Hodag bowlers gearing up for season

A mix of new and returning bowlers will lead the Hodag club high and middle school teams into action when the Wisconsin High School Bowling Club District 9 season gets underway in a couple of weeks.

Some late off-season recruiting ensured that the Hodags would have enough bowlers for a high school boys’ team, last year’s core group of bowlers return for the Hodag girls’ squad and the team has five bowlers on the middle school side, just enough to fill out a roster. 

Practice for the teams got underway last week ahead of the season opener Sunday, Nov. 12 at Dale’s Weston Lanes.

“We’ve been off for a few months now,” coach Cory Dellenbach said. “I know some of the kids have been in during the summer practicing. It’s time to see what they’ve been working on and see where they go from here.”

Dellenbach will once again be in charge of overseeing the middle school and girls’ high school squads. Jennie Klingen will oversee the boys’ high school team on match days. Longtime coach Mike Bourcier is still around as the program director. Both he and assistant Kevin Litzen will be around to instruct during practices and select match days. 

“I’m always around one way or another it seems like,” Bourcier quipped. “It’s always good to keep the program going. I don’t want it to go away.”

The Hodag boys’ squad will likely be looking at a bit of rebuilding this year, after going 4-6 in dual meet play a season ago. The team graduated its top bowler from last year, state qualifier Cody Bednarz. The team also took a hit with sophomore Alex Hall out of the lineup for at least the start of the year due to a wrist injury sustained in the offseason. 

Tomahawk senior Noah Pearson leads the Hodag boys into action this winter. Consistently in the 75-80 percent fill range over the last couple of seasons, Bourcier said that number will likely need to come up for Pearson in the anchor bowler spot, especially if he wants to vie for an individual qualifying spot in a deep District 9 field.

“(Filling at) 85-90 is what it’s going to take when you’re only taking eight, nine, 10 boys,” Bourcier said. “Last year was one of the highest fill percentages that I can remember. We were are 88, 89 percent to make it. That’s something that’s going to have to be really pushed. You’ve got to be consistent. To get him up there is the big key. We always want to try to send as many kids to state as possible.”

Behind Pearson, the team returns a trio of sophomores — Blake Klingen, Dominic Hakala and Ricardo Velazquez Camacho — who all bowled with the team last year. Freshman Nathan Lavender moves up to the high school boys’ squad after leading the middle school team last year. He’s joined on the team by newcomers Keagyn Schoone from Tomahawk, sophomore Jackson Fuss from Rhinelander and freshman Vann Streuz of Rhinelander.

“It’s going to be an interesting year,” Bourcier said. “We’ve got some good kids to start with and then we’ve got some kids moving up and the new kids coming in, which is always a building ground. It’s not that we can’t compete. We’ve got to keep them all in the right frame of mind, keep them going in the right direction.”

With Bednarz’s graduation, the boys’ team dropped Three Lakes from its co-op structure. The team is now comprised of just Rhinelander and Tomahawk high school bowlers. That change was enough to drop the program back to Division 2, the WiHSBC confirmed late last week. For the team that means going from competing against the likes of Stevens Point, D.C. Everest and Marshfield in D1 to the likes of Antigo, Amherst and Merrill in D2.

“By losing Three Lakes, we (were) able to sneak back down to D2, which would be nice for the kids,” Bourcier said. “The top teams in each one are really strong but they maybe get to bowl against some of the D2 bowlers that they bowled against in the past years.”

The Rhinelander/Elcho girls’ team returns most of its nucleus in tact from last year’s season as it went 0-10 in dual meet play. 

That nucleus is made up of entirely juniors, led by Johanna Dellenbach, who was eighth in the individual District 9 girls’ standings last year with a .7500 fill percentage. Rhinelander juniors Katrina Roof and Emily Koniar, and Elcho junior Addison Habeck round out the list of returning bowlers.

“Johanna’s been in it the longest and then the other three — Addison, Katrina and Emily now have a year under their belt now. They know what it’s about and I’m looking for more growth from every one of them,” Cory Dellenbach said. “They all know each other quite well. They know what each other are capable of, what their strengths are, their weaknesses are. I think they’ll just feed off that.”

Freshmen Alyssa Habeck and Aubree Doppke going the squad with prior middle school experience. With a solid lineup of six bowlers week in and week out, coach Dellenbach said he is hopeful that the consistency will help the team find the win column this season.

“The way we finished last season, we didn’t have too many successes, but the energy level they had at that last meet, I hope they start that way,” he said. “The energy, the cheering for each other, that’s what we need right from the start.”   

Rhinelander/Elcho is in Division 2 for state qualifying purposes, though all the D1 and D2 girls’ teams bowl against each other in league play. In rule change that could help the team out this year, District 9 is not obligated to send both a Division 1 and a Division 2 girls’ team to state, but could rather send multiple D2 teams should they finish the year with the best records in dual meet play. 

For the second straight year, all District 9 competitions will be held as doubleheaders. Competitions will take place Nov. 12, Dec. 10, Dec. 17 and Jan. 14 at Dale’s Weston Lanes. The final two duals of the season will be contested Feb. 11 at 5-Star Lanes in Plover. Feb. 18 has been reserved as a league make-up date in case of inclement weather. The D9 singles tournament will be held Feb. 23-25 and the WiHSBC state tournament will take place March 1-3 in Ashwaubenon. 

The middle school schedule will mirror the high school schedule for the first five duals, but competitions will also be held March 10, March 24 and April 14. 

The middle schoolers currently have five bowlers. Eli Miller and Natalie Dellenbach return from last year’s team. Eighth-grader Silas Johnson, seventh grader Logan Campbell and sixth-grader Charlotte Preuss are new to the team. 

“It’s really going to be about teaching them right away — the stance, how to throw the ball, that type of stuff. We’re just looking for individual growth this year and them just learning the sport and enjoying it,” coach Dellenbach said. 

The boys’ and middle school teams are practicing on Tuesday nights at Nick’s Hodag Lanes with the high school girls’ team practicing on Wednesday nights. Additionally, the team will have Saturday morning practices on the days immediately prior to matches. Coach Dellenbach said there is still time for interested kids to come out and try the sport. 

“Bowling’s a great sport, you can jump in at any time. We can help with equipment and everything,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].