PRIDE - The Northeast High School football team is coming off a 2-8 season, but coach Devyn Baker believes this year his group of guys can turn the corner.

The Vikings return 14 starters, and much of their production will come from sophomores and juniors.

Coach is excited about Alex Curvin and Tyler Johnson, calling the two the team's workhorses.

Johnson will play safety, wide receiver, and return kicks while Curvin will be a strong defensive end/linebacker and tight end.

Jordan Sampson will be back at quarterback as long as he can stay healthy. It's a good thing the Northeast can protect him with five returning offensive lineman.

“The strength will be the O-line and D-line only because they've been together since the eighth-grade year, which was my first year, and they've been through the fire with us, so I believe that offensive line, D-line, will be the strongest point of our team this year,” said Baker. “It's extremely important to everything you do offensively and defensively because you got to think everything you know starts with the trench dogs, everything starts and stops up front. And so, with that experience, I think we should be able to move the ball well this year and hopefully be able to stop some people on defense.”

“The offensive inexperience will be our receiving corps, it's a lot of new faces, young guys, but new faces, and then on the flip side of that, and the secondary, outside of Tyler Johnson, the secondary will be a lot of new faces as well,” Baker said.

The goal for the Vikings this year is to get to a .500 record and earn a playoff berth.