Like most high school coaches leading winter sports, this pandemic-plagued season has presented unique challenges for 1st year River Bluff head coach Joe Cummings.
As many as 4 wrestling dates have been cancelled this season for the Gators. Saturday's tri-match with Hammond School and Dreher was just the team's 4th and 5th matches of the season.
River Bluff swept the tri-match, defeating Hammond 57-13 for its 2nd season of the season over the Skyhawks, followed by a 65-14 victory over Dreher.
"You've got challenges in a normal year of keeping guys healthy," Cummings said. "Now you add (covid-19) to it, it's a differen layer. But it's just the hand that we've been dealt and we've kind of been preaching to the kids you do the best that you can with the hand that you've been dealt. The kids have done a really good job of staying positive and staying the course. There's obviously a lot of hurdles, but we just do what we can and try to stay afloat and keep going."
River Bluff invites Dutch Fork to The Swamp Wednesday, before closing out Region 5-5A play against Chapin Jan. 20 and defending Lower State champion White Knoll on Jan. 27. The Gators are seeking a 5th consecutive region title and 2nd state title in school history. 
"Our motto is kind of go 1 and 0 every day," Cummings said. "And if we can go 1 and 0 every day, then we'll get into the right place to be ready after that. To get there, we've got a very tough region. We've got to focus on region before we can focus on anything after that.
"So obviously, you always have in the back of your mind that you want to chase that bigger end goal. But for now, we're fully focused on region and tackling the task at hand which is battling some tough teams in our region and going 1 and 0 every day, trying to take every day going to the top."