Four Hodag seniors declare collegiate athletic intentions

Four Rhinelander High School senior student-athletes made their collegiate intentions officially known Monday during a signing ceremony in the RHS commons.

Zacha King headlined the quartet, signing a Letter of Intent to swim NCAA Division I at Green Bay. Three more athletes announced intentions to play at the Division III level. Will Gretzinger committed to play men’s basketball Edgewood College in Madison, Landon Bates announced plans to play football at UW-Stevens Point and Abbie Ames signed to swim collegiately at Monmouth (Ill.) College.

“It’s really great to see. I think we have a lot of great families here. I think it starts at home and I think you are wonderful student-athletes. We’re lucky here,” RHS activities director Brian Paulson told the four during the ceremony. “It’s high school times two. The time and the amount of commitment you might put in here, you better get ready to double that, if you want to make the commitment of playing the next four years. It’s incredibly tough. We’ve had a lot of people that have signed on this day and some people not be able to make it, but gave it their all. That’s what you guys are going to be doing.”

King lands at Green Bay

    In this Feb. 10, 2024 file photo, Zacha King swims the backstroke leg of the 200-yard individual medley during a WIAA Division 2 sectional boys’ swim meet in Ashwaubenon. King was a two-time runner-up at state in the 100-backstroke and broke the school record in the IM with a fifth-place finish at state this past February. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

A self-described “middle of the pack leaning toward mediocre” swimmer early in his high school career, King emerged in a big way in his last two seasons, helping the Hodags to the WIAA Division 2 state championship as a junior and a runner-up finish at state this past February.

King posted back-to-back runner-up finishes at state in the 100-yard backstroke and captured the school record in the 200-yard individual medley with a fifth-place finish at state earlier this year. He was also part of runner-up swims in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.

“He’s really come a long way,” coach Jenny Heck said during Monday’s ceremony. “He just put so much time in the offseason, doing extra things, always being the first in the weight room, in the pool when he could, doing those extra things. I think those things are going to continue to serve you well.”

King called his junior season his breakout year, and said that’s when collegiate interest really picked up.

“The Green Bay coach contacted me over email and said, ‘Hey, I saw you account on Swim Cloud and wanted to ask you if you wanted to take a tour,’” King said. “After a tour of the campus and meeting with the team, I’m like, ‘I love this. I’m going to go here.”

King will be competing for a Phoenix squad that took sixth in the Horizon League last year.

He’s the latest in a long line of Hodag swimmers to compete at the next level. Most recently, Carter Gaber (St. Ambrose) and Jack Antonuk (St. Norbert College) continued their swim careers from the Hodag class of 2023. 

King said swimming with a strong high school program has helped prepare him to take the next step.

“Coach Jenny has done really well to prepare us for collegiate sport. Even though it’s ‘just high school,’ she’s pretty tough on us and she wants us to succeed,” he said. “A bunch of the boys’ team went to swim in college, especially last year we had both Carter and Jack go. We’ve had a bunch of people go in the past few years, but I think it really helps when you can learn through osmosis. When you’re around such great swimmers, you just learn through them, what they did and how they did it. It really helps.”

King said he plans to study accounting at Green Bay and thanked his coaches, parents and teammates in prepared remarks prior to signing.

Gretzinger heading to Edgewood

    In this Jan. 30, 2024 file photo, Rhinelander’s Will Gretzinger flies past Three Lakes’ LJ Terlizzi for a layup during the first half of a non-conference boys’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Gretzinger was the leading scorer for a Hodag boys’ basketball team that won its first Great Northern Conference title since 2018. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Will Gretzinger helped the Rhinelander High School boys’ basketball team return to success during his four years with the Hodags. Now he will look to try to do the same downstate at Edgewood College.

The Eagles went 8-17 last year and missed the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament by a game, finishing tied for ninth in the regular season standings. The team has posted only one winning record in the last five years and has not made the NCAA D-III tournament since 2012.

Prior to Gretzinger, the Hodag boys’ basketball team had not made the sectional round of the WIAA tournament since 2014 and had not won a Great Northern Conference title since 2018. Those changed during Gretzinger’s time, as the Hodags made a run to the sectional semifinals in 2022 before snagging a share of the GNC title this past winter. Gretzinger, who was the team’s leading scorer each of the last two seasons and the first Rhinelander player to eclipse the 1,000-point career mark since Owen White in 2018, was a major reason for that success.

“He was a huge part of helping that team (in 2022) find its way and turning the season around,” Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said. “Then, as a senior, to be able to win a conference championship, it was his leadership, his maturity this year that really took the team back to the top.” 

Gretzinger said he will draw from the highs and lows he went through during his high school career as he goes to Edgewood.

“Our sophomore year we kind of struggled at the beginning of the year,” he said. “It was hard to get playing time. I just kept working and we were able to turn the season around and I was able. Then this last year, just having to take that leadership role, that’s going to help translate. I’m probably not going to be guaranteed playing time right but just what I’ve been through, being able to work through that, when I get there I’ll be able to be in that leadership role in thrive.”

Gretzinger said he began receiving collegiate interest the summer prior to his junior year. He said the Edgewood coaching staff reached out to him prior to his senior year, and a trip to the campus on the outskirts of Madison last December sold him on the college.

“I really liked the campus and the coaches. I felt like that was home,” said Gretzinger, who plans to major in business and marketing. “I know Madison’s a good city, has a lot of companies. I’m excited to find some internships there.”

Lemmens said Gretzinger, who earned unanimous first-team honors in the GNC this past winter, has the drive to compete at the next level.

“I’m excited because I know the love that he has for the game is going to inspire him and have him continue to push on and challenge himself at the next level. And he’s going to be a great student,” he said. “He’s already made us proud in so many ways and he’s just going to continue to do that.”

Gretzinger thanked his parents “for just the countless hours and travel that they’ve invested in me,” as well as Lemmens, Edgewood College coach Justin Meyer and the teammates he has had at RHS.

Bates catches on at Point

    In this Sept. 22, 2023 file photo Rhinelander’s Landon Bates looks for running room during the second half of a GNC football game in Mosinee. Bates was the leading receiver and second-leading rusher for the Hodag football team last fall. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Though his dad, Nathan, has served as head soccer coach of the Hodag boys and/or girls teams throughout Landon Bates’s high school career, football was his passion and one he’ll continue to pursue at the next level. 

Bates saw extensive playing time on the defensive side of the football in 2022 as the Hodags slogged through an injury-plagued 1-8 season. His primary focus shifted to offense last fall with Rhinelander’s implementation of the Wing-T offense. Bates led the Hodags in receiving yards (116), was second on the team in rushing yards (324) and authored two signature moments for Rhinelander this year. His 19-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining capped off a 21-point comeback as the Hodags defeated Tomahawk 22-21 in the season opener. He also scored the lone touchdown in a 7-0 victory at Merrill that made the Hodags playoff eligible for the fourth time in the last five years. 

“As the years have gone on, we’ve finally started to see the type of football player he can be,” Hodag football coach Aaron Kraemer said. “He’s someone who’s just scratching the surface of his ability and his potential. I can’t wait to see him represent us at UW-Stevens Point.” 

That switch to offense also drove Bates’s decision on where to play next fall. He said he had an offer on the table to play safety at UW-Oshkosh, but jumped at the opportunity to try his hand at receiver for the Pointers. 

“I wanted to make sure I picked a school that I wanted to get an education at too, not just for the football team,” he said. “I went to Point with some of my friends. I already had contact with a couple of coaches there and they offered me at receiver, so I picked there.

“I like Point as a school and it’s closer to home. That’s where I want to get my education.” 

Bates joins a Pointer program that is trying to turn things around in a competitive Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Conference. Point went winless in the WIAC last year and was 1-9 overall under second-year head coach Luke Venne. 

“With us struggling our junior year, just the continuous climb uphill to make the playoffs and success is definitely going to help, along with the consistency of all the summer practices, all the practices we had, how hard they pushed us,” Bates said. ”It helps a lot.”

Bates said he will enter college undeclared for a major. He thanked his parents, coaches and teammates for their support during his high school career.

Ames to swim at Monmouth

    In this Sept. 14, 2023 file photo, Rhinelander’s Abbie Ames swims the 500-yard freestyle during a GNC girls’ swim dual meet against Lakeland at the Heck Family Community Pool. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

While Abbie Ames’s performances sometimes got lost in the shuffle, given the success of the RHS girls’ swim team over the past several seasons, she becomes the third senior from this year’s class to compete at the next level, joining a pair of Division I recruits — Abi Winnicki (UCLA) and Karis Francis (Liberty) —who signed last November. 

Ames was a two-event all-conference honoree in 2022 for the Hodags as she swam to a third-place finish at the Great Northern Conference meet in the 200-yard freestyle and was also part of a third-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.

“I’m really proud of Abbie,” coach Heck said. “One thing that sets her apart, every year she set goals for herself and she really went after those goals. 

“That’s what all you guys are doing. You start small and you get bigger and bigger,” Heck added. “It’s a lot of work in college, but think of what you can be exposed to by taking it that next step, meeting new people and experiencing new things. Congratulations, Abbie. I’m excited to see what you’re going to do. Keep going and keep setting those goals.”

For her part, Ames said being a part of a team that captured two WIAA state titles during her high school career, will serve her well as she prepares to swim at the next level.

“Jenny, she’s like no other coach. (Assistant coach) Marna (Winnicki) as well and Brent (Olson), who helped out, they work so well together and they just really push the team to success as we have in the past couple of years,” she said. “They definitely help you set the bar to get to the mentality of ‘we can do this,’ and set you up for college.”

Ames joins a Fighting Scot team that placed fifth in the Midwest Conference last winter. 

“I picked Monmouth because their coach, I believe it was the end of my junior year, I got an email saying, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of girls we thing would work here.’ I visited the college, looked at some other ones, but nothing quite felt like Monmouth, she said. “It was definitely the college for me.”

Ames enters college undecided on a major. She thanked her Hodag coaches and teammates, and the friends and family who attended Monday’s ceremony. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].