March 7, 2022 at 8:31 a.m.
Team review: RHS Nordic skiing
Hodag skiers go through transition season
Team review: RHS Nordic skiing
Not only will the team bid farewell to roughly a third of its roster due to graduation, it will have a new head coach next year, after Charil Reis decided to step down following an eight-year run with the program.
"It's been a great run. Eight years, I can't believe it's been that long," Reis said back in February, after announcing her decision.
Reis stated she's stepping down to help her daughter Emma Mankus, who has special needs, pursue more opportunities in the adaptive Nordic skiing community.
"I always questioned how long would I do this, but I never really had a clear, crystal ball-type of directive," Reis said to the River News back in February. "This winter when Emma was invited to the adaptive camp in Sun Valley (Idaho) and she got to ski with people how are her peers, I was like, 'Oh, this is what I think I'm supposed to do next, to follow her down this path.'"
With the reality before the season ended that it would be the final run for Reis and the seniors, the team wanted to make sure it went out with a smile on its face.
"There were some tears for sure. I think happy tears in some regards, but also bittersweet," Reis said following the WNSL state distance championships. "There were a lot of comments made, in general, they just had the happiest of seasons and they hate to see it end -not necessarily to see me go, but to see the season end.
Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.
Numbers game
The team struggled some with participation numbers this season, following a trying 2020-21 season due to unusual weather and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those two factors led the Hodags to competing only four times that season. The WNSL state championship were postponed until early March due to an extreme cold snap.
The toll of last season showed as the team was down to 15 skiers at the start of this season, down nearly 50% from its peak pre-COVID. Not all of those skiers opted to be part of the program's varsity-level comp team. The team had only four girls and two boys at the start of the year who competed at the level. While others stepped up during the year, and all skiers who wanted to compete at state were able to, the lack of numbers, combined with some mid-season illnesses, left the Hodags without enough skiers to earn a varsity team score on a few occasions.
Despite being down on numbers, Reis called the group very cohesive and coachable.
"This whole team, it's been awesome watching mature," she said at the team's banquet. "Some adjectives I'd throw out there are kindness, no pettiness, no cliques, pure fun, intelligent conversations - as abstract as they might be, polite and conscientious. These all apply to all of you."
Bringing out the fun
Part of that cohesiveness was derived from the team's goals for the season. While everyone wanted to do their best on race day, Reis said that was not the team's be-all, end-all mission for the season.
"Our motive was always very clear. Our motive was to have fun in the snow outside, with kids. I think we've achieved that," she said. "I didn't hear one single comment about how someone skied at a race this season. We focused on life skills and friendship and fun. We still were successful, but that's not our focus, and I really applaud that."
Back at CAVOC
One of the highlights for the team, as well as its primary booster the Northwoods Nordic Ski Club, was the return of the Hodag Nordic Challenge in mid-January at the Cedric A. Vig Outdoor Classroom.
Rhinelander played host to 17 teams and 188 high school skiers during the two-day event, which was scrapped in 2021 due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic. The event drew the largest field of skiers on the season, outside of the Wisconsin Nordic Ski League state distance championships.
"It was genuinely pleasurable to host a race again. It was very nice to play host to most of the skiers in Wisconsin here in Rhinelander over the weekend," Reis said. "Everyone truly enjoys coming to Rhinelander and they cannot compliment us on our course enough. It's really super challenging. It's nothing like anything else they ski in the state. Since we homologated the course and also widened it, it's just a really fun course to ski if you don't get to ski it very much. It really does separate those who know how to ski well from those who are just starting out, or haven't quite mastered the technique."
The Hodags were down a few skiers due to illness for that event and, as a result, only had enough skiers to field a team score in the girls' JV category, where they placed third out of seven teams.
Statbook
While final results were mixed, the team did have some highlights throughout the season, which started with its varsity girls' squad edging out Ice Age Nordic to win the ABR Season Opener in Ironwood, Mich.
The team also had several members medal at the Badger State Games in Wausau in January, while sisters Brynn and Liana Teter finished third in the JV flight of the WNSL team state sprints in Middleton in February.
The Hodags were fourth out of four girls' teams, and seventh out of seven boys' teams at the Northern Conference meet in Cable, which was held less than two weeks prior to the WNSL state championships at the same venue. At state, the Hodags finished 12th in the girls' division and 16th in the boys' division.
Liana Teter had the Hodag girls' best finish at state for the third year in a row, placing 37th overall in the two-day event. Fellow senior Anna Wood was 49th overall in a field of 113 skiers. Brynn Teter rounded out Rhinelander's scoring trio in 58th overall. Callie Threlkeld finished 77th in the overall classification. Olivia Gillen finished 82nd overall and Luna Grage was 97th.
Wood and Threlkeld, who both placed in the top 40 at state as juniors, were slowed by mid-season illnesses that knocked them out of a few races.
Junior Travis White led the Hodag boys in 82nd overall. Charlie Loomis finished 100th and Gavin Hackbarth was 123rd.
What's next
The Hodags will graduate five seniors from the squad - Liana Teter, Wood, Threlkeld, Hackbarth and Hannah Rumney. Barring a influx of new skiers, numbers next season for the program will be similar or slightly lower. There were only three eighth graders on this year's middle school team - Olin Slette finished 29th overall in the middle school boys' state race, while Kayla Skubal and Violet Biolo were 28th and 29th in the girls' state race.
Brynn Teter and Gillen are slated to be the top returning girls on the squad, with White the top returning boy.
Then there will be the matter of finding a new coach, with Reis vowing to aid in the transition process.
"I know that it will be in capable hands. I know that the Northwoods Nordic Ski Club is really, really, really trying hard to just line out a path forward and what the relationship is going to be like for the coaches and the board and the school district," she said. "I want to be part of the solution and I want to help make it as seamless as possible, for the kids. That's really all I care about, making sure the kids are on a good track going forward."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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