If this winter season is any indication, Mother Nature is not a high school sports fan.

Northwestern's head wrestling coach, Jim Moll, isn't a big fan of her either.

"The weather has impacted us pretty significantly," Moll said. "We haven't had school. We can't get in to the room to workout. We lost a couple of training days there, but I'm sure it is like that everywhere else."

This weather has affected everyone in the region, however, not all teams are in the same situation as the Tigers. The last competition Northwestern wrestled in was a match against Pen Argyl back on January 21.

"It is more of a grind that last 14 days with having a break from competition," Moll said. "We gave them some rest and recovery days."

Being idle for so long was not the ideal situation as the Tigers had one match postponed from its original date, which prolonged their inactive period. However, Moll tends to favor this schedule.

"I like having that competition right at the end [of the season]," he said. "If we are having a season where we didn't make district duals and we wouldn't have any competition from before district duals to individual districts. That would be tough on the kids. We schedule a late match on purpose just for that reason."

The team was scheduled to face Wilson on February 12, after deadline for this issue of the Press, and host Schuylkill Haven at 6 p.m. on February 13 to close out their regular match season.

Understanding that it has been awhile since the wrestlers have been in competition, Moll still expects the best this week.

"Our goal is to always have the kids wrestle their best heading in to districts, regionals and states. If that happens, then we have done our jobs. What we want to see is them getting back into competition mode. We have done different things in the room to keep their edge and not slow down over this break.

"They don't really need to learn any new moves at this point," he continued. "They just need to improve and do the things that they do well. They are just refining the things they do well and that is what we are focusing on right now."

There is still a lot of time for the wrestlers to prove themselves in the postseason, but to date, according to Moll, they could have done more.

"I think we have underperformed so far to this point," he said. "I think we are a young team, so maybe that is the reason. It is still a learning process and we want to focus more on improving than winning. We have seen that improvement so we know what we are doing is working and hopefully that improvement will turn in to wins."

After wrapping up the dual meet season this week, Moll will be expecting his top wrestlers, such as Baily Wehr, Quentin Bernhard, Jarett White, Andrew Sorensen and Alex Russo to make a name for themselves on February 21 and 22 at the District 11 Wrestling Championships, weather permitting, of course.