Northside's young team building off previous success

ROANOKE (WSLS 10 SPORTS) - Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. The past two seasons Northside has reached the state semifinal but didn't have the chance to play for a ring.

"It shows that we can get that far and we can conquer that. We definitely want to go to states again, that's a good thing to do. Try to win states," said Vikings sophomore Julien Wooden.

Before the Vikings thinks about walking down the aisle to Richmond, they aren't taking the regular season lightly.

With only one senior, Northside is a young team this year, but at 17 and 4 the underclassmen have rose to the occasion.

"We lost a lot of guys from last year, eight quality seniors but we knew we had some really good guys coming back, some guys that have some experience and knew we had some guys coming up too so you never how it's going to quite come together but we were pretty excited about this group," explained Northside head coach Bill Pope.

Coach Pope's courtship with Northside has lasted over 30 years and the Vikings haven't taken the cake yet. But under his influence, the players believe they're ready to take the next step.

"He doesn't expect anything less than perfect. That's we practice for is perfect, we practice for the best and we just try to go out there and just like Coach Pope, he says all the time, we practice for the best and that's just our motto really" said Vikings junior Nick Price.

Pope added, "Let's control what we can control, control our effort, control our attitude, control how we support each other, all of those things we expect to be great."

Whatever the future holds, the team is taking it day by day with hopes this year Northside could be married into the record book.