For Grand View football coach Mike Woodley they question is what will he do for an encore? In just it’s sixth year of offering varsity football Grand View rolled to a 14-0 record and won the N-A-I-A championship.

The Vikings open this season top ranked. “I remember Nick Saban saying after they won the first one, the hardest thing is to win the second one. And hopefully that’s the mindset that our kids understand that, that it’s going to be tougher this time around,” Woodley says.

A key area will be the front seven on defense. The Vikings must replace five starters from last year’s unit that surrendered a little over 15 points per game. He says they have some big shoes to fill and he says they believe they have the talent level, but need to find the leadership and chemistry to replace what they lost.

Eight starters return from an offense that averaged 38 points per game in the playoffs. That includes junior quarterback Derek Fulton who will throw to a talented group of receivers. Grand View went unbeaten despite a very tough schedule. Eight of their 14 wins were against teams ranked in the top 25.

“I thought we had the toughest school in the country,” Woodley says. He says the league has proven to be the toughest one in the country, and that speaks to the competition they face.

Grand View opens at Drake on August 30th.