January 3, 2022 at 12:42 p.m.
Team preview: RHS/NPHS Alpine Ski
New look Hodag ski team will look to rebuild in 2022
Team preview: RHS/NPHS Alpine Ski
"It is for sure a development year, not just for the sake of attrition, but last year we had limited development," coach Rod Olson said back in November when the team began dryland training for the upcoming season, which kicks off Thursday with a invite at Christie Mountain near Rice Lake.
The Hodags graduated four-time Northern Conference boys' ski champion Ty Springer as well as girls' snowboarder Kylee White, who rode to a WIARA individual state title last winter. Bailey Schwab, the top boarder on the boys' snowboard squad that won a conference title, has also graduated and the Hodags will also be without top girls' skier Tommie Jo Springer.
The younger of the Springer siblings was the state runner-up as a freshman in 2020, and was the fastest in Super G at state last year. Springer suffered a knee injury last April in a late-season training crash after having some success in some postseason national races in Colorado.
Though she has recovered from the knee injury faster than anticipated, Olson said Springer has decided to forgo her junior year of high school skiing to head out west to be part of the U.S. Ski Team's Olympic Development Program.
"She's going to be heading to the big time. She will not be with us this year," Olson said. "It's great for Wisconsin. It's great for us. That's a huge milestone for the program, for Wisconsin. We'll see how she can do. Hopefully she can ski in the U.S. Nationals, depending on how (her knee) feels and then she might go to Europe after that this year.
"She's got a good situation set up for herself. We're proud of her. Bummer for us not to have her as a competitor, but this is where she's needs to go. She's this good."
So far, during on-snow training, Olson said the boys' snowboard team has been the biggest surprise. Junior Max Durkee figures to lead the way after placing fourth in conference and 36th at state last year. Reese Frisque was sixth in the conference last year, while Isaiah Willoughby was seventh.
Olson said Durkee is in the process of learning a new, faster board this year while Reese Frisque and his brother, Brady, have both improved from last season. Additionally, the team has added freshmen Owen Repenshek and Ryder Will from Northland Pines, who both figure to make an immediate impact.
"Owen was a snow ski racer and then switched to snowboarding, so he's got a good sense of tactics and line already," Olson noted. "I think the boys' snowboard team is going to do better than I thought, just by level of improvement and then adding a couple."
In addition to graduating Ty Springer, the Hodag boys have also bid farewell to Patrick Stemper, the team's No. 2 skier the past couple of seasons.
Senior AJ Gillespie will be the elder statesman on the team and comes in off a seventh-place finish in last year's Northern Conference season, and a 79th-place finish at the WIARA State meet.
"AJ Gillespie is just night and day from last year to this year," Olson said. "He's really skiing well. We look to hopefully have him jump up a few spots in the conference rankings this year."
Lukas Bishop and Riley Zarm return after finishing 21st and 23rd in the conference last year, while the team brings in a couple of freshmen in Brody Kowieski and Jason Linn.
With Tommie Jo Springer out of the fold, the Hodag girls figure to be a youthful bunch this year. Senior McKenna Nash returns with the most experience and comes in off a career year in 2021, placing seventh overall in the Northern Conference standings.
"I think McKenna will have a really good year," Olson said. "She's a great leader right now. She's the captain of the girls' program. We're focused on that. She's a thinker. She's very much into the cerebral part of the sport. We're just going to try to build some more athleticism and see if we can't push her to get just a little more wilder out there, let go a little bit."
Numbers are down for the girls' team. Maddie Ewan is the only other returning skier after finishing 28th at conference last year. Junior Grace Berger and freshman Callie Hoerchler will make their debuts this year.
"The rest of the girls are just developing," Olson said. "We've got a ways to go there, which is fine. I love the development part of the sport and we're having a good time, but we've just got to get some more bodies into the mix the next few years."
Rhinelander/Northland Pines will be thin in girls' snowboarding as well with only a couple of newcomers - junior Echo Gustafson and sophomore Nicole Long - on the roster.
One thing in the Hodags' favor this year is they are back at longtime home hill Ski Brule in Iron River, Mich. The resort opted not to make artificial snow last year and had limited operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing the team to split its training time between Granite Peak in Wausau and Big Powderhorn Mt. in Bessemer, Mich. Back at full song, the Hodags have been able to get to Brule and train over the past month as much as Mother Nature would allow.
"Snow and hill space has been up and down," Olson said. "The weather has been good for one day and then it gets super warm the next day, rain and stuff. We're down on training days and we had a couple of cancels because of snow or rain. We're behind, but in that sense, everyone else is too. There's nothing really lost, but you just want to get the kids developed where they're at age-wise. That's been a little bit of a damper."
Olson said he was not sure quite what to expect from the remainder of the conference. In skiing, D.C. Everest has joined forces with the Wausau East/West program, giving it by far the largest student population to draw from in the Northern Conference.
"East, West and Everest has the one team, which is hard to take," Olson said. "Just one of those high schools alone has more population than any of the rest of us in this conference. We'll see how that goes. We're just focused on making some fast kids."
Following Thursday's invite, the Hodags are off until Jan. 18 when it begins the five-round Northern Conference race season at Indianhead Mountain in Wakefield, Mich. The Hodags will host the fourth round of conference Feb. 12 at Ski Brule and the conference championships will be decided on Valentine's Day at Granite Peak in Wausau.
The WIARA state meet is set for Feb. 19-21 in La Crosse.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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