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Northside’s Rylan Paul eyes his opponent, Farmville Central’s Hier Layeau, before their match at 150 pounds.(Jason O. Boyd | Washington Daily News)

YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Wrestling isn’t a sport for every school and every athlete.

It’s hard work. There’s the chance for injuries to fingers, toes and other body parts. Trainers have to deal with scratches, bloody noses and taping up digits when something is sprained or worse. In the pecking order of high school sports, it trails the others in large part because not every school participates.

It’s not the professional wrestling you see on TV. The high school athletes who participate come in all sizes and have muscles on top of muscles. They grapple with their opponents and, in a lot of cases, are contorted in all different directions that would leave most of us tied up like a pretzel.

Despite that, Northside coach Daniel Garcia really loves it and wants to share the sport with as many athletes as he can. In his fifth season as the head coach, he splits time between his work as a music teacher at Northeast Elementary, Bath Elementary and Northside High School while also working with the talented athletes who are part of the sport.

This season’s team doesn’t have a wrestler for every weight class. But those 18 student-athletes who participate enjoy the sport and work hard to get better. The Panthers also have a female wrestler — Maria Winfield — who is part of the squad.

Tuesday, Northside held a quad meet with Greene Central, Farmville Central and J.H. Rose. The Panthers went 1-2 on the night, falling to Greene Central, 42-39, beating Farmville Central, 47-28, and losing to J.H. Rose, 60-24.

“I mean, we’re in a constant state of development,” Garcia said. “So of course, we don’t have a feeder program. We’re currently working towards building a feeding program at one of the middle schools, and then turning around and trying to pipeline this.

“Consistency with numbers and interest, it’s been there in the 20s for the last couple of years. So it’s always an uphill battle for our freshmen and our sophomores.”

Tuesday’s meet was similar to ones that are held at Washington — which has a very strong wrestling program — and Southside, another growing program. Parents, students and teachers watched as all the wrestlers twisted and turned to get points and, hopefully, a pinfall. Two mats on the basketball court allow for two meets to be run at once. Forfeits speed up the process while talent and strength move the others along when there are competitors for both teams.

Garcia said his team’s matches usually end up with giving up 24 points due to forfeits. So, while it puts a strain on the squad, it motivates the others to perform at their best, which they usually do. For example, senior Christopher Alonso-Burgos, who wrestled at 175 pounds, got two pins and a decision. Senior Rylan Paul, who wrestled at 150 pounds, got a pin, won by technical fall and forfeit.

Both got the chance to represent Northside in the regionals and states last season, bringing talent and strength to this season’s squad.

“We offer as a school a lot of other sports. So we’ve got a lot of athletes who are multi-sport athletes. So all in all, I’m very pleased with the direction that we go,” Garcia said.

“It just seems a little slow up front, and then having to get the buy-in from the young wrestlers and say, ‘Hey, look, you’re going to have struggles up front. You’re going to see adversity. I think we will look better holistically once we have our feeder program.”

Paul and Alonso-Burgos got pins against Greene Central while David Kirk also got a victory. Greene Central won the final three matches by pins to win it. Against Farmville Central, Northside got pins by Alonso-Burgos, Austin Alonso-Burgos and Nicholas Jordan to take a 24-12 lead they were able to hold onto. J.H. Rose, a Class 4-A school, had wrestlers in every weight class and won despite pins by both Alonso-Burgos wrestlers, Jordan and freshman Liam Parisi.

“Every match today, we gave up 24 points in forfeits. And so that’s a big hole to climb out of.

“And then it puts a little bit more pressure on the other weight classes. So with the guys that we have, I mean, they know what the expectations are. They’re constantly working hard.”

Northside had a multi-team meet in Manteo this weekend before heading to the Christmas break and, after that, Coastal Plains Conference play.

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