Spring practice notebook

Rhinelander High School started the baseball season with the first day of practice on Monday, March 23.

Head coach Joe Waksmonski is focused on the fundamentals to start. The team will determine routines, how to warm up with position specific groups, practice rundowns, and eventually get into some hitting drills. 

“This first day in particular, we’re working on routines,” Waksmonski said. For hitting, “we’ll teach kind of the main drills we really want to hammer this year as far as tee work,” he added. 

Waksmonski will also lean on the leadership help of upper classman on this young team that features no seniors.  

Once into the first few days, pitching will become a main focus for Waksmonski’s team. Pitchers will throw live against hitters to get game-like experience and hitters will get a look at live pitches and add work on the pitching machines. 

“We got a couple new toys that we’re going to play with as well for hitters. And really like this first week, we’re just trying to get a lot of reps, a lot of looks,” he said.  

Waksmonski said he wants to rotate through pitchers during practice so they are prepared to head into their scrimmage against Pacelli on March 31 with game-like reps. 

“The plan there is for all of our pitchers to throw an inning in that scrimmage,” he said. 

Regarding the weather, Waksmonski said a good stretch of warm weather will be needed to keep the home opener on April 10. Waksmonski added that an April snowstorm could push the team back, “but other than that, you know, it’s status quo.”

Entering his 20th season at the helm, Waksmonski has seen just about everything that Mother Nature has to offer in late March and early April. So a bit of snow remaining on Stafford Field is not much of a hinderance.

“We understand the drill,” he said. “If we can get out before that, it’s going to be a bonus.”

The Hodags come into the season with plenty of optimism after going 13-11 overall and reaching the WIAA regional finals with a relatively young squad. A number of starters from that team return and the Hodags checked in at No. 13 in Division 2 in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association’s preseason coaches poll. 

Waksmonski said the team’s goal is to be playing their best baseball at the end of the season in order to make a deep run in the playoffs. 

“Nothing for us changes just because of the rankings,” he said. 

Rhinelander is slated to open the season against Kingsford (Mich.) and Appleton East April 4 in an triangular in Appleton. 

Girls’ soccer gets outside on Day 1

    Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer coach Nathan Bates addresses members of his team during practice at Mike Webster Stadium Monday, March 23. The Hodags were able to get outside for their first day of practice, a luxury the team is not always afforded based on snow conditions. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team had a luxury it’s not typically afforded on Day 1 of the season — and something that seemed very unlikely just a week and a half prior. 

Mike Webster Stadium was full clear of snow and the Hodags were able to go outside on the first day of the season. 

Rhinelander went outside during its afternoon practice session. The season began bright and early at 5 a.m. Monday with a two-plus hour session in the Hodag Dome. As first days go, coach Nathan Bates said, practice went well.

“First day went really, really well. Same as every season, a lot of good stuff that the girls are doing really, really well at. From last year, they didn’t miss a beat. There’s things that we need to work on like every year, but all in all, it went really, really well,” he said. 

The Hodags are holding two-a-days this week and Bates said the team is working on different aspects during the morning and afternoon sessions. 

“In the mornings, we typically go over a lot of the conditioning and then a lot of the skills — ball handling work, all the basic stuff to go over,” he said. “Then in the afternoons, we’ve been going over some formation works, set pieces, et cetera, stuff like that. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do is divide it up a little bit, get some conditioning in the mornings, and go over just basic stuff. And after that in the afternoons, just going into more of the tactics and stuff like that.”

Numbers are strong for the program again, with 32 players on the opening roster. Much of the coaching staff has returning intact with John Weigel assisting on defense and former Hodag goalkeeper Morgan Hunter (nee Voigt) working with the keepers. Taylor Siegmeier, who assisted the Hodag boys’ team last fall, will also be splitting time between the high school and middle school squads this spring. 

The Hodags don’t have a ton of time to get ready. Rhinelander will scrimmage Three Lakes this coming Monday and will open the regular season against Ashland Thursday, April 2 before traveling to Green Bay April 3 for a triangular against Wrightstown and Waterford. 

“The accomplishment this week is to knock the rust off and get ready for season,” Bates said.

The good news for Rhinelander, and the cause for optimism, is that despite having just one senior on the roster, the team returns the majority of its starters and five all-conference players from a team that went 13-6-0 and split the GNC title with Lakeland.

“The varsity squad this year, we don’t have a whole lot of holes to fill,” Bates said. “We might be switching around a couple roles here and there, but all in all, just getting the girls refreshed and back on point again with what they were last year. And trying to look at some of the new incoming freshmen and stuff like that to kind of see where they’re fitting in to see if we could add any more to the varsity roster — whether it be bubble players or starters, et cetera.” 

With baseball and girls’ soccer starting practice on Monday, only two WIAA-sanctioned RHS spring sports have yet to start this seasons. Boys’ golf and boys’ tennis practice gets underway Monday, March 30.