Unionville — Earlier this season, Piedmont High coach Todd Stokes publicly pondered whether or not his team was as good as their 15-0 start suggested.

He still reserves a little room for doubt, but Stokes is starting to see just how good the Panthers might be this season, and coaches from across the state are impressed as well.

Piedmont is now ranked first in the state among 2A schools, based on a vote from coaches across the state. The Panthers carried a 24-0 record into Tuesday night’s home match with 4A Butler.

The Panthers’ 24th win was a 39-26 decision against Chesterfield High at the Maverick Duals (at Mallard Creek High) on a day when they finished 5-0 in dual match competition.

Chesterfield is the defending state champion (1A) in South Carolina.

The last four wins during the weekend came against teams that qualified for dual team state wrestling tournaments a year ago.

“The Chesterfield match was big, the defending state champs from South Carolina, good up and down their lineup,” Stokes said of last weekend’s accomplishment. “Our kids wrestled really, really well. Mallard Creek has very good team also, a 4A team that should probably make the playoffs also. I think as the season goes along we’re getting tougher competition. I still don’t know if we’re at the elite level, we know Trinity is still sitting out there, Newton-Conover, North Surry. We’re going to have to see them at some point. It’s still a question mark to see if we’re at that level, but our kids are definitely working hard enough and it should be fun to find out.”

Piedmont won its first-ever conference championship in wrestling last season, and combined with this year’s success, confidence is growing within the team.

“I think our worst record is .500,” Stokes said. “They think they can go out and win every match they wrestle and wrestling teams especially this weekend at Mallard Creek, I think that gave them a lot of confidence to go out there against good competition. I think the biggest thing is that they are not afraid to wrestle good competition and if it means taking losses, like Dylan (Nelson) lost a couple — he’s not undefeated anymore. They understand that how we have scheduled is going to prepare them for the end of the season.”

Stokes likes that his team is starting to get recognition from coaches around the state.

“I feel really good,” he said. “It’s nice. That is one of the things we have been working for here for six years, is to gain the respect of coaches in the state, and it’s nice to know that we have that. They think that we’re doing things right down here. They think the kids are good; they’re quality kids. Again, it’s just rankings.

“I let the kids know that we’re ranked. A lot of them already knew, but I wanted to instill into them that they worked really hard to get the respect, but now they have to work even harder to keep it. We used to be the underdogs, but now we have a bulls-eye on our back and everybody wants to beat us. It’s a feather in the cap for a kid to beat one of our wrestlers.”

Only four of the Panthers’ starters are seniors, meaning that they have at least 10 returning starters next year

“I think a lot of what’s going on here is tradition,” Stokes said. “A lot of the kids we have wrestled in middle school, so it’s kind of been instilled into them at a young age. A lot of them go to the AAU state championships and things like that where they know that everything is building up to the end of the season. Some more of it started during the football season, making the playoffs, and the same mentality during the football season building up to making the playoffs has carried over to here. It has helped them a lot. Our schedule wasn’t extremely hard, but they understand that as the season goes along that they will see more and more top level teams and they know that they have to keep working hard.”

Stokes said the first goal is to win the regular season and conference tournament, something the program has never done in the same season.

“I think our kids’ eyes are on our goal to win the conference and win the conference tournament,” Stokes said. “Then get to the dual team tournament and get past Tuesday, then get past Thursday ...”

Senior Mitchell Simpson is the only undefeated wrestler in Union County with a 25-0 record at heavyweight heading into Thursday’s home match with Butler.

Twelve Panthers are 10 wins above .500.

The Panthers will be wrestle at Charlotte Catholic this Saturday in an individual tournament.