Team preview: RHS football

Suffice it to say 2022 did not go the way coach Aaron Kraemer and the Rhinelander High School football team envisioned it would.

The Hodags were picked to finish third in the Great Northern Conference, but losses and injuries started to accumulate from the onset. 

The end result was a 1-8 season, a loss to Antigo in the Bell Game, a blowout loss to Lakeland in the Axe Game and plenty of soul-searching in the offseason.

“Last year was tough in many ways,” Kraemer said. “It was tough on an injury front. It was tough as a coach trying to re-motivate a team that had a good season the year before.

“Kids started to feel a little negative toward football, negative toward the program. What we wanted to do is get everybody on board and make sure that we could start anew with a brand new group of seniors.”

The Hodags hope an offseason of progress will bring the team back to the success it had in Kraemer’s first three years at the helm — which featured three winning seasons, a 6-0 mark in rivalry games and three straight trips to the WIAA postseason. 

      

There’s a new offense, some tweaks defensively and several faces in new places as the team gets ready to take on Crandon and Shawano in a scrimmage at home tonight and prepares for its season opener next Friday night at Tomahawk.

More importantly, there’s a new attitude. Kraemer said the opening week of practice was the best he’s seen in his five seasons at the helm. He added the team is hungry and has a chip on its shoulder, considering how last year played out.

“It’s really just about building belief in the culture and what we’re trying to accomplish,” he said.

The biggest changes take place on the offensive side of the football, where the Hodags have moved from a pro style offense to a Pistol/Wing-T scheme. The move was done in an effort to get more skill players more touches more often. 

The offense also has a new quarterback. Junior Truman Lamers gets the starting job while last year’s starter, senior James Heck, moves to tailback. Kraemer said Truman Lamers, the younger brother of former two-year starting Hodag QB Quinn Lamers, possesses the ability to make plays with both his arms and his legs while Heck can still play a pivotal role in the offense carrying the football. Heck was the team’s second-leading rusher last year with 290 yards and had the team’s longest play from scrimmage, an 80-yard touchdown run Week 8 against Merrill.

“James is really, really good with his feet. He’s good out in open space. He’s a big, imposing runner,” Kraemer said. “As the offseason started, we talked about where we could use him best and we knew we needed an added dynamic of a passing game. We felt that Truman could give us that dynamic while James then could shuffle and transition into playing tailback.” 

Lamers impressed during the Hodags’ Green and White practice, throwing for 145 yards and four touchdowns. Passing is not typically synonymous with a Wing-T  offense, but Kraemer said the team has the ability to air it out enough to keep defenses honest. 

“That’s why we went with the pistol,” he said. “We still wanted that deception, but we wanted to be able to show off one of Truman’s best strengths, and that’s getting out of the pocket and throwing the football.”

    Owen Kurtz (44) works through an agility drill during Rhinelander High School football practice Tuesday, Aug. 1. A two-way All-GNC selection last year, Kurtz will figure prominently at tailback and defensive tackle this fall. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

In addition to Heck, Rhinelander’s other tailback comes from a different position last year. Senior Owen Kurtz was a first-team all-GNC offensive lineman in 2022, but moves into the backfield this year. The 6-foot, 235-pound senior will be an imposing force for opposing defenses to go against. Fans got a taste of his play-making ability last year as he had racked up 65 combined yards rushing and receiving against Mosinee before leaving that game with a season-ending shoulder injury just before halftime.

“When you take a player out of that position and move him to a different one, there has to be a reason,” Kraemer said. “Our thought process is the tailback’s the focal point of the offense and if we feel James and Owen are two of our best players, then we’ve got to put those guys there to shine, offensively, so we can take the pressure off the rest of the guys to do what they do.”

Senior Payton Campbell led the Hodags in rushing last year with 338 yards and three touchdowns despite playing only four games due to a leg injury. He figures to have a role as one of Rhinelander’s wing backs. Campbell, fellow senior Landon Bates, junior Sam Schoppe and junior Logan Schwinger saw reps at the wings during last Saturday’s practice. 

Junior Bo Stott moves from offensive line to tight end, where the team hopes to use his 6-3, 220-pound frame both in run blocking and as a target over the middle. Senior Owen Ives and sophomore Evan Shoeder have also taken reps at tight end, while senior Kyrle Vanney and junior Zach Germain have been featured at split end. Vanney is Rhinelander’s top returning receiver from last year, catching 10 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown.

On the line, senior Kaeden Pillar returns after missing much of last season with an elbow injury. He’s one of three returning starters on the line, along with junior Reid Schultz and senior Sam Balge. 

“Sam Balge had a lot of reps at the end of last season. Reid had a lot of reps last season. We have some veteran players coming back with experience,” Kraemer said. “The other good thing was that we were able to move Dolan O’Malley (to guard). Dolan’s not a big guy, but he’s fast, he’s strong, he’s physical and he’s smart, which is the most important thing. As a swimmer-type body you wouldn’t think he’d play guard, but he has all the makings of playing there.”

Defensively, the Hodags are trying to shore up a unit that was last in the GNC in total defense, scoring defense and against the run. Injuries didn’t help, nor did a struggling offense that left the defense playing on a short field with short rest more often than not. Still, Kraemer has made tweaks to the defense this year in an effort to shore up the ground game, mainly involving sight adjustments that allow for more players to play up in the box to stop the run, based on pre-snap reads. 

Heck figures to play a key role there as a hybrid outside linebacker/defensive end who will play at the line of scrimmage at times. Kurtz, who led the team with eight tackles for loss last year, will be featured at defensive tackle. Schultz and Balge figure to see time at nose tackle while Stott and sophomore Caden Sieker see reps at defensive end. 

“On the defensive line, I think that’s kind of where we’re strongest,” Kraemer said. “We have a lot of experience there. We’ve kind of freed up Owen to play one-on-one football this year because we’ve brought the Hodag down and we’ve brought the safety down. That keeps the tight end off of him and allows him to play free and go get the football. He’s done that a lot during camp.”

Schoppe and fellow junior Tyler Chariton both saw plenty of snaps at the inside linebacker spots last year due to injuries. They both figure to be in that rotation this year along with Pillar while O’Malley and Fugle have shared time at the weak side linebacker spot in camp.

Campbell and Ives have settled in at the bandit, or strong safety position, which will be the one that checks toward the line of scrimmage in running situations. Lamers returns to the falcon, or free safety, position. He had 27 tackles and an interception last year before missing the final three games to injury. Vanney and Germain figure to be Rhinelander’s starting cornerbacks this season. 

Kraemer said Bates and sophomore Myles Eagleson are in the mix for the specialist positions. Bates was Rhinelander’s kicker last year, making five of six extra point attempts. He also started punting in Week 4 and averaged 32.1 yards per punt. 

The Hodags get to show off their work in the offseason tonight at home in a four-team scrimmage. Kraemer said the team will see a couple of different styles as it takes on Crandon and Shawano. He noted that Crandon runs a power-style Wing-T offense similar to Antigo and a 3-3 defense, while Shawano will like showcase a spread offense and a 4-man front on the defensive line.

“Our guys are excited to see what they have because we haven’t seen them yet,” Kraemer said. “Defensively, it looks like they’re a 4-front. We get to see a 3, we get to see a 4, which is excellent. Our kids will not only be able to rep and play against one defense, but then prepare for the other, which is good, offensively.” 

GNC rival Antigo will also be in attendance, though the two sides will not face each other ahead of the 89th renewal of the Bell Game Sept. 15 at Mike Webster Stadium.

As for the GNC, Mosinee and Medford finished 1-2 in the conference last year and figure to be the consensus favorites this year. WisSports.net picked Rhinelander to finish seventh in the eight-team GNC, but Kraemer said he sees plenty of parity behind the top two in the conference. 

“The rest of the teams in the conference, I think it really matters when they play each other, how they play each other, what they have left if they have injuries and things like that,” he said. “It’s kind of difficult to say one team’s going to fall in one spot or another team’s going to fall in another spot but, from what I’ve seen, we can compete right there in the top three, top four in the conference and make the playoffs. That should be a goal for us this season and something we aim toward.”

Along the way, Kraemer said the team wants to avenge losses last season to its three closest rivals — Antigo, Lakeland and Tomahawk. 

“The three games that are closest to us, we want to win those three,” he said. “Then after that, our goal is to make the playoffs. If we can do two of three of those things — beating Antigo and beating Lakeland, we’re half the way there to making the playoffs already.”

Rhinelander will travel to Tomahawk to kick off the season next Friday night. The Hatchets, who are set to rejoin the GNC for football in 2024, defeated Rhinelander 27-13 in last year’s opener and went 4-6 as injuries mounted during the second half of the season. The Hatchets have a new head coach in Dewey Reilly after Sam Hernandez left to take an assistant coaching position at Marshall High School.

“Tomahawk is just a game we felt last year that there were mistakes that we made that we could have won that game and we want to show that we can hang with them on their home field. We know they’ll be tough, but that’s a game we’ve circled too,” Kraemer said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].