Dodgeland Trojans Preseason Practice

Monday, March 10, 2008 at Dodgeland High School, Juneau

The last stop on the Honor Roll's preseason tour was Dodgeland High School. As the panorama of family farms sped by on County Trunk 'S' I had time to reflect on how lucky the students were in the Dodgeland District. Dedicated staff members were taking full advantage of the impressive facilities that citizens of the Dodgeland District have provided their children. The school complex is only five years old and includes an elementary school, the middle school and high school on one site.
There are two separate large gyms at Dodgeland. One gym was being used by the girls softball team. Later the softball team and throwers switched gyms.

Marcia Modaff a 22 year veteran teacher in PE at the middle school helped write a 'PEP' grant that allowed Dodgeland to equip its weight room with excellent equipment. Marcia has helped promote track and field at Dodgeland by organizing yearly track meets at the elementary and middle school. Students are organized into teams and each team members performance is grouped and then an average is taken. This promotes a team feeling among the young athletes and helps motivate them to perform to their potential. In the years before there was a track at Dodgeland Middle School she would paint lanes on the grass to simulate a track. Each student must participate in two running events [one sprint relay and one sprint] and two field events.

Six years ago there was a sixth grade girl who was outperforming all the other boys and girls. Marcia knew then that Dodgeland had a special athlete. As an eighth grader that girl began learning how to hurdle with coach Amy Czarneski. As a ninth grader she joined the track team at Dodgeland. She was a team of one as no other girls came out for track that season. In fact in the 2005 season Dodgeland only had one girl and 15 boys on its track team. This season 32 boys and 24 girls are out for track and field at Dodgeland. Megan Rennhack who was the lone girl on the 2005 team is now a senior and the state record holder in the D3 300m LH.

Head track coach Kevin Klueger is in his fourth year of coaching track at Dodgeland. He has worked in summer programs in soccer and track in the Dodgeland District since before his college years. Kevin is assisted by distance coach Karen Schmitt and throwing coach Anne Raeder.
D Figi, Monday, March 10.





Coach Karen Schmitt who has two daughters on the team is the distance coach. Front: Coach Schmitt and Kayla Schmitt. Back [L-R]: Cassie Caine, Lindy Evans, Morgan Kuhn, Nicole Justman, and Samantha Schultz.

While the distance runners went outside the sprinters and hurdlers ran a circuit which included leaving the gym and running in the halls before reentering the gym. Below: Line drills stressing footwork and agility.


Above left: Sprint work - 2 lap drill [L-R] Jackie Wolff, Sam Schultz, Emily Siedschlag, Megan Rennhack, and Brianna Schmitt. Above right: Head coach Kevin Klueger stressing an arm action technique for sprinting.

Below: Hurdler Jake Heidner and Megan Rennhack work on starts by using bungee resistence drills.


Above left: Thrower Ashley Weiss.
Above: Ashley Weiss and Jessica Krell performing shot put warm up drills.
Right: Throwing coach Anne Raeder.

Above: [L-R] Jackie Wolff and Emily Siedschlag use bungee cords to perform resistence drills.
Megan Rennhack [left] is a multi-sport athlete [Cross country, basketball and track]. After track practice on Tuesday and Thursday she participates in a community program held in the Dodgeland gym. Vita Wangall a National Fitness Instructor from Latvia conducts Step-A-Robics sessions.



Senior Megan Rennhack of Dodgeland High School was a double winner in the D3 hurdle events at the 2007 WIAA State Track and Field Meet. She recorded a 15.56 to edge out Sunni Massop of Athens [15.58] to become high hurdle D3 champion. Then Rennhack broke the D3 300m LH record of 44.98 set by Shari Hafenstein of Waterloo in 1986 by racing to a time of 44.44 in the preliminaries. Rennhack posted a 44.70 in the finals to win the gold medal in the D3 300m LH event.

In the 200m dash Rennhack finished in third with a time of 26.54 [25.95 prelims]. Rennhack is pictured on the right on the awards stand after receiving one of her Gold Medals.

As a ninth grader Rennhack qualified for the 100m HH and 300m LH. She placed 3rd in the 300m LH. In her sophomore year she placed 3rd in the 100m HH and was the D3 champion in the 300m LH. She was also a qualifier in the 200m dash as a ninth grader and sophomore.

Dodgeland High School is located in Juneau and is a member of the Trailways Conference. Other schools in the conference are Abundant Life Christian of Madison, Cambria-Friesland, Central Wisconsin Christian of Waupun, Deerfield, Fall River, Green Lake, Hustisford, Johnson Creek, Markesan, Montello, Oakfield, Oshkosh Lourdes, Pardeville, Princeton, Randolph, Rio, Valley Christian of Oshkosh and Williams Bay.