Hodag football enters dead period, readies for fall camp

For the next week, Rhinelander High School football coach Aaron Kraemer isn’t permitted to have any instructional contact with his players. The hope for the Hodags is that all of the work put in during the summer will help the team improve following a bounce-back 2023 season.

The Hodags wrapped up their offseason program last Thursday with the end of their four-day minicamp. That coincided with the final four contact days Kraemer had with his squad. Overall, Kraemer said a good summer has his team ready for when fall practice kicks off Aug. 6. 

“It’s been a great summer so far. The numbers are encouraging, already,” he said. “I was worried about the freshman class after last season, this new freshman class coming in from eighth grade. They have 18 or 19 kids, which is excellent. I’d like three or four more there, but 23 in the sophomore class, a big junior class and a senior class that’s experienced. I think we’re ready to go.”

More than 70 of those players attended last week’s voluntary camp in which the team put in a number of base plays for its Pistol Wing-T offense and hybrid-based 3-4 defense. Kraemer said that process has gone much quicker this year in the team’s second season running the Wing-T variant.

    Rhinelander High School football coach Aaron Kraemer demonstrates a tackling drill during Hodag football camp Monday, July 22 in the Hodag Dome. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“The guys that are coming back are familiar with the verbiage. They understand the language the coaches are speaking to them,” Kraemer said. “Last year, it seemed like we were speaking French to them early on. They also understand how much they need to give it for each other with the Wing-T offense that we run. 

“We put in our first two base series of plays. Those base series are very similar, so our players are getting in and picking it up pretty quick, I think. If we’re two base series in on offense and our defense is solid with our coverage in our base 3-4 look, I think we’ll be ready to go.”

Not that everything went smoothly during camp. Tuesday, in particular, there were a number of procedure penalties during the offensive install, which led to additional push-ups at the end of practice.  

“Blood pressure’s still a little high because we’re not finishing our fakes or doing the small things right, but those will come,” Kraemer said. “I’m excited about the guys we have back and excited to see what they can do after a year of knowing what we’re doing.”

It’s the little things — especially within individual position groups — that Kraemer said was the primary focus of the camp, which was split 50/50 between offensive and defensive sessions. Within those sessions were periods of both team and individual drills. 

The Hodags enter 2024 looking to continue on recent success, having posted a record of .500 or better and qualifying for the WIAA playoffs in four of the last five years. The team rebounded from an 1-8 campaign in 2022 to go 5-5 last year, but backed into the postseason following a 4-0 start and was defeated soundly in Level 1 of the Division 3 tournament by Onalaska. 

Rhinelander returns four offensive starters and six defensive starters from that contest, along with a number of backups. 

Kraemer said the offseason program, as a whole, has been strong this year, led by a solid weight room presence. 

“If you look at our offensive and defensive starters, I would say 90% of those kids are everyday weight room kids, which is good,” he said. “We’ve had 40-50 football players in the weight room during any given week, which is exactly what you want — and lifting together, which is huge. That’s a big start.”

Additionally, the team participated in the Northwoods 7 on 7 Passing League against area schools Lakeland, Northland Pines and Three Lakes. Kraemer said the Hodags went 8-2 during the five-week program, with one loss each to Lakeland and Northland Pines. 

“Other than that, we’ve been solid all year in 7-on-7,” he said. “They’ve been growing in their understanding of the passing game and, defensively, is where I feel we’ve actually grown leaps and bounds. We put in our defense and have been running it.”

Practice begins Aug. 6 and the first week will conclude with the annual Hodag Football Family Day intrasquad practice at Mike Webster Stadium Saturday, Aug. 10. The second week of practice will conclude with a five-team scrimmage at Crandon Friday, Aug. 16 and the first game of the year will be a non-conference contest at home against Ashland — which along with Hayward moved to the Heart O’North Conference for 2024 — Aug. 23 at Mike Webster Stadium.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].