‘Hungry’ Hodag gridders open practice

The Rhinelander High School football team went 3-6 and missed the WIAA playoffs last season. Had the team been a little healthier, and a few breaks gone their way, Rhinelander could have easily been 6-3 instead.

Three of those losses came to the three of the team’s closest rivals in terms of history and/or proximity — Lakeland, Antigo and Tomahawk — and all three games were decided by 8 points or fewer.

That missed opportunity has coach Aaron Kraemer and the Hodags hungry as practice for the 2025 season officially commences. Tuesday was the team’s first day on the field, with a 3 1/2-hour session that finished under the lights at Mike Webster Stadium.

“I’ve been kind of waiting for this since the moment last year ended,” Kraemer said after Tuesday’s opening practice. “I had a lot of fun last year with that group, but I think that we left a little bit on the table. I think that by some of the decisions that we made and some of the unfortunate events that happened, and injuries and whatever, I think we left a little bit on the table with that group. So I’m a little bit unsatisfied, a little hungry, and I think these guys are too. I think you see it in practice … I’m just really excited for this group, and I’m just really excited to get back on the field.”

    Sam Zwaard carries the football during Rhinelander High School football practice at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, Aug. 5. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Tuesday’s session was split evenly between offense and defense, with Kraemer saying the defense being a little bit ahead at this point. While the team is in its third season running a Wing-T based offense, the team is getting used to a new quarterback after the graduation of last year’s starter Truman Lamers and working in a few other new starters on that side of the ball.

“Slowly on the offensive side, but that’s expected. You know, base runs, base formations and we just tried to make sure that we were crisp. We went against multiple defenses today,” Kraemer said. “There’s not a lot of ways that teams want to defend us. We threw a couple different defensive formations out there, that got the heads spinning a little bit. Not as crisp as we wanted, obviously, after coming off of camp, but at the same time, we know that we have some growing pains to work through.”

While the team needs to replace a number of starters on the defensive side, the learning curve on that side has been quicker as the team is familiar with the 3-4 hybrid scheme that it has run for several seasons now. Kraemer said the base defense in that scheme has been the primary focus so far this week.

“We’ve got to play base. We’re going to do a lot of that, a lot of base and make sure that our guys are prepared in the run fit, prepared in pass, prepared in alignment,” he said. “We talk about it all the time, ASKA — alignment, stance, key read and assignment. So that’s what we’re working on this week.”

Offensively, after spending much of the summer working on the passing game, the team is getting back to laying down the bread and butter of its scheme — the run game.

“I want to make sure that we have our base runs and the plays off of those,” Kraemer said. “We spent a lot of time during summer on pass. The guys out here, they already know the pass routes there. We already know how to block it. So you probably see we’re about 50-50 on these days, which we should be. We have a lot of good athletes. So I want to make sure we get our base runs in and the plays off of those.”

    Travis Trickey, left, and Caden Sieker, right, push a sled while offensive line coach Steve Zangl looks on during Rhinelander High School football practice at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, Aug. 5. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Practice was a bit busier than it has been in the past with the freshmen joining the rest of the group. That was the primary change in the practice philosophy during the offseason in a move designed to give upperclassmen more reps with the varsity group while getting the underclassmen more exposure to the varsity coaching staff. 

“I’m really, really excited about how excited and prepared and ready and happy and fun the young guys are,” Kraemer noted. “Having the freshman out with the sophomores. It’s a great group to practice with. I like how they’re getting hyped up and going. I think they’re building a culture on their own with their coaches. And that’s the main point that we wanted from the change that we made on our staff.”

The first week of practice will culminate tomorrow morning but, this year, the team is opting against the green vs. white scrimmage it has held the past several years. Instead Kraemer said the day will function more like a standard practice. Parents will be invited to get an up-close look at practice and a parent/player cookout will follow tomorrow’s 3-hour session.

“We felt like, in the past couple of years, we haven’t gotten out of that what we needed to — not enough time on the fundamentals and that’s one less day of real true practice,” Kraemer said. “We’re still going to have on that Saturday a little bit of a more wrap-type tempo, and a little bit of competition amongst offense and defense — and our ones (on offense) against our ones (on defense) a little bit. But at the same time, we felt like inviting our parents out to practice to see what the nuts and bolts look like and have them go around with the coaching staff and listen to the way the kids are being coached and hear about how they’re, doing drills, we thought that’d be a little bit more intimate, a little bit more fun. Having them out here, engaging in what we’re doing, I think is a little bit different, but at the same time, we hope to get it one extra day at practicing and then celebrate with everybody afterwards.”

The Hodags will take part in a five-team scrimmage next Friday at Antigo and open the regular season Aug. 22 at Ashland. 

Football is the first WIAA-sanctioned sport to get underway. The newly-established RHS girls’ golf team (see story, Page 9) will start practice this coming Monday. Girls’ swimming and girls’ tennis will both start this coming Tuesday. The remainder of the school’s WIAA sectioned sports — cross country, girls’ volleyball and boys’ soccer — will begin practice Aug. 18. Those are the earliest start dates allowed by the WIAA for each of the respective sports. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].