POULSBO – Knowing one’s opponents is a key point of preparation for high school football. But in a realigned league with only one familiar team, North Kitsap’s summer training has been focused on defining itself.

Since only a handful of varsity players graduated from the squad last year, most of the pieces are already in place. This summer’s strength-building and conditioning have aimed to solidify the team’s base.

Coming into his second year as head coach, Steve Frease is pushing to create a tradition of rigorous weight room workouts in order to build the foundation for a successful program.

“I think (the players) are getting there, we have a few that have really grabbed onto the concept, but it’s going to be that next generation, if they can see the success of those that have lifted have had,” Frease said of North’s weight room efforts, noting a batch of North grads who have utilized strength training as athletic role models. “If you want to take it to the next level you have to be in great shape.”

North has made a collective push for the next level over the course of the summer, undergoing weight training three times a week while taking to the field in a 7-on-7 passing league during the spring and early summer. And for the first time this year, NK had an in-house training camp during the latter part of July that has put the team miles ahead of where it was last year when preseason practice began Aug. 16, Frease said.

With its offensive system fundamentally in place, the Vikings have been spending preseason practice refining and enhancing it while gathering a defensive mentality before their first game Friday.

“We’ve got it all in, now we have a chance to polish it,” Frease said.

When the time comes to shine, North will be in a completely different element than it has ever been as the Vikings enter the Narrows League Bay Division, in which Central Kitsap is the only team it has regularly competed against.

“Those guys know each other, we’ve come in and no one really knows us,” said NK junior Greg Ottele, noting the other teams from the realigned division: Bellarmine Prep, Mount Tahoma, Olympia and Stadium. “They are a different style — they are a lot bigger.”

However, finishing last year with a first-round playoff game against the then-undefeated Puyallup Vikings, North learned its lesson with bigger and stronger opponents.

“We learned what strength can do,” Ottele noted of the final game of the 2005 season. “They were just stronger than we were.”

With 13 total returning varsity starters — six on offense, seven on defense — the lesson learned from North’s final match up is still echoing through players minds and through the weight room.

Despite losing his 2005 linebacker corps and its entire offensive line, Frease is excited about the experienced athleticism of NK’s skilled positions. Now, he said, is the time for each player to buy in to the team.

“It’s just like anything else in life, that which you invest in certainly is going to be harder to give up,” Frease said. “For the most part we are getting there.”

The Vikings are also getting close to game time as Bainbridge comes to Poulsbo at 7 p.m. Sept. 1. Then after a bye week Sept. 8, the Vikings will host Yelm at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 before beginning conference play at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 at Stadium.

As the NK coaches begin to sketch their x’s and o’s across the gridiron, purple anticipation is building.

“That’s the excitement of a new season, someone once told me it’s a lot like Christmas,” Frease said.