Miljevich, Chiamulera, Van Zile named RHS soccer MVPs

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team honored its offense, defense and midfield on Thursday is it named its most valuable players for the 2024 season.

Junior Sophie Miljevich was named the Hodags offensive MVP, senior Emma Chiamulera took home defensive MVP honors and senior Morgan Van Zile earned overall MVP as the team held its year-end banquet in the RHS commons. 

Those were three of four awards that were voted on by the players handed out during the banquet. Senior Leah Jamison earned the fourth, winning the team’s Hodag Award. 

Sophie Miljevich led the team in scoring this year, tallying 59 points on 23 goals and 13 assists over the course of the season. She was also the Great Northern Conference’s leading scorer as she earned co-offensive player of the year honors in the conference. 

“Since her freshman year through her junior year now she’s been a force to be reckoned with on the field,” Hodag coach Nathan Bates said during the banquet. “She had a tough year this year with a lot of man-marking going on, which we’ve had with some other players in the past, but she didn’t let that stop her at all. She had a great year this year. She was the leading goal-scorer in the conference. She worked really, really hard and I’m extremely proud of her.”

On the defensive end, Chiamulera anchored a defense that was second in the GNC, allowing four goals in conference play. The Hodags were also tied for tops in the league in terms of overall scoring defense, allowing 0.7 goals per game in all competitions. She earned GNC defensive player of the year honors for her efforts. Chiamulera received her award from another former GNC defensive player of the year recipient, 2022 RHS grad Audrey Schiek, who helped coached the Hodag defense this spring. 

“To watch somebody not only fill your shoes but surpass that and do more than you ever thought, I’m just so proud of you,” Schiek said. 

“There’s not a lot of glory in (playing defense), and if there’s any player that went out there and played absolutely selflessly every single game, and also gave 100%, no matter what, it would be Emma,” Schiek added. “It was just so fun to watch her.”

Van Zile was third on the team this year in scoring with 29 points (12 goals, five assists) and was a second team all-GNC honoree. Bates lauded Van Zile’s progression as a player off the course of her four-year career as part of the reason she won the award. 

“Morgan, this year I will say was probably the best I’ve seen her play since I’ve had the opportunity and the pleasure of coaching her over the years,” he said. “She was a major force to be reckoned with on our team as an offensive player this year. She made a lot of things happen when it came to corner kicks, when it came to crossing the ball down the field and she was one of our top, leading scorers on the team. I couldn’t be more proud and I’m really going to miss her a lot next year.”

In addition to being an honorable mention All-GNC recipient, Bates said Jamison was a versatile leader on the team, playing almost anywhere in the formation where she was needed. She finished the season with a goal and seven assists. 

“She has been the heart and soul of the last couple of seasons. She’s been amazing, she’s been uplifting and led her team very well,” he said. “She’s one of the hardest-working girls that I’ve had the opportunity to coach over the years. I would see her do stuff and she might not like the way something turned out in a game, the next day I’d drive by the field and I’d see Leah at the field practicing what went wrong. She just never quit and was a great leader of the team.”

Additionally Jamison was presented the team’s Academic Excellence award. The valedictorian of the RHS class of 2024, Jamison had a 4.51 grade point average. 

In other business, the team handed out varsity letters and JV awards and this year’s captains passed down their arm bands to the players they want to see lead the team in 2025. Jamison presented her arm band to sophomore-to-be Vivian Lamers while Emma Chiamulera gave hers to sophomore-to-be Ella Miljevich. 

The Hodags went 12-3-4 on the season and finished second in the Great Northern Conference behind Lakeland, which also knocked Rhinelander out of the WIAA tournament with a 1-0 result in the WIAA regional finals June 1. The Hodags played to a 0-0 draw this year in non-conference play against eventual sectional champion, Rice Lake. 

“It’s been a great season,” Bates said. “The JV season ran the numbers this year and never lost. The future looks really, really bright. The varsity team had a heck of a season too. We lost to Menasha, we lost to Lakeland, otherwise it was all wins and ties on the season. It was very, very impressive to see that both the teams, how well they’ve done as a whole this year. I can say the future looks really, really bright. I’m proud of you guys.”

Freelancer Bob Mainhardt contributed to this report.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].