GRAND ISLAND — Grand Island has steadily improved its win total over the last three seasons, ending last year with five wins, a co-division title and a playoff berth. Now, they’re aiming even higher.
Longtime head coach Dean Santorio is back again to lead the Vikings, whose 2024 season came to an end with an uncharacteristic blowout loss to Lackawanna in the Class B quarterfinals. This season, Santorio is hoping experience at key positions can help lead his team even farther.
“We really like our kids, they’re hard workers,” Santorio said. “I think that the key is just letting them know we want to take another step. We want to not only be right there for the division championship, but we need to do something more in the playoffs.”
Fortunately for Santorio, he returns starters at nearly every skill position on offense to help achieve that goal.
The Vikings do lose bell cow running back Michael Sole to graduation but bring back quarterback Nik Korte and his two leading receivers from a year ago, Jonathan Neville and Andrew Kozlowski. Korte is also expected to play some running back this season, according to Santorio.
One of the most significant returnees is fullback/linebacker Dominic Nucci, who was a leader on both sides of the ball for the Vikings last season. The four-year starter’s 11 rushing touchdowns were tied for the most on the team with Sole, and his 58 total tackles led his squad on defense.
“We’re hungry this year,” Nucci said. “We lost a lot of good guys, but every guy that’s out here now is just as good or more than capable of doing the job. … Like every other team, we want to make that stadium run and win the section (championship).”
One spot that did suffer some major turnover is Grand Island’s offensive line, with just one starter returning from a year ago, meaning Santorio will need some younger players to step up.
Grand Island has jumped up and down divisions over the past few years, and they do so once again as they make the leap back to Class A2 for this season after dropping to Class B for the first time. While the move mostly affects who they’ll see in a potential playoff run, Santorio is just focused on who is next on the schedule.
“That’s your approach, whoever you’ve got, you’ve got,” Santorio said. “In the last 15 years, we’ve realized there’s no true rivalries anymore. You’re all over the place every year.”