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By Will McFarlane, Staff Writer

The First Flight High School wrestling team is looking to keep improving as the season rolls on — no matter how many matches get missed because of snow storms.

The team placed 16th out of 21 in the Pierce-Davis Memorial Tournament in their first tournament of the season, then placed eighth out of 19 at the North Pitt Panther Invitational, which also took place in December.

However, with the snow that winter storm Grayson left, the OBX Select Wrestling Club’s Battle of the Beach event was cancelled for the second straight year. Even with the loss of this big, 10-team home tournament, senior Arien Leigh keeps on looking forward.

“We are always focused on regionals and states,” Leigh said. “Even though this tournament got canceled, we still made it to the (wrestling) room and got focused on the next match.”

With regionals and states fast approaching, the goal for coach Russell Kepler always remains the same.

“Our goal is to make everyone in that (wrestling) room better,” Kepler said. “That’s always been our short-term goal. Our long-term goal is obviously to end the season as state champs.”

Kepler wants every wrestler on his team to succeed, and he is willing to do anything he can to ensure that they have the tools they need to make it to college.

“We do a lot of volunteer work,” Kepler said. “We go over to Pirates Cove and help set up the big fishing tournaments over there. We put in a lot of hours. I just try to do what I can to help these kids make it to the next level.”

Senior Jeremiah Derby is thinking about his plans for after high school, and the rest of his wrestling career, with his high school career winding down. The Nighthawks have the conference tournament this weekend, regionals the following weekend, and head to the state championships in Greensboro from Feb. 15-17.

“I plan on going to college,” Derby said. “Right now I’m looking at UNC (Chapel Hill) and I plan to wrestle there. After college, I hope to wrestle at the Olympic level or go to MMA and fight professionally.”

As the season comes to an end, Derby still has the same goal in mind that he’s had since he was a freshman.

“Of course I want to go undefeated and be a state champion,” Derby said. “But I want the team to win as a whole, and I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Junior Will McFarlane can be reached at mcfarlanewi0712@daretolearn.org.