Team review: RHS girls’ basketball

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team expected some growing pains with a rotation that had predominantly sophomores and only a couple of upperclassmen. Little could the Hodags have known just how tested they would be during the 2024-25 season. 

The Hodags lost leading scorer Aubryn Clark to a season-ending back injury almost exactly halfway through the season. Despite that, the Hodags were still able to manage a 13-12 record on the season and tied for third in the Great Northern Conference with a 7-5 league mark.

While Clark’s injury was the longest and most impactful, it was far from the only health issue the Hodags had to deal with during the season. A number of players, including Clark, started the season battling illness. Another bout of sickness went through the team in late January and early February. There were other nagging injuries that plagued the team throughout the year. 

It was a battle all season for the Hodags. Perhaps they would have fared a bit better with a fully healthy lineup, but coach Ryan Clark said he was happy that the team posted a winning record, despite everything it went through this year.

“Proud of the effort, not what I envisioned if we were all fully healthy — not just Aubryn, but everybody fully healthy — but there was so many things about it I did really appreciate with you guys,” he said earlier this month during the team’s banquet.

Here are five key storylines from the Hodags’ season.

The turning point

Jan. 14 served as the point of delineation for the Hodags’ season. That was the first game that Aubryn Clark sat out with what proved to be a season-ending injury. 

Perhaps that point could be backed up to Jan. 12 when, during a Sunday evening practice, Clark’s back locked up. She attempted to participate in pregame warmups for the Jan. 14 home game against Mosinee, but made it as far as the Hodag bench before needing to stop. A couple of times during the game she left the bench and attempted to stretch out in the hallway adjacent to the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium, but was never able to get into the contest. 

Coach Clark, Aubryn’s father, said that the injury was the re-aggravation of one she suffered the previous summer on the AAU circuit. What he initially hoped would be a setback that would keep her out a game or two, turned into a few weeks and, eventually the remainder of the season. There was some hope she would be cleared in time to start the postseason, but that clearance never came.

During the banquet coach Clark said, in hindsight, he would handled his daughter’s injury differently.

“If I could go back, we would have done the PT for this (right away),” he said. “We came in the year injured and we thought we could just get through it and it would be fine. So I’m just telling everybody out there, take care of that thing first, because I feel like we could have probably missed the first half season for the second half, which I would take it over first half.”

Before Jan. 14

The injury derailed what could have been a milestone season for Aubryn Clark. She averaged 21.5 points per game through the first 13 games of the season and was on pace to reach 1,000 for her career by season’s end. 

Despite missing the final 12 games, Aubryn Clark still finished as the team’s leading scorer with 279 points. She also finished 10th in the GNC in scoring with 121 total points, despite playing in only the team’s first five conference games. That was enough for her to earn honorable mention in the GNC, despite her limited body of work. 

“She’s never mentioned these stats ever,” coach Clark said. “All she talked about was team success and a great atmosphere and deep run in the playoffs.”

The Hodags were 9-4 with Aubryn Clark on the floor, and she authored the signature moment of the season when she scored a school-record 43 points in a 63-58 overtime win over Medford Dec. 3. The Hodags rallied from down as many as 21 points in the contest. Clark hit the game-tying 3 in the final seconds of regulation in that contest. She put the Hodags ahead for the first time all night on a layup off a steal with 1:51 remaining in the extra session and then knocked down her final four free throws of the night. The last, with 5.2 seconds left in overtime, gave her the single-game RHS scoring record — surpassing the mark of 42 points set by Ava Lamers in an overtime loss at Rice Lake in November 2022. 

After Jan. 14

Rhinelander went 4-8 in the final 12 games of the season with Aubryn Clark out of the lineup. 

As would be expected minus its leading scorer and ball handler, the Hodags offensive numbers took a dip during that time. The Hodags went from averaging 51.1 points per game to 39.3. Their points per possession dropped from 0.78 to 0.61. The team averaged nearly 11 fewer shots per game and averaged just more than eight more turnovers a contest and its 3-point shooting dipped from 33.3% in the first 13 games to 28.7% over the final 12. 

The team’s schedule wasn’t exactly the easiest down the stretch, either. Rhinelander had to face GNC runner-up Mosinee twice, GNC champion Lakeland, Wisconsin Valley Conference champion Stevens Point, D2 sectional finalist Shawano and eventual D5 state champion Wisconsin Rapids Assumption in that span. All of those contests resulted in losses.

“I think one thing that’s probably the biggest thing as a coach when we have Aubryn, I think everyone believes we can beat anybody we play,” coach Clark said at the end of the regular season. “Without her, it’s been a little bit of a struggle. We know we can beat certain teams without her, but the upper echelon teams we haven’t found a way to compete yet. Part of that just you know, do we believe enough we can win without her?”

Depth tested & stepping up

Aubryn Clark’s injury wasn’t the only one the Hodags had to deal with this year. Seniors Kelsey Winter and Dawsyn Barkus played through knee injuries much of the year. Senior Makenna Sternitzky suffered a knee injury as well which, aside from a last-second basket on senior night against Tomahawk, cost her the final two thirds of the year. Sophomore JaLyn LaChapelle battled through a bone bruise on her shin the second half of the season and a bout of illness forced the Hodags to go into a few games in February with, essentially, a rotation of six players. 

In fact, of the 15 players who stepped on the varsity court for the Hodags this year, only two — sophomores Lexi Beran and Ella Miljevich — appeared in all 25 games.

“A lot of kids got a lot of minutes in a lot of different roles that they didn’t expect to have at the beginning of the year,” coach Clark said. “The goal would be that this kind of leap frogs us forward next year.” 

    In this Jan. 14, 2025 file photo, Rhinelander’s Vivian Lamers drives to the basket against Mosinee’s Megan Treu during the second half of a GNC girls’ basketball game at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. Lamers handled the bulk of the Hodags’ offensive responsibilities following Aubryn Clark’s season-ending injury. Lamers averaged 11.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 3.1 steals per game. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Sophomore Vivian Lamers ended up assuming most of Aubryn Clark’s offensive roles following her injury. Lamers went from being key defender and secondary scorer to the team’s top scoring threat and primary ball handler. She finished the season averaging 11.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 3.1 steals per game, and received honorable mention in the GNC.

“I was really hard on her, harder than I probably needed to be, but what she was able to do by the end of the year — from the first Mosinee game to the last Mosinee game — the growth was insane,” coach Clark said. “To take our spot as our ball handler, as a shooter, as a scorer, and have to like try to orchestrate our offense, that was way more advanced we’ve had any other year, and do that with a very young inexperience group (was impressive).”

What’s next

The Hodags graduate five seniors, including Winter, Barkus and Ava Kurilla from the rotation. Winter averaged 6.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game and earned honorable mention in the GNC. Barkus’s game improved during the second half of the year as she averaged 5.0 points per game. Kurilla picked up more minutes during the second half of the year and averaged 1.3 points per contest.

Everybody else is pretty much back, however. That list includes Aubryn Clark, Lamers, LaChapelle, Beran and Miljevich. Freshman Ellie Cummings also saw rotational minutes during the second half of the year.

Behind that group there is a talented incoming freshman class, led by Aubryn Clark’s younger sister, Teagan. Given that, and that Lakeland is losing a star-studded senior class, there is optimism that the Hodags can compete for a conference title — and perhaps even more — next season. 

It will not be easy, as Mosinee and Medford will return the majority of their squads intact, but coach Clark said he expects his squad to be right in the mix.

“I’m going to say it again over and over and over. I’m looking for team success,” he told the team during his closing remarks at the banquet. “We don’t have to have these recruits come in. We have the success right here in front of us. You’re at the table, all of you and including the kids coming up.

“I expect us to be a very, very good team (that) plays, very deep in playoffs. To get there, we all have to do our job.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].