Team preview: RHS golf

With all five of its starters returning from last season, the Rhinelander High School golf team is looking to take the next step and compete for a Great Northern Conference title.

The Hodags, who tied for third in the conference last year before getting knocked out of the WIAA tournament at a waterlogged regional tournament in Marshfield, have plenty of confidence as they look to climb up the GNC standings. 

“I mean, I don’t want to jinx it, knock on wood, but I think we’re going to make a run for conference this year,” Hodag coach Adam Schmidt said.

There is plenty of reason for optimism with all of last year’s starters returning along with a couple of players who were flirting with the starting five last year and some incoming freshmen. Though there are only 11 golfers total on the roster, Schmidt said as many of seven or eight of them could be vying for varsity spots.

“It’s very rare. Usually, we have like three (varsity-caliber golfers). It’s good that we have a team this deep,” Schmidt said.

    In this April 23, 2024 file photo Rhinelander’s Sam Schoppe hits his tee shot on the par-3 second hole at Inshalla Country Club in Tomahawk during the first leg of the GNC golf tournament. Schoppe, a senior, returns to the Hodags after placing sixth in the Great Northern Conference standings a year ago. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Seniors Sam Schoppe and Brody Kowieski are back to anchor the squad from the team’s Nos. 1 and 2 positions. Both are returning all-conference players from last year. Schoppe finished sixth in the GNC standings last year, averaged 78.67 strokes per round and was a WIAA state qualifier in 2023. Kowieski, meanwhile, finished 11th in the conference standings last year and averaged 81.31 strokes per round. He shot 39 in a weather-shortened Marshfield regional to earn a spot in the sectional round of the WIAA tournament last year.

“Brody, especially with the leadership, brings that point. Sam is good, but Brody definitely is the one that excels at that,” Schmidt said. “He just works for the other players, works with the other kids. Brody is a natural born leader. Then Sam is an excellent leader on the course. He plays really good. He plays consistent. He hits the ball long. He usually makes smart shots. Sam’s quite an athlete.”

Junior Blake Petroff is back as the team’s No. 3 golfer. He missed all-conference honors last year by one spot, taking 16th in the final conference standings while averaging 87.33 strokes per round — a nearly 6 1/2-stroke improvement from his freshman campaign.

The final two spots in the lineup were up for grabs entering the start of the season. Sophomores Hank Kowieski and Chase West are the incumbent starters. Hank Kowieski, Brody’s younger brother, finished with a scoring average of 95.12. West averaged 96.95 strokes per round but had two of his best scores toward the end of the season — rounds of 89 and 86 in the GNC meets at Mosinee and Lakeland that helped the Hodags hold on to a tie for third in the conference. 

They’ll be pushed by returning team members senior Sam Strong and junior Dylan Shefveland for the final spots and Schmidt noted that freshman Grant Gremban has looked solid in preseason practice. 

“Grant Gremban, he’s got a super nice swing. Dylan’s swing, he’s been working on his game. His swing looks nice. Varsity’s look pretty strong this year,” Schmidt noted. “The younger players are kind of stepping up and watching them on the simulator, Hank’s hitting the ball farther. Hank’s more comfortable with the shots. He’s grown a little bit. Chase has grown a lot. He’s starting to hit the ball a lot farther, he’s more consistent. He’s growing into his body a little bit more.”

Schmidt noted that, with courses in the area not quite ready for play, the team was staging virtual playoffs on golf simulators late last week to see which players would round out the starting five for the season opening Randolph Invite, a 36-hole event which concludes today in the Wisconsin Dells area. 

Staging those playoffs was a little more challenging than originally planned after the team’s primary indoor training facility, the Hodag Dome, was temporarily closed due to damage sustained from a power outage during a March 30 ice storm. School officials noted last week that repairs could be completed and the facility re-opened by as early as the end of May.

Schmidt noted that the team received a donation that afforded them some time in the golf simulators at Lakeland Fitness and Golf in Minocqua. Otherwise, the team has made due with its limited practice space in the balcony at James Williams Middle School, which usually houses the RHS wrestling team in the winter. 

“We’re Hodags. We’re resilient. So if the dome goes down, we’re just going to hit balls, practice putting, practice chipping, work up in the wrestling room. It’s the best we can do,” Schmidt said. “The Hodag Dome might be down, but we’re not out.”

The Hodags will get 72 holes of golf down in the Wisconsin Dells area over the next week and a half. In addition to the Randolph Invite, the team will be back in the Dells next Tuesday and Wednesday for the Mosinee Open that will include a five GNC schools among the nine-team field. That will be followed up by the Medford Invite next Thursday at Black River Golf Course. 

“It’ll be good for the kids like go play real grass and play golf,” Schmidt said. “It’s kind of nice this year. Normally we don’t get to play this week. Normally our first time we play is when we go down to the Dells with our conference. We’re going to have two rounds in of competitive golf before we go down and play there.”

The seven-round GNC tournament will kick off May 1 at Indianhead Golf Course in Mosinee and wrap up in Medford May 19. Rhinelander will host the fifth leg of the tournament at Northwood Golf Club May 13.

Vying for the GNC title may be a bit of a lofty goal, considering that Lakeland has won six straight conference titles and captured the WIAA Division 2 state championship last year. However, the T-Birds figure to be rebuilding a bit this season after graduating the top three players off of that championship team. 

That could leave the GNC as open as it has been in several years. If Lakeland is unable to replicate its production of the last few seasons, Schmidt said several teams are primed to fill the void. 

“It’ll be a challenge. I think (Northland) Pines is going to be really tough this year. Medford’s always tough. Lakeland is usually tough. They’ll probably pull a rabbit out of their hat. They’re like reigning conference champs so they don’t want to lose that. I think Mosinee will be tough, they brought back like three or four guys,” he said. “It’s going be tight, but I’m confident. This is a good year. We got nice kids. They can play golf, which is awesome. We have a chance.”

Regional and sectional play will be in the Wausau area this year. Trapp River Golf Course will host regionals either the Tuesday or Wednesday after Memorial Day and sectionals will be staged one week later at Greenwood Hills Country Club. 

The Hodags have had success in the postseason the past few years, sending at least one individual or the entire team through to sectionals every year since 2021, but this year they will be the lone representative of the GNC in a Division 1 regional that will include the entire Wisconsin Valley Conference. 

Given that, Schmidt said the Hodags may need to go low this year to achieve their conference and postseason goals.

“I believe if we can get to that 320 (score), I think we will be more than competitive,” he said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].