Shoutouts & Callouts

How does one begin to quantify the impact a person has made upon a community? Is it by the number of people and organizations that person has positive impacted? Is it by the respect that person earned from his or her peers, or perhaps the number of young people that person inspired?

It’s a question I’m not sure I have the right answer to, and one I surely wasn’t prepared to ever grapple with until last Saturday evening when, shortly after returning home from the state cross country meet, my phone rang. It was RHS activities director Brian Paulson calling me with tragic and unthinkable news — we had just lost Dan Bauer at the age of 42.

Now, before I continue, on behalf of myself and the River News, we extend our deepest and utmost sympathies to his wife, Jenna, his four children, his brethren at the Rhinelander Fire Department, and all the family and friends who are grieving his untimely passing. Be it a father, a son, a husband, a respected co-worker, a faithful volunteer or a coach, we’ve lost a truly special human being.

You can read more on his professional impact through the RFD in our main story on Page 1 but my focus, as it pertains to the scope of this column, will zero in on those final two points. From my observations over the last several years and to those who I’ve spoken with over the last few days, it’s undeniable the impact Bauer made on the youth sports scene. While that may have started as a way to help his own kids in the sports they loved, it turned into a passion for helping the organizations he was involved in and the players he coached become the best versions of themselves. 

“He just had a heart for kids and sports,” Hodag Little League president Ben Gauthier said. “It made him a great guy to be around. It was a pleasure to know him and to be his friend.”

It’s through Little League where Bauer’s name is probably most recognizable to our readers. He was the manager of the Hodag 12U All-Star team that won the District 5 title in 2022, advancing to the Wisconsin Little League state tournament. He did that with his oldest son, Blake, on the roster.  A year later, and with an entirely different group of kids that included his second-oldest boy, Eli, the Hodags were D5 champs again — this time in the 10U division. After sweeping Superior in a best-of-three series, Rhinelander advanced to the state championship series, where they eventually fell to Kenosha.

He was much more than a successful coach to those involved in Hodag Little League, Gauthier noted. He helped organized the program’s tournaments, served as board president for a year, made the schedules for the divisions of city league play and could often be found down at Hodag Park, making sure Mel Mode and Minor Fields were ready for play. 

“The things that he did, it’s almost too many to be able to fully remember,” Gauthier said. “Dan was an integral part of our Hodag Little League family. I’m not really sure what it looks like going forward without him as a part of it.” 

While baseball might have been Bauer’s top passion, he was supportive in all sports in which his children were involved. He was set to help coach a traveling team for the Rhinelander Basketball Association this winter and had quickly become one of that group’s top volunteers, according to RHS boys’ basketball coach Derek Lemmens.

“He was always just someone you could rely on to help out and someone that’s out there for the right reasons too,” he said. “It was not about Dan Bauer. It was about the kids. You’ve got a positive influence. You have someone that’s actively involving themselves and that’s how great programs are built, with people like that. That’s what makes it special. You don’t have a lot of people like that. That just leaves a giant hole in all of the Rhinelander community.”

It was far more than Bauer’s own kids who thrived under his guidance. Over the next six or seven years scores of young athletes who were shaped by Bauer will walking through the halls of RHS.

Count Paulson’s oldest son, Mason, among those players. He was on that state runner-up 10U team in 2023. The same is true for Easton Ostrom. His dad, Randy, has coached a pair of Rhinelander Ice Association teams at WAHA state tournaments since 2020. Both were among the people I spoke to who described Bauer as a tough but fair coach, who expected accountability and excellence, and would go out of his way to help his players achieve it. 

“To be able to watch a youth athlete and see the true potential that is inside of that player is a true skill and testament to the time spent perfecting any sports craft, and this is what coach Bauer was able to do, especially in the baseball realm,” Randy Ostrom said. “A drive for competitiveness and passion for excellence in all aspects of sports is by far and away how he will be remembered in our family.”

Added Brian Paulson, who coached with Bauer during that state tournament run, “You didn’t want to disappoint coach Bauer. You wanted to improve. You wanted to be able to show coach Bauer you were improving. He was willing to stick with you and work hard with you to help you improve, but you had to be willing to show up to the open gyms and put the time in. If you did that, you were finding success.”

Reflecting back, what will resonate with me most is Bauer’s message to that 10U squad after they came up short against Kenosha in the championship series. After losing the first game 4-1, the Hodags held a 5-0 lead in the fourth inning of Game 2, looking to force a winner-take-all championship game the following day. Kenosha rallied and won it 6-5 on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

I was there that day and — as one would expect with a group of players who were still in elementary school — there were plenty of tears and frustration regarding how that game ended. However, Bauer said afterward that the group needed to be proud of one another, of how they stuck together as a team, and challenged his players to put in the work to be ready, should they cross paths with Kenosha again.

“It tells you how hard they worked and how much talent there really is on the team,” Bauer said at that time. “Like I was telling them at the end of this game is they got us this time. Now our goal is, when they get to be 12-year-olds, we go and return the favor. If we work hard the next two years and, hopefully, we come out on the (winning) end next time.”

That chance could potentially take place next summer when many of those same players could compete for the Hodags at the 12U All-Star level. 

Back to the initial premise of this column, how do we quantify the impact Dan Bauer has had on this community, or the legacy he leaves behind? Perhaps we don’t need to quantify it at all and just know that the impact has been profound and will be long-lasting. 

“You can’t even explain the impact that he had on kids and what he did in our community,” Paulson said. “There’s too many things that he did that we can’t all put together.” 

Moving forward there are and will be many ways in which individuals and organizations can and will pay tribute to Bauer. Gauthier said the Hodag Little League board will look for ways to memorialize Bauer — possibly by either through naming a tournament in his honor and establishing some sort of memorial at Hodag Park. 

As reported in our Page 1 story, a memorial fund for his family has been established through Peoples State Bank, there is an online memorial set up via the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin. If you have the means, and are so inclined, donating to one of those memorials would certainly be a excellent display of gratitude. 

Or, if you’re so inclined, look to give back to youth sports as a coach, a referee or a volunteer. To be sure, the pay isn’t great, and you’re inevitably going to draw the ire of some overzealous parent at some point, however the positive impact you can make on the youth in the community outweighs the negative tenfold. 

If neither of those options are feasible, a simple thank you to a coach can suffice. One of my friends, who also has a son who was coached by Bauer, related to me this story off record, but I feel compelled to share. 

Last Tuesday, following an eighth-grade basketball game that Bauer attended to watch his son play, my friend noticed Bauer give his mother a quick shoulder hug. Known more for being of the stern type in the dugout, my friend quipped to his son that he should go give Bauer a hug, given that they appeared to be in unusually abundant supply on this day. 

His son did, a giant bear hug at that. Little did they know at the time, that would be their final interaction as player and coach. 

Godspeed and thank you, Dan Bauer. You can rest easy knowing you have made Rhinelander a better place.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].