When coaches around the Northwest 1A/2A Conference talk about North Stokes football, the general consensus is that head football coach Frank Sessoms always gets the most out of his players.

It’s a statement that speaks highly of the coaching staff at North, one of the smaller Class 1A schools in the state.

Last year the Average Daily Membership numbers released to the N.C. High School Athletic Association for North was 445.

A new football trend though may be developing in the northern part of Stokes County. For the second straight season, the Vikings have eclipsed the 50-player mark for the varsity and junior varsity teams.

Why the sudden influx of players? Go back to 2004 - the inaugural year of the Little League Vikings program, then coached by Mark Wood.

The numbers that first year were very slim.

“The kids that came out that year, there wasn’t a lot of numbers, but they all had a lot of heart,” Wood said. “To see them progress from the first of the year to end of the year it was just amazing.

“They didn’t know anything about football, but every one of them was eager to learn and worked very hard.”

In just a few years, the program began to turn things around - and was soon competing with the established teams in the Surry County Football Little League.

“We won one game that year, but it was such a new experience for them. They were sometimes outmatched but no one played with more heart,” Wood said.

North has three Little Vikings teams - the C squad (7-8), B squad (9-10) and A squad or varsity team (11-12). The Vikings draw from Francisco, Sandy Ridge, Lawsonville and Nancy Reynolds elementary schools.

Four of North Stokes high school players - Ethan Smith, Ryan Tucker, Colby Wood and Evan Lawrence - are the first group of former Little Vikings to go the distance as seniors on the varsity team.

“You can see it through what has developed through the year, how North Stokes and the northern end of the county has gotten better,” Wood said. “It’s not only the kids that have grown in football but it’s the parents and the community all pulling together and supporting them.

“That helps North Stokes’ varsity program a whole lot and their coaching staff.”

Coach Sessoms said prior to last season, North traditionally struggled to get 50 kids to come out for football.

“I think (the Little League program) has made a difference numbers wise,” Sessoms said. “The last two years, we’ve been in mid to upper 50s. We’ve always been in the mid to lower 40s. It’s nice to put 50 plus on the field. You are going to get roughly 10 percent of the school population. Us having 430 kids, when we’ve got 56 football players we are above that average.”

Now the Little Vikings are closing the gap between them and the top Little League teams in the area. In 2007, the Little Vikings 11-12 varsity squad made the playoffs for the first time and went 4-4. A year ago, the team went 5-3 and made the playoffs again.

“That’s an advantage now that we’ve got that in years past, North Stokes never had,” Wood said. “You take East Surry, Mount Airy, West Stokes, whether it’s the (King) Dolphins, Mount Airy Bears or the Jets, they have feeder programs that got the kids interested earlier, but it’s really helping North to have that advantage now also.”

This year, the team will be coached by Lee Puckett - with the first scrimmage scheduled for Saturday at North Stokes.

After the Little Vikings, some of the players go on to Piney Grove Middle.

“We were fortunate to get involved with program in Surry County,” said North Little League president Jerry Moorefield. “It has given our kids opportunities that kids have never really had access to like the other kids had with Pop Warner, Surry County ball or whatever. Our kids couldn’t travel that far or maybe couldn’t afford to. This has given them a great opportunity.

“(Coach) Frank (Sessoms) said he thought the Little League program was starting to help the high school program. He said (in the past) in the middle of the season there might be six kids gone. Now you are retaining those players, which for us, with the school size we have, is very important, to retain all of them. It’s a big deal.”

North kicks off its season Friday night on the road at Alleghany High School. The numbers are looking good so far.

“We’ve got an opportunity this year that we’ve never had in the school’s history, to start 22 kids, 11 offense, 11 on defense,” Sessoms said. “That’s been goal of mine since I walked on campus.”