November 16, 2022 at 9:18 a.m.
Gobin named coach as girls' wrestling practice begins
Gobin named coach as girls' wrestling practice begins
That vacancy was filled late last week, right before the start of practice.
Eric Gobin, previously a middle school coach within the Hodag wrestling program, was officially tabbed to lead the girls' squad - which opened practice alongside the Rhinelander boys' team in the JWMS balcony on Monday.
"I'm looking forward to building the program out," Gobin said at the end of Monday's practice. "Women's wrestling is the fastest growing sport in America and it's really cool to see how far it's come. I'm all about trying to grow the sport of wrestling."
The girls' team will work in conjunction with the boys' team for much of the season. They will practice together most nights and have the opportunity to wrestle together during Great Northern Conference duals. However, with more and more standalone girls' tournaments popping up in the second season that the WIAA is sanctioning girls' wrestling with a standalone state championship, the necessity arose to have a coach dedicated to bringing the girls' team to events that will not always align with the boys' schedule.
Hodag boys' wrestling coach Scottie Arneson has been a vocal proponent of girls' wrestling and said he knew Gobin would be a good fit for the position as soon as it became available.
"He's a guy that just loves wrestling," Arneson said. "I knew he was the perfect guy once the talk was even there (of forming a girls' team). It's like, 'I know who I want in that position.' It all worked out where it ended up being him and I think that's going to be the right direction for our program."
In addition to having coached at the middle school level in Rhinelander, Gobin is also a science teacher at James Williams Middle School. RHS activities director Brian Paulson said time was needed to let the formal application and interview process play out after the Rhinelander school board green-lighted the program last month. While there were not many candidates, Paulson said the district was fortunate enough to have one in-house.
"We were lucky enough to have Eric step up and be the head coach of the women's program. He's done good things at the middle school," he said. "The hardest part right now is can he get out and recruit kids. The nice part is, being at the middle school as a teacher, that's going to be an opportunity to recruit kids at the middle school level and grow the program through the high school level. That will be a strong situation that we have."
Three females were in the JWMS balcony for practice on Monday and Paulson said four have officially signed up for the sport so far. Gobin said the team is still actively accepting any girls who are interested in trying out the sport.
"I think there's still time, with it being early season, to kind of reach out to some of those girls at the high school too that might have had interest as well," he said.
The one benefit to the small numbers in the program's infancy, is that it affords plenty one-on-one instruction to the girls on the roster.
"I'd love to see 30 ladies on the team but, right now it's kind of nice to be able to grow some of the female athletes with technique," Gobin said. "You can spend the time in practice with it being a small group there."
The girls were mixed with the boys' team at Monday's practice, which will be a common occurrence this year. The teams will practice together up to four days per week, with Thursday's reserved for more specialized instruction.
"It's kind of nice to be able to run practices but if you need to pull someone aside to work more on individuals and women's technique, it's kind of nice to be able to do so," Gobin said.
Meanwhile, the team's competition schedule is starting to round into form. Like their male counterparts, the Hodag girls will travel to the John Roberts Scramble in Antigo Dec. 3, where there will be separate brackets for females. There will also be a separate female division at the Hodag Invite in the Hodag Dome Dec. 22. The squad will travel to Shiocton for tournament Jan. 28, and is working adding a few other dates.
"We added one last week and I may be adding a couple more here in December as well," Gobin said. "I think, this year, with there being a girls' state tournament at the same time as the guys, a lot of schools are offering events. It's kind of nice to be able to build out a full schedule for some of the ladies here."
Rhinelander returns a place winner from last year's inaugural WIAA girls' state tournament. Senior Abby Swanson placed fifth in the 185-pound weight class last January in La Crosse. This year, the girls' tournament series will align with the boys, with the individual state tournaments for both genders taking place Feb. 23-25 at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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