Camp key time for RHS volleyball

The four days of summer camp is always a key time for the Rhinelander High School volleyball team as it enters the dead period without coaching contact prior to the start practice for the season. For first-year head coach Jayme Wyss, the time spent this week was extra important.

The team wrapped up its four-day camp on Thursday as it hopes to lay the foundation for more successful seasons ahead. 

Wyss said she had a lot of topics she wanted to cover this week, but spent much of the first day working on the basics of passing and movement on the court — key building blocks as the Hodags try to rebuild after winning only one Great Northern Conference game since 2018.

That’s why she said the time went quickly, even though high schoolers had four 3 1/2-hour sessions this week in the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Wyss said the first two hours on Monday were spent simply going over the basics of passing.

“We’re just really trying to break down the fundamentals and do things right,” she said. “One of the things I preach is doing the little things right, so that when it comes to the big things, you already know how to move properly, you already know how to set yourself up, you already know how to run your feet the right way so we can set ourselves up for success when we have a faster ball coming at us.”

Not only was the week about individual skills, it was about Wyss getting reacquainted with the team and vice versa. She served as an assistant coach in Rhinelander two years ago before taking an assistant’s role at Marshfield Columbus last year. Prior to that, she served as head coach in Three Lakes for eight years, where she guided the Bluejays to a 167-89-1 mark.

After just one day, Wyss said what she taught some of the players two years ago was already coming back to them.

“Even in the short time that I had them, just one day, one session, especially the high schoolers I could see it,” she said. “The same girls who had terrified looks on their faces were moving with confidence and I’m like, ‘that is right. That’s how you should be moving.’ That’s going to lead to a successful path consistently down the road.”

Wyss put in overtime this week, not just working with the high schoolers. While she had 40 high schoolers during the morning session, she also had an early afternoon session with just more than 30 middle schoolers and a late afternoon session that had roughly a dozen elementary-aged kids. 

“There’s a ton of potential at the middle school level,” she said. “They’re hungry for it. At the youth level, you can tell this is where we’re lacking and we have a lot of work to put in and a lot of room for growth.”

Wyss said while she tried to get through most of the points she wanted to cover in the first three days of camp, any outstanding items were crammed into Thursday’s final session, along with some games and drills along the way. 

It’s all in hopes the team will have a better foundation underneath it when it returns Aug. 19 for the first day of practice. 

“I love this week because anyone one who comes to camp, when they start the season, they’re like, ‘Oh, I know this drill. I know what I’m doing,’” Wyss said. “I can tell the difference — and I’m not saying you have to do my camp, do a camp. You need to work on fundamentals. I can tell the kids that have put in that work, and the ones who have done the drills already know who to do the footwork, or what I’m looking for. I feel like that just sets them up for success.

“If you want a better team come the fall, then you need to put in the work to actually do that.”

The Hodags will enter 2024 looking to build off of a 13-23 record, which was the most wins for the program since 2017. Rhinelander has not had a winning overall record since 2012, when the team won its first and only Great Northern Conference title. 

The Hodags will return a number of their starters from 2023, but graduated their two all-conference selections in outside hitter Lily Treder and libero Emma Chiamulera. They will open regular season play with a home quadrangular Tuesday, Aug. 27.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].