Hodag girls’ basketball team hands out awards

The Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball team handed out its end-of-season awards during a banquet Monday, March 9 in the RHS library.

Leading scorer Aubryn Clark earned the team’s toughness award, sophomore Ellie Cummings was named the team’s most improved player, freshman Teagan Clark won the defensive award, junior Vivian Lamers won the Hustle award and junior Gracie Anderson was named the team’s Hodag award winner. 

The squad, as has been the tradition over the past several years, did not award a most valuable player award. By the numbers, however, that award likely would have gone to Aubryn Clark, the junior who was voted as the Great Northern Conference’s girls’ basketball player of the year for the 2025-26 season. 

She led the Hodags, averaging 18.4 points per game and 3.8 assists per contest. She was also second on the team with 5.0 rebounds a game and set a program record with 79 3-pointers made during the course of the season. 

All of this, as RHS girls’ basketball coach Ryan Clark noted, followed a sophomore season that was cut short due to a back injury.

“Well, you got to play the whole year. To me, that was the best part, because the rehab that you had to do and all the stuff you went through and not knowing what that injury was for a long time … we really didn’t how long you might be out for,” he said. “But to your credit, you worked really, really, really hard to get back and then to be healthy this season.”

Cummings averaged 3.5 points per game and was fourth on the team with 19 made 3-pointers, all while splitting time between the varsity and junior varsity squads. She had eight points off the bench in the Hodags’ sectional semifinal loss to Shawano. 

“Her teammates just absolutely love her. She’s the type of kid where their teammates are almost more excited for her than she’s excited for herself. They just really appreciate what she brings. She’s so easy to play with. And the sectional semifinal game, she went out there and got eight points in the first half and made a big difference right away,” coach Clark said before addressing Cummings personally, “And you’re just a sophomore. And I really appreciate too, that you tried to maximize everyone’s minutes this year and you can easily not play JV. You were definitely above probably JV level, but you took advantage of the opportunity it gave you to try to just get more times to handle the ball, more times to shoot the basketball … We had a really, really good season and obviously we were really excited for you can bring next year too.”

Lamers averaged 9.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game on the season. In presenting her the Hustle award, coach Clark mentioned Lamers’s performance in the Feb. 20 win at home against Lakeland in which Lamers scored 10 points, had four steals and corralled 12 rebounds — including seven on the offensive glass.

“I think it was the Lakeland game at home where you injected yourself into the game. It didn’t matter what was going on, you were hard not to notice, in a positive way,” he said.

Teagan Clark, Aubryn’s younger sister, was not only Rhinelander’s second leading scorer at 12.4 points per game, but she also was one of the team’s top defenders. She led the team with 116 defections during the season and her 58 steals were third-most on the team. 

“Just coming into the season, she put a lot of time in the off-season, and she brings such a fun enthusiasm to the team. She’s super competitive,” coach Clark said. “Defensively, offensively, enthusiasm, competitively, you really bring it hard. As a freshman, you’re very advanced for your skill, but great job this year.” 

While Anderson didn’t see a ton of minutes for Rhinelander this season, she was an effective rebounder when she was on the floor. She averaged 0.368 rebounds per minute of play, the best ratio on the team. The squad’s leading rebounder, Lexi Beran, had a ratio of 0.277 rebounds per minute.

“Gracie, No. 1, she is a phenomenal teammate, loved by her teammates, team-first as they come. To me, the most unselfish play of basketball is set on the screen for somebody and Gracie, not only would set a screen, she would set (it well),” coach Clark said. “Whatever we needed, Gracie would do it and she’s just all team-first. Super kid, super teammate, and she makes our team better.”

    Rhinelander High School girls’ basketball coach Ryan Clark speaks during the team’s banquet in the RHS library Monday, March 9. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

In addition to the team awards, the squad handed out varsity letters to all 11 players on the varsity roster. Furthermore, all 11 players earned Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association All-Academic honors for having a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or better. Coach Clark said he was hoping for team Academic All-State honors with a squad GPA in excess of 3.8. That proved not to be enough, however, as the WBCA announced its all-academic teams with Union Grove (3.987), Jefferson (3.969) and Onalaska (3.946) taking the honors in Division 2. 

The Hodags went 16-11 on the season and advanced to the sectional final round of the WIAA tournament for the first time since 2020, where it suffered a three-point loss to Shawano.  

Coach Clark lauded his players for handling the rigors of a touch non-conference schedule, noting that the eight teams Rhinelander lost to during the season (the Hodags lost twice to Mosinee, Medford and Shawano) had a cumulative 166-50 record. Six of those teams played in the sectional round of the WIAA tournament and two — Mosinee and Rice Lake — advanced to state. 

With no seniors on this year’s squad, coach Clark said the Hodags will continue to schedule aggressively next year, with hopes of an even deeper run in the WIAA tournament. 

“We’ll have some tough challenges in front of us again next year,” he said. “Nothing to fear about, nothing I would get worried about. Just know that we have to keep working to get better and we have to go through a gauntlet to get there. But it’s worth it. I promise you, it’s worth it.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@

rivernewsonline.com.