Sports

Green Bay Packers players Blake Martinez and Oren Burks will be supporting the Salvation Army on Monday, Nov. 26, from 6 to 7 p.m., by signing autographs for fans in exchange for monetary donations.

To help the Salvation Army reach its donation goals for 2018, fans are asked to donate a minimum of $20.

Packers players are signing autographs for visitors to the Lambeau Field Atrium on Monday evenings this holiday season. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has pledged to match each donation made during the autograph signings, which will double the amount the Salvation Army receives during the five signing events, up to $50,000.

The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign is an important holiday tradition in the Green Bay community, as many of the organization’s programs operate only because of the money received through Red Kettle donations. All proceeds raised go towards aiding needy families, seniors, and the homeless in Green Bay.

In this land of plenty, I have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day.

A gun-killed deer isn’t on that list — at least not yet.

Statewide, deer hunters did pretty well on opening weekend, bagging about 13 percent more deer (118,670 vs. 105,216) overall than last season. The buck harvest was up more than 8 percent and the antlerless harvest was up almost 19 percent.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources totals for area counties showed healthy harvest increases there, too. Shawano County’s buck harvest was down 1 percent, from 2,026 to 2,006 animals, while the antlerless (does and button bucks) total was up about 7 percent, from 1,673 last year to 1,794 this year.

Shawano County’s weekend harvest of 3,800 deer was the third-best of all counties.

With just a quick glance at the Shawano Community High School wrestling team’s record from a season ago, one might think that the team endured a so-so season of results. The Hawks posted a 3-4 overall record in dual matches while earning just a 1-4 mark in the Bay Conference.

If you take a deeper dive into the team’s individual matches, you will find that the team suffered a number of tight losses that could have gone Shawano’s way had one or two wrestlers experienced different results.

Knowing that, plus the fact that the Hawks return most of their wrestlers from a season ago, Shawano is hoping to take a big leap forward this season.

“I expect this team to be competitive this season,” Shawano coach Mike Homan said. “We are looking to build on some of the close duals that we had last season. Hopefully we make a jump this season to the next level of our expectations.”

The Shawano Community High School boys swimming team has been putting in the laps since the start of the season, hoping to get back in swimming shape and preparing the team for the tough competition the Great Northern Conference offers.

High school boys swimming teams could have opened their seasons as early as Nov. 12 in preparation for the season-opening meets, which could have started as early as Tuesday. Shawano’s first meet will not take place until Tuesday, Nov. 27, giving the team a few extra days of practice.

The Hawks hope to use the later start to the season as a way to knock off some of the rust and get geared up to dive into the pool.

“Well practice definitely helps (us all get ready for the season). We get in a lot of yards early in the season so that we can get our endurance back,” senior Karson Rades said. “Then we start working on our specialties and then more specific strokes later on.”

BOYS BASKETBALL

Shawano 68

Rhinelander 60

The Hawks could not hold off the Hodags’ second-half charge in a nonconference battle on Tuesday. Shawano led 34-30 at halftime.

Carter Weisnicht powered Shawano with a 25-point effort, making 8 of 9 free throws along the way. Nick Sherman chipped in with 12 points while Karsten Anderson had 10.

Sherman and Anderson each hit two 3-pointers as the Hawks hit seven in the game. The team made 13 of 16 free throws in the contest.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Clintonville 48

Denmark 46

The Truckers held off the Vikings in a North Eastern Conference clash on Tuesday.

Elly Arndt paced Clintonville with 13 points and made the winning field goal. Erin Viergutz and Lizzy Weatherwax each added 10 points while Jordan Lehman chipped in with six.

Lehman also led the team with nine rebounds while Weatherwax and Viergutz pulled down eight and six rebounds, respectively.

You get the feeling that it might not be your year when the rallying-cry sound byte rings more of desperation than confidence.

In the 2014 season, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers advised the fan base to R-E-L-A-X after the Pack dropped two of their first three.

Two years ago, Rodgers by-passed the cliché about playing them one at a time and made the famously bold “run the table” call, correctly forecasting the six-game winning streak to end the regular season.

This year, in similarly dire circumstances, Rodgers spoke of the need for a galvanizing moment to turn around a season that so far has been long on drama of only the worst kind.

“Whether it’s a speech, or practice or something happens in a game … we’ve got to get this thing going,” he said after last Thursday’s loss in Seattle.

Coming off a first-place finish in the Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division, the Gresham Community High School boys basketball team will have some new faces leading the charge this upcoming season.

The Wildcats must find a way to replace both Drew Haffner and Todd Otradovec, who were each first-team all-conference selections a season ago and led Gresham to a 12-0 conference mark.

The team does return senior Justice Paiser, a second-team selection, and sophomores Raven Bennett and Jake Hoffman from last year’s starting lineup. Junior Waylon Welch should see more minutes this fall in trying to fill the void left by the graduated players.

Coach Jeff Zobeck knows the Wildcats have some issues that need addressing as the season starts up. Zobeck also knows a team effort will be needed in order for the players to reach their season goals.

Following the graduation of nine of last year’s 16 all-conference selections, the Central Wisconsin Conference-East Division will have plenty of new faces on the court this winter.

While Bonduel graduated a senior from the second team all-conference, it also has plenty of reason for optimism heading into the season with several other experienced players returning to the fold.

“We have a lot of confidence going into this season with the returning players we do have,” said senior Parker Bohm, an honorable mention pick last year. “The guys we have love to compete.”

Bohm, along with senior Jared Wondra and junior Cole Letter, all started for the Bears last year, when the team went 4-8 to place fifth in conference, and again figure to serve big roles this winter.

Seniors Isaac Garside and Canaan Szoszorek also should see plenty of time on the court while seniors Brooks Dehn, Aaron Margelofsky and Colin Ewing also have some varsity experience.

Green Bay Packers players will again support the Salvation Army this holiday season by signing autographs for fans in exchange for monetary donations.

This year, the players will be signing autographs for visitors to the Lambeau Field Atrium on Monday evenings during the holiday season. To help the Salvation Army reach its donation goals for 2018, fans are asked to donate a minimum of $20.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has pledged to match each donation made during the autograph signings up to $50.000. This pledge doubles the amount the Salvation Army receives during the five signing events.

The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign is an important holiday tradition in the Green Bay community, as many of the organization’s programs operate only because of the money received through Red Kettle donations. All proceeds raised go towards aiding needy families, seniors and the homeless in Green Bay.

The Shawano Community High School boys basketball team enters the 2018-19 season knowing it has a young roster with a limited amount of varsity experience on it, but that doesn’t mean the Hawks lack any confidence.

After posting a 4-10 record in the rugged Bay Conference a season ago, Shawano dropped a hard-fought game against Medford in the opening round of the postseason. This year, the Hawks are hoping to not only improve their conference standing, but also go deeper in the postseason.

“A big goal for this year is to be a competitive playoff team. We are going into the season having a young crew with very few varsity players from last year — everyone is going to have their role and have to work hard in practice everyday,” said junior Carter Weisnicht, the only returning starter from last year’s team.

Senior Nick Grignon and junior Nick Sherman are the only other returning letter-winners for the Hawks, as the team graduated several talented seniors.