NEWPORT – The motto on the T-shirts says it all about the state of the program – Nokomis Football: The Tradition Begins.

And so the several communities that comprise SAD 48 now have a varsity football team to call their own, and with it an excitement they hope will spread not only throughout Nokomis Regional High School, but also throughout Corinna, Hartland, Newport, Palmyra, Plymouth and St. Albans, as well as Etna and Dixmont that also send students to the school.

“We tell the kids they’re not just playing for themselves, their families and their schools,” said veteran coach David Evans, who took on the challenge of building the program from scratch in 2005. “They’re also playing for all of those who went to Nokomis before them and didn’t have a chance to play football.”

Nokomis geared up for its varsity debut with a rigorous schedule last fall, playing Pine Tree Conference Class A schools during their bye weeks away from regular-season play. A few of those opponents played primarily their junior varsity squads, but many started their varsity rosters against the Warriors.

“It was great experience for us,” said senior wingback-defensive end J.C. White. “It was tough, but it definitely helped us get ready.”

While Nokomis has yet to play a varsity game, it already has sent one player, lineman Steve Shea, to the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl and walk-on status with the University of Maine football program.

The loss of Shea and several other key linemen means the Warriors will be relatively young up front, but Evans hopes to counter that by using very few players on both sides of the line of scrimmage and keeping his troops fresh.

“This is not going to be a team of one or two superstars,” said Evans, who coached Class C state championship teams at Dexter and Stearns and also coached on the Class A level at Skowhegan. “This is is going to be a team effort. We’re only going to be as good as all of us.”

The Warriors do boast a skilled athlete at quarterback in sophomore Derek Amoroso, a multisport athlete with good pocket presence to lead the offense.

But Evans plans to split the responsibilities at many other positions to capitalize on his team’s depth – the first-year varsity Warriors number more than 50 strong.

“We’ve got two talented tailbacks, two talented fullbacks, two talented tight ends and two talented split ends,” he said. “And [in a scrimmage against Mount View of Thorndike] we used two different offensive lines.”

Like Amoroso, much of that talent is young, but Evans doesn’t see that as an extreme negative since most of those players have been with him for the last two years.

“We’ve got 17 or 18 sophomores, but they aren’t typical sophomores,” Evans said. “I had all of them last year and they played seventh- and eighth-grade football before that, so they know the system and what to expect from us.

“We’ve got a lot of very talented young kids, and we want to be able to play as many as possible.”

Nokomis faces a challenging schedule in the PTC Class B ranks, a league that features such traditional powers as Winslow and Belfast as well as former Class A schools Waterville and Gardiner.

But the Warriors believe they are ready for that challenge.

“We’re young and hungry,” said Evans. “It’s going to be a struggle, but we just need to go out and work hard.”

NOKOMIS WARRIORS

2006 results: First-year varsity team in PTC Class B

Head coach: David Evans, 3rd year

Key players: Derek Amoroso, So., QB; Nathan Baird, Sr., OL-DL; Matthew Jacob, Sr., OL-LB; Matt McLemore, Sr., TE-DE; J.C. White, Sr., WB-DE

Outlook: The Warriors are excited about joining the varsity football ranks after two years of developmental play. While the team is relatively young, there is a decent amount of experience and depth. Amoroso, just a sophomore, is a top-notch all-around athlete who should provide Nokomis solid quarterback play.