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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — It’s uncommon to have a high school sports event take place during the middle of a school day. But that’s what last week’s winter weather has created at Northside High School.

The Panthers were hosts on Wednesday to the Coastal Plains Conference tournament. Each of the schools that traveled to Northside got an early start so they would not have to be on the road late Wednesday night. Schools like Pender County, which participates in wrestling in the CPC despite not being a league team, had to travel up to three hours one way to the event.

“Our focus right now is Wednesday’s performance as a whole,” Northside coach Daniel Garcia said. “I do think we’ve got a lot of guys who will do well at our individual conference tournament, but also just I want to see our guys wrestle their matches at a controlled pace and just maximize everywhere where they can maximize.”

The most important part of the season happens Thursday as the dual team playoffs are announced. Northside is hopeful for a long run in the postseason as a prelude to the individual wrestling championships.

“We’re detail-oriented in the sense of we’re looking to get better every single day,” Garcia said. “What I want to see from my guys on Wednesday is how do our basics look, are we maximizing on our standard wrestling basics, are we getting to our offense better than our opponent is and then is the result of our training of how we train, are we outlasting our opponent.

“So those are three things that I want to see on Wednesday, you know, wrestle fast, wrestle smart, wrestle physical and then you know just basics win matches across the board but yes Saturday is definitely on our mind but our focus right now is Wednesday’s performance as a whole.”

Like every other school, the Panthers have been battling sickness. Luckily, the team had the break from the winter weather to get better. So, hopefully, Northside will be at full strength going forward.

“Well, we had flu and RSV is going around all the schools,” Garcia said. “I’ve seen that, but yeah, we did have some guys who were sick earlier (last) week are a lot better.

“So, the break was more bittersweet, needed just because we have seen similar situations, and again, we’re seeing that across the board with all schools.”