Home away from Dome

Athletes ran the hallways at Rhinelander High School this week. Some practices lasted until 10 o’clock at night. It all harkened back to a time prior to the Hodag Dome.

It’s not just one issue, it’s a number of complex situations teams have had to battle since Sunday when the Hodag Dome suffered damage and was manually deflated due to a power outage — and subsequent failure of an automated system to deploy the backup generator — during last weekend’s ice storm. 

Most teams were scrambling, trying to figure out amended schedules and amended practice plans. A snow day Monday gave teams an extra day to prepare, but that was hardly enough time for teams to wrap their heads around the enormity of the situation.

“All stuff we had planned for the start of the season is up in smoke, and all our stuff is stuck inside the dome,” said Hodag golf coach Adam Schmidt, whose team started practice for the season this week.

That’s the plight virtually all spring sports teams are in now after being displaced by the situation.

    Libbey Buchmann works on a throwing drill in a hallway near the RHS library during RHS track practice Tuesday, April 1. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Mother Nature only acerbated the problem with two measurable snowfalls in the wake of the deflation. A four-inch snowfall Sunday night followed by another dusting Tuesday night, not only has hindered the teams’ chances of going outdoors in the foreseeable future, it has also delayed the inspection and the start of repair process of the dome, which cannot begin until the snow subsides.

In the meantime, teams are using whatever spaces they can inside Rhinelander High School or James Williams Middle School. A few teams are wondering when their next game will take place, and how much equipment they will have when that happens.

“I would say probably it’s going to be a week-by-week basis of trying to figure things out and sometimes day-to-day with games,” RHS activities director Brian Paulson said.

‘It is just a shock’

Sunday’s news sent shockwaves around the sports community, especially to those who, not 24 hours prior, had been inside the Hodag Dome. 

That was the case for RHS softball coach Ali Bender, whose team knocked off Phillips 15-5 in the dome Saturday afternoon. The Hodags left the dome thinking they would be back there for two more games Monday morning once the storm passed, but woke up Sunday to a completely different reality. 

“It was an absolute shock to me,” Bender said when she heard the news. “You don’t realize how fortunate we are as a community to have the dome.”

    Members of the Rhinelander High School boys’ tennis team warm up in the RHS commons prior to practice Tuesday, April 1. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Hodag tennis coach Matt Nichols was also inside the dome on Saturday. Though his team didn’t begin practice until this week, he was there helping to coordinate a pickleball tournament which served as a fundraiser for the Hodag tennis program and the YMCA of the Northwoods. 

“I mean it was lively, getting used as it always does, a great day and then the next day just devastating,” he said. “I mean it’s down. It has a hole. We don’t have a great idea of when it’s going to be back up and running and a day before season starts. Yeah, it was devastating.”

Hodag football and boys’ track coach Aaron Kraemer lives near the dome and said he heard a big bang of a transformer failing when areas of the city lost power at roughly 3 a.m. Sunday. Little did he know at that point what was about to transpire. Kraemer has been one of the facilities biggest proponents and promoters. When asked what his initial reaction was to the news, he could come up with only one, perhaps way too apropos adjective — deflating.

“It’s one of those things where you get to a point where you just count on it to be there, and it’s had such a massive effect on our ability to train and in our ability to prepare our athletes, that it’s just, it is a shock,” he said.

2019 all over again

None of the current spring sport athletes at RHS have had to experience life without the Hodag Dome, which hosted its first sporting event in December 2020 and officially opened to the public in early 2021. This week has been a stark reminder of what early spring in the Northwoods used to be like without the dome. 

The Hodag baseball, softball, girls’ soccer and boys’ tennis teams shared space inside the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium, with practices starting right after school and running until 10 p.m. Some members of the Hodag track team worked out in the Aspirus Fitness Center, others ran in the hallways, rode bikes around the campus or practiced field events wherever they could. The Hodag golf team used the balcony at the James Williams Middle School.

It’s been six years since this sort of arrangement was in place. Spring sports teams first used the dome in 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 season before most spring teams could begin practice. 

“I actually went through the Google Drive and started sharing some old practice plans with the coaching staff and trying to go over and see what it is we can pull out and bring back and see what we want to use this week for our practices back in the gym,” said Hodag baseball coach Joe Waksmonski, who’s led the club since 2007. 

    Emalee Detienne catches a ball from teammate Rylee Mickevicius during RHS girls’ soccer practice at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, April 1. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

While Nathan Bates didn’t take over the Hodag girls’ soccer program until 2021, he served as an assistant under then coach Dan Millot back in 2019, and said he can remember what life was like before the dome.

“We’re going to have to continuously keep working on our touches and passing game and different drills that we can utilize like we used to when we had to practice in the gym,” he said. “We’re just going to have to adapt that way and just go back to the way we used to do things before we had this amazing facility.”

For Bender, who is in her third year on the  softball coaching staff, it has been a matter of trying to harken back to her playing days at RHS and recalling what those practices were like.

“The dome has allowed us to practice — especially softball and baseball — to an extent that you can never practice in the gym,” said Bender, a 2017 RHS graduate. “Especially fly balls, hitting it’s really hard to manipulate a gym, but we’ve done it for a lot of years prior to the dome. I was just actually thinking back on what did we do before we had the dome?”

Buried in the dome

When the dome deflated, everything inside was blanked by the heavy outer membrane, the steel support cables and then several inches of snow. 

Paulson said he and a few others were able to get a few items out of the dome Sunday morning before needing to evacuate and allow the dome to manually deflate. 

“Right where the main entrance is, we were able to get some chairs out,” he said. “We were able to get the golf cart out, the sweeper right in that corner. Everything that was accessible right there, but some stuff was already trapped on the far end that we couldn’t get to.

“There’s multiple equipment underneath there, and it’s too dangerous to get it out.”

    Coaches Andy Wyss, right, and Rod Olson bring a set of hurdles from Mike Webster Stadium to Rhinelander High School for exercises during RHS track practice Tuesday, April 1. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Every spring sport had at least some equipment inside the dome —from bats to ball to pitching and hitting machines. It’s all now trapped underneath the structure for an indefinite period of time.

“Until I would hear otherwise, let’s say that,” Paulson said. “I don’t know if it’s going to take the full duration for it to be fixed to get (the equipment) out. I don’t know that.”

Perhaps the most acutely affected by it all is the track team’s blossoming pole vault program. In the team’s first two meets, the girls’ pole vault record has already been broken twice. What happens going forward is up in the air as not only is the team’s pole vault pit buried under the dome, so are virtually all of their poles. 

Pole vault coach Jayme Wyss is trying to use her connections and borrow poles from other schools, but was struggling to find answers as of Tuesday morning. 

“Not looking good with poles,” she told the River News in an email. “The ones I need to borrow are super common, meaning used a lot. Nowhere to get in a pit this week. Hoping to get in somewhere once next week. Meets are now practice, with only whatever (equipment) present schools are willing to share for the meet. Disheartening.”

Paulson noted that the team’s pole vaulters have been contacted by Northland Pines High School, offering practice time inside their field house — which would need to be separate from when Northland Pines practices per WIAA regulations. 

Otherwise, Paulson said the track team still has some hurdles and starting blocks inside the dome, but could borrow some for use during middle school and high school meets planned for Rhinelander later this spring. 

    Members of the RHS softball team help to put back a batting cage into the rafters of the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium after practice Tuesday, April 1. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Track is far from the only sport affected. Bender said virtually all of the softball team’s equipment is inside the dome, most critically all the bats the that are supplied by the team for players to use. While catchers have their own gear and players have their own helmets, pretty much everything else — aside from a couple of pitching machines — is inside the dome.

“I’m going through my garage. I have a lot of parents who have volunteered to drop off balls that they have. We’re just trying to figure out how to make things work,” she said.

In addition to the two golf simulators inside the dome, Schmidt said he needed to rush to get equipment for the team to be able to practice on Tuesday. Among what’s still inside the dome includes hitting mats, foam balls, targets and nets. 

“I don’t really have any nets, so I have to go shopping later today,” Schmidt said Monday.

Paulson also made a run to an area sporting goods store for some stand in equipment on Tuesday and said he will be working with Chippewa Valley Sporting Goods to work on acquiring some replacement inventory, once he had a list of needs from his coaches. 

Games in flux

As of Tuesday afternoon, no additional games had been officially canceled or postponed by the RHS Activities Department but, with several events scheduled for the dome over the next week or so, it’s only a matter of time.

Among the events in flux including soccer games against Eau Claire North and Marshfield this weekend, a tennis scrimmage against Wausau West on Saturday and a match against D.C. Everest next Tuesday, as well as a softball game against Antigo next Thursday and an invite next Saturday. 

“I think we’re in the wait-and-see game,” Paulson said. “This weekend can we play soccer yet? It is possible.”

Nichols said, the tennis team may look to flip the locations of its scrimmage and match, provided that courts in the Wausau area are devoid of snow by this weekend. 

Softball faces the greatest potential impact with a number of home games in doubt, as the Haug Family Softball Complex behind the Hodag Dome is typically late to dry out for the spring. The Hodags didn’t play there at all when the facility opened for the 2022 season, didn’t play its first game on the field until April 28 in 2023 and April 16 last year. Rhinelander front-loaded its schedule with home games with the Hodag Dome as an insurance policy. Bender said, with a young roster predominantly consisting of freshmen and sophomores, every game her team can get at this point is invaluable.

“There were so many situations that happened in the game on Saturday that you just can’t mimic in practice,” she said. “That’s where I’m coming with the full schedule. We have got to play more games so we can talk about those situations and learn from those experiences, because playing 14U and coming all the way up to high school, and especially varsity, it’s a totally different game.”

Adapt and overcome

To a person, all the coaches who spoke to the River News said, despite the extreme adversity, the goal is to make due with what space and equipment they have right now and carry on with their seasons the best they can. 

“There’s definitely things we can work on and they can all be done in the gym,” Bender said. “We’re just going to make do with what we have right now.”

“It’s just about figuring out what spaces you have, what equipment you have and brainstorming,” Kraemer added. 

Bates, meanwhile, tried to take matters into his own hands on Monday. He and an assistant coach attempted to pack down the snow on the Mike Webster Stadium turf with a UTV Monday, and then put a large, black tarp over sections of the field in an effort to expedite melting. 

“We’re trying our best to do a couple things here to help facilitate the snow off the turf to keep our girls playing,” he said. “Depending on what Mother Nature throws at us again, it looks like toward the end of the week, weather looks pretty good with some sunshine and mid 40s. Fingers crossed, we’re hoping. We’d love to get some games in before next week. We’re still hoping right now.” 

Baseball caught a bit of a break. Because it was already relegated to the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium last week with the dome being used for the Danny Mac softball tournament, a good bit of its gear was already out of the dome. 

“Our middle school coach (Ben) Quade, he brought his equipment over last week because they were supposed to start practice this week themselves,” Waksmonski said. “ ... Everything that we use they have and so we’ll just be using their equipment for the week.”

Schmidt brought in his personal launch monitor, and so did a member of the Hodag golf team. While not the equivalent of hitting in a simulator, the team has still been able to get in full swings this week and at least get an idea of how far the ball is carrying and how much spin each player is producing. 

“We’ll keep working at it, keep swinging, get the kids loose and ready for the season. We’ll do some rules stuff. And then get them ready, hopefully get them as ready as we can,” he said.

Nichols said the Hodag tennis team has a slightly smaller group than normal, with roughly 15 athletes this year. He said that’s a bit of a blessing for the team with less space to work with in the interim and that the team will need to get creative with its practices early in the season.

“Stroke development I can see we can definitely work that,” he said. “I think team building, we’re just brainstorming different team-building games that incorporate some of our tennis skills. I think you know just moving forward, adversity is just an opportunity to work together and overcome. I think that’s kind of the big piece of the season I’m going to have to hit home especially early on.”

Putting it in perspective

One of Kraemer’s mantras since taking over the Hodag track and football programs in 2019 is “E plus R equals O.” In other words, if a negative event (E) takes place, a person or team’s reaction (R) to it ultimately determines whether the outcome (O) is a positive or a negative. 

“We’re going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that our kids get prepared and they just come every day with attitude to work and get better,” he said. 

From a larger scale, Kraemer said he’s confident the community will rally around the dome and embrace its eventual return.

“I was encouraged by what (SDR superintendent) Mr. (Eric) Burke said today about the dome and, I really do believe that, I know that talking to Mr. Paulson last night he said the same thing,” he said. “We’re going to figure out the situation, we’re going get the dome back up and it’s going to be better than it ever has. I truly do believe that.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].