The Southside High School alternate gymnasium was broken into and approximately $1,700 in metal weights were stolen from the school’s weight room.

“We were shocked because we were going to come in here to lift, and we didn’t have any weight to lift,” Southside’s quarterback and 2017 Times-Journal Player of the Year Malik Johnson said. “All of what we used was gone, and we had to work with what we had.”

Southside Panthers head coach Daniel Flowers arrived to the school Tuesday morning and discovered that 30 metal weights were missing from the school’s racks. According to the report made to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, 12 45-pound weights, eight 35-pound weights and 10 five-pound weights were taken.

The padlock that secured the gymnasium was broken off. The sheriff’s department responded to Southside at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday.

“The padlock was busted off and the door was forced open,” Sgt. John Treherne said. “These were 45, 35 and five pound plates that were taken.”

Flowers checked to make sure no one else was in the building, and no other items were missing or vandalized.

Flowers and the sheriff’s department checked with local scrap yards to see if anyone had tried to sell their equipment off.

“We kind of look for people trying to sell to scrapyards because of the weight of it,” Treherne said. “We do have scrapyards on standby. They’re looking, and if anything comes up they will notify us.”

Despite the student-athletes having some of their equipment stolen from them, the Panthers still went through their scheduled workouts with what they did have.

Quarterback Malik Johnson, defensive back Ernest Hatcher and linebacker Trendarius Carter were a few of the football players who showed up to get their work in.

“I was shocked,” Carter said. “Who would steal weights? That’s something Southside athletes need to work with.”

The theft was a minor setback for the Panthers, but the players are still determined to get better.

“We can barely do anything with what we got for real,” Hatcher said. “We just have to work with what we got.”

Flowers and the Panthers football players will continue with their summer workouts and prepare as best they can for the upcoming season.

“We just need our players to come to practice and work out,” Johnson said. “We’ll be straight.”

The Panthers will be participating in the Selma High Invitational 7-on-7 at Memorial Stadium Monday June 25, and the season opener at Northview isn’t until August 24.