A few weeks away from the postseason, the Lakeland High School wrestling team feels good about the progress they have made so far.

The closer the season gets to February, the more urgent things become in terms of polishing their performance before the postseason starts. Lakeland Coach Nathan Hoffman knows the work is not complete, but he feels good about the direction his wrestlers are trending.

“We are doing pretty good,” Hoffman said. “We have competed in some tough duals, but so far, I’m feeling good.”

The wrestlers who returned this season have stepped up. However, Lakeland has a team of first-year wrestlers who continue to get better as well.

Dakota Joe, Marquis Scott and Wilbert Doswell returned for Lakeland and have wrestled well so far. The hope is that they can place well both in the region and possibly at states. With a few weeks to go until regionals, Hoffman wants to see the team continue to increase in intensity.

“We just want to continue to increase the intensity at practice,” Hoffman said. “We want to make sure we are improving our conditioning and things like that. We just want to do things with a purpose. With everything we do, we want it to have purpose.”

Wrestling in the Southeastern District, Lakeland sees some strong competition. However, it helps Lakeland in the long run as they get ready to go up against their region. Hoffman knows that Lakeland has more work to do as a team, as Lakeland and is looking forward to seeing it pay off. Lakeland has a couple more regular-season matchups left before the postseason.