Team preview: RHS girls’ basketball

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team will look to keep pace against a strong top half of the Great Northern Conference this winter, but coach Ryan Clark concedes that it will be a challenge as up to half of his rotation will be seeing its first appreciable varsity minutes.

“It’s going to be a learning curve. We’re throwing a lot at them. The game is faster,” he said. “We’re going to try to speed that learning curve up as fast as we can.”

The Hodags bring back two starters and four letter winners from a squad that went 16-9 overall and tied for second in the GNC before getting bounced by Green Bay Southwest in the WIAA regional semifinals. 

Headlining the list is Clark’s daughter, Aubryn, who returns after earning first-team All-GNC honors a season ago as a freshman. She averaged 20.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 5.5 assists and will likely draw the attention from opposing defenses every time she steps on the court.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a lot of double teams, for sure a face guard. She’s ready for that,” coach Clark said. “She knows that there will be no surprises this year. She’s worked hard to get stronger, in better shape to take on the trials of the season. She loves to pass the basketball. We’ve got kids that can set screens and move without the basketball. For me, I think her assists will go up, her command of our team will go up. She’ll still get her baskets and points.”

    Rhinelander’s Kelsey Winter looks to pass during a girls’ basketball scrimmage against Almond-Bancroft in Wisconsin Dells Saturday, Nov. 16. Winter is one of four players back for the Hodags who saw significant rotational minutes last year. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Seniors Kelsey Winter and Dawsyn Barkus are back from last year’s rotation, as is sophomore Vivian Lamers. Though undersized for a forward at 5-7, Winter was one of the Hodags’ top rebounders at 4.8 boards per game last year. Barkus averaged 2.8 points per game while shooting just under 25% from beyond the arc and Lamers added 2.6 and 5.0 rebounds a game while serving as one of the team’s top defenders in man-to-man.

“Kelsey will be rebounding for sure, communication. She can get downhill a little bit. She’s real good at skip passing. She’s good at flashing against a zone,” coach Clark said. 

“Dawsyn is a 3-point shooter for us for sure, a secondary ball-handler, a communicator has senior experience. Viv, is obviously a lockdown defender, but we’ll look for her to step up her offensive game for sure. She’s good in transition but, in the half court, I need her to knock down some 3s and take it to the basket,” coach Clark added.

It will likely be on the shoulders of those three to take up the scoring roles vacated by Lily Treder (13.8 ppg), Leah Jamison (7.9 ppg) and Morgan Van Zile (5.9 ppg), all of whom graduated.

“It was a real easy puzzle to put together. We could space the floor. We had shooters,” coach Clark said. “This year we don’t quite have the shooters. That’s where I’m hoping Viv can step up, Dawsyn can knock them down. We’re a little different personnel.

“You’ll see a little more motion offense from us. Then I’m trying to steal points, defensively. I’m hoping we can pressure a little bit and really outwork teams. In the half court we’re trying to be more aggressive to see if we can steal some points where I feel they could be toss-up games.” 

What remains to be seen is who steps up into the role of the Hodags’ fifth starter and who fills out the remainder of the team’s rotation. Forward Makenna Sternitzky and guards Ava Kurilla and Reese Gehrig round out this year’s senior class. There are no juniors on the varsity squad, but a host of sophomores including forwards Lexi Beran and Gracie Anderson, and guards JaLyn LaChapelle, Ella Miljevich, Amelia MacIntyre and Kara Monk. 

A number of those players were thrown into the proverbial fire Saturday when the team scrimmaged in Wisconsin Dells. Unofficially, Rhinelander went 2-1 on the day, falling to Almond-Bancroft in the opener before beating Iola-Scandinavia and Milwaukee North. They did it without two of their projected starters. Aubryn Clark was scratched due to illness and Lamers didn’t participate after competing at the WIAA Division 2 state girls’ swim meet in Waukesha the night before.

“It’s given us an opportunity to get everyone a lot of minutes and make a lot of good mistakes. In the long run, it’s probably a positive,” coach Clark said.

The Hodags open the season Thursday night on the road against Crandon, part of a solid non-conference slate to open the schedule. Rhinelander travels to Rice Lake next Monday night, before hosting D.C. Everest and Wausau West over Thanksgiving weekend. The Hodags will host Medford to open GNC play Dec. 2.

“It’s kind of an urgent rush to cram everything in, but the girls are doing well. They’ll be fine. We’ll focus on what we need to do in this game to win, be focused on those things,” Clark said. “We know we might not be prepared for a few other things but, Crandon, a 2-3 zone mostly, we’ll get ready for the 2-3 and then let’s be really good in half-court defense and I think we’ll be OK from there.”

As for the GNC, Lakeland appears to be the overwhelming favorite returning virtually everybody from a squad that went undefeated in the conference and reached the state sectional finals last year. Behind them, Mosinee and Medford return most of their squads in tact.

“Our conference, on the top half, is very strong,” he said. “I think we’re picked for fourth and, on paper, that’s where we’re at. There’s no question. Our conference got better and we lost the most players that were contributors by far.”

While wanting to be competitive this year, coach Clark said he sees this season as an important building block for the program, especially with two solid classes waiting in the wings at the middle school level.

“We’re going to be a much better team as the year goes on. We’ll grow. There’s a lot of growth for this year. They’ve just got to keep battling, competing and process,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids. We have a really good eighth-grade class. We have a really good seventh-grade class. What a great year to get growth, develop and really push the envelope a little bit. If we can knock off some of those big teams, it would be awesome.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

TEAM SCHEDULE

Date    Opponent    Time

11/21    at Crandon    7:15 p.m.

11/25    at Rice Lake    6:30 p.m.

11/29    D.C. EVEREST    6 p.m.

11/30    WAUSAU WEST    6 p.m.

12/3    MEDFORD*    7:15 p.m.

12/6    ANTIGO*    6 p.m.

12/13    NORTHLAND PINES*    7:15 p.m.

12/20    at Tomahawk*    7:15 p.m.

12/27    Ripon (at Wis. Dells)    4 p.m.

12/28    at Wisconsin Dells    2 p.m.

1/3    WISCONSIN RAPIDS    7:15 p.m.

1/7    at Three Lakes    6 p.m.

1/10    LAKELAND*    6 p.m.

1/14    MOSINEE*    7:15 p.m.

1/17    at Medford*    7:15 p.m.

1/24    at Antigo*    6 p.m.

1/28    at Wis. Rapids Assumption    7:15 p.m.

1/31    at Northland Pines*    7:15 p.m.

2/4    STEVENS POINT    7:15 p.m.

2/7    TOMAHAWK*    7:15 p.m.

2/11    SHAWANO*    5:30 p.m.

2/14    at Lakeland*    6 p.m.

2/18    at Wausau East    7:15 p.m.

2/21    at Mosinee*    7:15 p.m.

2/25    WIAA Regionals    TBA

2/28    WIAA Regionals    TBA

* Conference games | HOME GAMES IN CAPS