to the season.
The team held its first annual Rouge Hodag adventure race on the Washburn Trail System on Saturday. The high school and middle school squads spilt up into groups of three or four, accompanied by an adult chaperone, as they completed challenges, and searched for various checkpoints along the trails.
"The entire intent of that event was to give the kids an opportunity to bond with each other at a venue, and doing an activity, that didn't separate them by ski ability," coach Charil Reis explained. "We had middle schoolers and high schoolers participate ... In general, it was meant to give the upperclassmen a chance to show some leadership and create some continuity within our teams so that middle schoolers have kind of a connection to kids all the way through their senior year of high school, which we don't often get because we have separate practices, separate races."
Participation is down a tick following an extremely challenging 2020-21 season that saw the team race only four times as a number of events were canceled or postponed due to either poor weather conditions or COVID-19 protocols. Reis said the high school squad is around 15 skiers at present, which she called a "manageable" number.
"With three coaches, that's pretty much where I want to be. I want to make sure everyone gets the coaching they deserve," she said.
As one of only two outdoor winter sports at RHS, the Hodag Nordic team is at the mercy of Mother Nature in regard to how soon it can get on the trails. However, Reis said she was actually happy that not too much snow accumulated last weekend as the team needs clear roadways in order to roller ski until winter really sets in next month.
"There is no substitute for roller skiing and the best training for skiing when you can't ski is roller skiing. That's what we're going to do," she said.
Weather permitting, the team is scheduled to open the racing season Dec. 4 at the ABR Trails near Ironwood, Mich., though Reis said she's already trying to figure out an alternate activity for that date in case there is not enough snow to race.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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