High School Football Tour: North Pontotoc

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ECRU, Miss. (WCBI) – Many teams go into their upcoming season with their own expectations. North Pontotoc may have their own aspirations, but it’s others that are making the expectations for them.

After being in Class 4A the past four seasons, head coach Brian Sutton and the Vikings drop down to Class 3A in 2013. NP will join Alcorn Central, Belmont, Booneville, Kossuth and Mooreville in Region 1-3A this year.

The new competition and division gives the talented Vikings a new challenge for the 2013 season.

“The division we’re dropping into is a good football division with a strong tradition,” said head coach Brian Sutton. “We’re excited about the move.”

Team-wise, the Vikings return 17 starters total (8 offensive, 9 defensive) from a 6-6 season a year ago. Talented quarterback Trey Jolly and up and coming receiver Marcus Green make up what could be a high-flying offense that has the potential to light up the scoreboard this season.

“It’s always good to have a lot of starters coming back,” Sutton said. “You don’t have to worry about teaching new stuff.

“We have two or three athletes that didn’t play last year that are coming out. They’ll help us in spots that we lost out with our last senior class.”

For this year, North Pontotoc will look to re-write the Viking football history books. NP has been crowned division champs just once in their history, but the Vikings have posted five straight seasons of a winning record in the regular season.

The bench mark to beat is the 2011 squad, which tied a school record winning nine games. The 2013 squad may have the talented to shatter that mark and find themselves in the thick of a deep playoff run.

“Traditionally, football hadn’t been making the playoffs here. We’ve made a 3-year run,” coach Sutton said. “We’ve made the playoffs in 4A and I think that’s a big accomplishment.

“There are a lot of expectations because people see we have a lot of starters coming back. We’re just trying to tell our kids to take each game at a time and be the best we can possibly be and build off the mistakes to try and get better. If we can do that, at the end we’ll see where we are.”