Team review: RHS football

It’s no stretch to say that in a Great Northern Conference full of parity, the 2024 season could have turned out much differently for the Rhinelander High School football team.

The Hodags had opportunities early in the GNC season, but lost three of their first four games in league play by a combined 19 points. By the home stretch, the schedule got tougher and the injuries began to mount. Even so, the Hodags still entered Week 9 with a mathematical, though unlikely, path to get into the WIAA playoffs. 

However, the blows along the way were too many for the Hodags to endure. Rhinelander ended the year 3-6 overall and last in the GNC with a 1-6 league mark.

“I know I’m not the only person sitting in this room thinking back on what could have been,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer told his team last month during its season-ending banquet. 

Playing the hypothetical game, Rhinelander did have much higher ceiling this year, using a 28-7 win over Wausau East in Week 4 as evidence. East went on to finish third in the GNC at 5-2, host a Level 1 playoff game and came within a field goal of advancing past Fox Valley Lutheran and on to Level 2. It would be easy to make an argument that the Hodags had a similar ceiling this year.

“Coming into the season the expectations were high for us on my part on what we would be and where we be at this point of the year,” Kraemer said following a season-ending loss to Merrill. “Unfortunately, sometimes things don’t go your way. My message to the seniors is this does not define their legacy in our program.”

Here are five storylines from the 2024 season.

Defining wins

Coming in off a postseason appearance in 2023, there was optimism that the Hodags could do it again — and the first month of the season did little to temper those expectations. 

Following a 20-0 victory over Ashland in the opener, the Hodags battled and prevailed over their first bout of major adversity when starting quarterback and strong safety Truman Lamers was knocked out of the Week 2 contest at Hayward at the end of the first quarter due to an eye injury. Tied 7-7 at the half, the Hodags forced four second-half turnovers, including a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown by Dolan O’Malley, to prevail 21-7 and enter the conference season undefeated.

“I said, ‘this is going to be a season-defining win if you guys can pull this out,’” Kraemer said afterward. “Because there was every single reason not to. But you have to be disciplined, do the small things and finish the game. We did just that.” 

Two weeks later, with Lamers back in the lineup after recovering from his eye injury, the Hodags posted their biggest — and what proved to be final — win of the season. Trailing 7-6 at halftime, the Hodags scored 22 unanswered points in the second half to topple the Lumberjacks.

“Coming in at halftime, the guys, there was a lot of belief,” Kraemer said. “They came in and they knew whatever we’re going to talk about, there’s going to be an adjustment, there’s going to be a fix and we’re going to play our best second half.”

Losses to rivals

Ultimately, what cost the Hodags a chance at the postseason were a trio of losses to nearby rivals that just as easily could have flipped in Rhinelander’s favor. 

With Lamers out, the Hodags fell behind 12-0 early to Lakeland in the Axe Game in Week 3, but rallied to get within a touchdown to begin the fourth quarter. The Hodags couldn’t muster a tying drive late in the game and, after Lakeland took an intentional safety in the final seconds, backup quarterback Chandler Servent was unable to get off a Hail Mary attempt before being sacked on the final play as the Hodags lost 12-8. 

Two weeks later was perhaps the biggest blow as the Hodags rallied from down 7-0 at halftime against Tomahawk to take a 14-7 lead, but the Hatchets tied it early in the fourth quarter. Driving in the final minute for what the Hodags hoped to be the winning score, Lamers was intercepted deep in Hatchet territory by Brayden Larson, who then caught a long pass to set the Hatchets up on the edge of field goal range with 10 seconds remaining. The Hatchets feigned what would have been a 48-yard attempt. Instead Larson, the holder on the play, stood up and threw a 31-yard pass to Landyn Seymour with three seconds remaining to deal the Hodags a crushing 21-14 defeat.

“Sometimes there are plays made in a game that turn it against you and they made the plays they needed to make,” Kraemer said.

Adding injury to insult, Lamers injured his labrum in that contest and was a game-time decision to play the following week in the 90th Bell Game against Antigo. Though Lamers threw for a touchdown and ran for two others, the Hodag defense couldn’t slow down Antigo’s balanced attack and Lamers threw a late interception as the Hodags fell 28-20. That marked the sixth straight trophy-game loss for Rhinelander against Lakeland and Antigo after Kraemer won his first six games between those squads as coach of the Hodags.

“It’s hard to lose to the Axe. It’s hard to lose the Bell,” Kraemer said. “Obviously, they’re rivalry games and you want to come out on top of those. The positive thing is that we’ve played two really good games in those games against tough teams. The unfortunate thing is we came up a little bit short.”

The statistic that haunted Rhinelander in those close losses — red zone offense. The Hodags combined for six trips inside the opponent’s 20 in those games in which they failed to come away with points. 

Injuries mount

The injury bug was not kind to Rhinelander all season long. The Hodags had 12 seniors on their roster and by season’s end nine had injuries that at some point caused them to either miss time or be relegated to one side of the ball. 

Neither of Rhinelander’s two preseason senior award watchlist candidates started the year healthy. Wingback Zach Germain on the watchlist for the Al Toon Award (wide receiver), was limited in camp due to a hamstring and Tyler Chariton, on the watchlist for the Kevin Stemke Award (punter), sustained a lower leg injury during the second week of the preseason and missed the first six games of the year. 

Injuries mounted as the season went. Myles Eagleson missed time after injuring a shoulder in Week 1, there was Lamers’s eye injury in Week 2 and junior wingback Ben Olson went down with an elbow injury in Week 3. 

The Week 5 game at Tomahawk took the biggest toll, in addition to Lamers’s labrum injury, lineman Caden Sieker injured a shoulder in the contest and the Hodags lost tight end Bo Stott (leg) and Mathias Fugle (knee) to season-ending injuries. 

Sieker re-injured his shoulder and was shut down for the year in a Week 7 loss to Mosinee. Running back/linebacker Logan Schwinger went down with an ankle injury that effectively ended his year in that contest and junior running back Cyrus Leisure suffered a knee injury that cost him a game. 

That list didn’t include guys like Reid Schultz (groin/hip) who played through ailments for much of the second half of the year. 

While Kraemer preached a next man up mentality, the strain on the Hodags’ depth could be seen — especially on the defensive side of the football. The Hodags gave up 6.5 points and 215.5 yards per game in their 3-1 start, but allowed 29.6 points and 326 yards per game over the final five games.

“We had five seniors out tonight. That’s hard to look over and see those guys standing on the sideline and be willing to give you all. They did that,” Kraemer said in a Week 8 loss to conference-leading Medford. “The guys that are playing, they’re giving everything they’ve got, but they’re playing a lot of snaps because we’re really light. I’m really proud of the way our sophomores and juniors that play on JV stepped up tonight.”

Statbook

    In this Oct. 4, 2024 file photo, Rhinelander’s Cyrus Leisure breaks a tackle en route to a 71-yard touchdown run in the first quarter of a GNC football game against Mosinee at Mike Webster Stadium. Leisure, a junior, was the Hodags’ leading rusher this fall with 470 yards and three touchdowns. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Offensively, the Hodags showed some growth in year 2 of their Wing-T based attack. The Hodags averaged 16.4 points and 277.6 yards per game this year, up from 13.6 points and 217.9 yards per game a season ago. 

The Hodags were also better on the ground, rushing for 193.6 yards per game and 5.3 yards per carry, compared to 158.4/4.1 splits a year ago. 

Lamers, in his second year as the Hodags’ starting quarterback, completed 47.7% of his passed for 687 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions after throwing 11 picks in 2023. 

Despite graduating its top four rushers from last year, the Hodags found success with multiple different backs on the ground, led by Leisure, who had touchdown runs of 63, 36 and 71 yards on the year as the led the Hodags with 470 yards on the ground. Eagleson, Schwinger, Sam Zwaard and Sam Schoppe all accumulated at least 200 yards rushing.

Sophomore Rowan Wiczek led the Hodags in receiving for much of the year, catching nine passes for 104 yards, though he was eclipsed in the yard count thanks to Zwaard’s big receiving game out of the backfield in the Week 9 loss to Merrill. He hauled in six passes for 151 yards and a score in that game and finished with 186 receiving yards on the year. 

The Hodags had two all-conference selections on offense. Schultz received second-team honors on the line and Leisure received honorable mention at running back. 

Defensively, Schoppe was a rock at inside linebacker. He led the Hodags with 60 tackles, including six tackles for loss. Safeties Wiczek and Lamers were second and third on the team in tackles while Lamers picked off five passes — including three during the Wausau East win — as both he and Schoppe earned second-team defensive honors. 

Despite missing the better part of three games due to injury, Sieker still received honorable mention as a defensive lineman. His nine tackles for loss and three sacks were both tops on the team.

What’s next

While the Hodags will definitely have some holes to fill next year, there is optimism moving forward, considering the number of underclassmen who played this year on varsity and a successful JV campaign that saw the Hodags go 6-3 with key wins over perennial conference powers Medford and Mosinee. 

Offensively, the Hodags will need to replace Lamers at quarterback but will bring back a good chunk of its backfield with Leisure, Zwaard, Eagleson and Olson. Wiczek, Abe Gretzinger and tight end Evan Shoeder are due back in the receiving corps. Though the Hodags will need a new right guard/tackle combination following the graduation of O’Malley and Schultz, three starters are slated to return on the line. 

There are more losses on the defensive side, including Lamers and Germain from the secondary; O’Malley, Schwinger, Schoppe and Chariton from the linebacking corps and Schultz up front, but the Hodags will bring back some key pieces in Sieker on the line, Eagleson at linebacker and Wiczek and Leisure in the secondary. 

Following the loss to Merrill in the season finale, Kraemer said the Hodags will need to compete for positions in the offseason. The competition in the winter, spring and summer will yield better depth and a tighter bond among the returning players come next fall, he said. It’s a message he reiterated during the banquet as the Hodags look to get back to the postseason in 2025.

“Our mission moving forward is to take the experiences we had this year and to continue to learn and grow from them. We are going to do everything in our power to take those experiences and be back and better next year,” he said. “It’s about competing and now is the time to compete … There is talent there. There is a blueprint laid. Will you take it and compete? Will you continue to grow?”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].