Softball season begins a day late, and a few players short

It seems it’s just not the start of softball season in Rhinelander without some sort of curveball from Mother Nature. 

Receiving more than 16 inches of snow between a pair of storms last Friday and Sunday when the softball fields were starting to show some grass would certainly count as a change of pace, but coach Ali Bender and the Hodags rolled with the punches as they held their first practice of the season on Tuesday. 

That was originally scheduled for Monday, but the first day was nixed with buildings in the school district closed due to inclement weather.

“I feel like this happens to us every year,” Bender said. “We get some type of snowstorm early for us in our season that always puts a dampener on our field — especially with us having a field that doesn’t hold water great. We do have the luxury of this amazing dome, though, which I think will help us host a lot more games, which will play in our favor as well.”

    Junior Ava Rathbun throws to second base, covered by junior teammate Cassidy Lindner, during Rhinelander High School softball practice in the Hodag Dome Tuesday, March 17. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Another thing the Hodags can typically count on at the start of the season is spring break. That was the case again as the practice started the week school was out of session in Rhinelander, limiting the number of players who were around to start the season.

“We had eight girls today. A few are working, and then we have about 12 on vacation. Typical of what you see the first week of softball,” Bender said. “We talked a lot today just about how, in general, the girls who are here have to be leaders. They have to be the first in line to do a drill next week, because the other girls are just going to gravitate to what the girls are doing now. So they have to play as leaders, and some of them are freshmen. More than half of our girls here today were freshmen. So they have a lot going on their shoulders, but our freshmen also have a lot of IQ of softball. They’ve played a lot of games.”

Overall, Bender said absences during the first week of practice shouldn’t hinder the team too much, even though the team will open the season with five games over four days next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. She said turnout for the offseason program has been strong and numbers for the program have risen.

“We’ve been really having a great turnout during our preseason open gyms, open skills. So all the girls are familiar faces. They’ve been working this entire offseason,” Bender said. “(It’s) the best open skills we’ve had in a long time. We’ve had a turnout of about 25 girls, which goes right along with our roster this year, which is about 30 girls that are coming out, which is the most numbers we’ve had in a really long time. That will field two teams (varsity and JV), which we haven’t had in a couple years.”

Part of the reason for the spike in numbers is an incoming freshman class of 11 players. Bender said she expects a few of those players to potentially contribute immediately in the varsity lineup and that, between the youth program and the middle school squad that was established two years ago, players are coming in better prepared for the high school game.

“I think our numbers are just growing because we had that avenue to play softball at an earlier age,” she said. “We’ve got the right coaches at the right age levels that are really bringing these girls up through the program. And we meet on a season basis and we talk about what we’d like to see each age group, developmentally. I think that’s helped because now I’m not doing the fundamentals. I’m not going back to the basics as a varsity coach. We’re picking up and we’re moving on, which is huge for our success in the program.”

It will be a quick start for the Hodags, who will host a quadrangular in the Hodag Dome Thursday, March 26 separate from the Danny Mac Invite, which will begin later that day and feature 24 teams in three separate eight-team brackets. Rhinelander’s games in the tournament will be March 28 and 29.

That leaves the squad little time to prepare for the season. 

“We’re going to be doing tryouts right away (this coming) Monday,” Bender said. “We’re going to be putting girls where we think they can play and they’re going to have to show us what they can do.”

Softball was the second RHS spring sport that could begin practice, under WIAA regulations. Baseball and girls’ soccer will get underway Monday, March 23, with boys’ tennis and boys’ golf beginning Monday, March 30.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].