With North football coach DeMonte Powell's dynamic Week 1, there's more than meets the eye

The North High School football team is not guaranteed to win another game in 2023 or even complete its full schedule, but all signs are pointing to new Vikings coach DeMonte Powell being a transformative figure.

With an assist from New York Giants wide receiver Parris Campbell, Powell proved to be the main catalyst for a compelling Week 1 at his alma mater worthy of a Hollywood script.

After injuries and low player participation forced North to suspend its 2022 season with two games left, the Vikings traveled to Coventry on Friday night and thrashed the Comets 28-0 in Powell's debut as a football head coach.

“It almost felt like a resurrection,” Powell, a 2011 North graduate, said Sunday by phone.

But there's much more to the story.

New York Giants wide receiver Parris Campbell donates to Akron North football team

On the eve of North's opener, Campbell's mother, sister and stepfather visited the Vikings after their walk-through practice and presented the football program with a check for $5,000. Powell said he will meet with North athletic director Carrie Stewart and create a plan for how to use the donation.

“There's a ton of things that we need,” Powell said.

Powell and Campbell are cousins (their grandmothers are sisters), natives of Akron's North Hill neighborhood and products of the Patterson Park Vikings youth football program. Campbell went on to star at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and Ohio State before becoming a second-round draft pick (No. 59 overall) of the Indianapolis Colts in 2019.

Instead of forsaking inner-city Akron because he attended a private high school, Campbell remembers his roots and realizes North has limited resources.

Call it the LeBron James model. STVM's most famous graduate, James has given back to the Irish in major ways without forgetting the youth in his hometown who need the most help. His financial support of Akron Public Schools over the years, highlighted by the I Promise School, has led to the APS Athletics Hall of Fame selecting him for induction on Oct. 21 at House Three Thirty.

The connections came to the forefront when Campbell donated to North.

“Just being able to watch LeBron and what LeBron does, having conversations with LeBron, I think he just follows suit because he understands when he comes back there's not a lot here for our kids,” Powell said.

Campbell didn't just sign a check, though. He connected with his mom, Shelly Woodruff, through FaceTime and spoke to North's players.

“He told them how much he was proud of them and told them to stick with it and keep pushing forward,” Powell said. “The biggest thing that he harped on, though, was staying ahead of the curve on the grades. That was the biggest thing that he harped on, that you can achieve anything that you want to achieve, but you have to stay on those books.”

These Akron North football players lead Vikings to a Week 1 win over Coventry

Keeping players academically eligible is among the obstacles Powell faces at North. He had roughly 35 players in May, but eligibility issues reduced the number to 25 shortly before the start of the season. Finding and retaining players is a daily challenge for Powell. By the time North kicked off against Coventry, the Vikings had 30 players in uniform.

The ones who stood out the most in the opener were juniors Marvin Causey Jr. (nine carries for 161 yards and two touchdowns with 245 all-purpose yards), Sigmund Felding (six carries for 86 yards and two TDs), Jaydein Echols (blocked punt to set up a TD) and T.Y. Jones (two sacks) and senior Bernard Jackson III (two sacks).

“Those kids played unlike any North team I've been around in a long time,” said Powell, a former Vikings assistant under his coaching mentor, the late Sonil Haslam.

The Vikings won in a blowout, even though they had two touchdowns negated by holding penalties.

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of the victory, though, is the Vikings came out of the game healthy, Powell said.

North won its second game of the 2022 season under former Vikings coach Doug Miller, who's now a Wadsworth assistant, defeating Wickliffe 8-7 on the road and snapping a 21-game losing streak. The team didn't prevail again last year, finishing 1-7, including 0-3 in the City Series, and falling short of the season's finish line. With its small roster decimated by injuries, North had just 15 players available for game action by mid-October.

Since the victory Friday, Powell has received more than 100 text messages, including some from North students who hope to join the team. He's open to reinforcements, provided they are willing to meet the standards he's setting for the program.

Synergy must be established with the Patterson Park Vikings not only to activate a feeder system in earnest, but also so players understand Powell's expectations before they reach North. Powell speaks with the youth program's leadership on a regular basis. His father, Trevin Powell, is a former commissioner and director of the Patterson Park Vikings.

Akron North football will attempt to maintain its momentum vs. Twinsburg

But the most pressing matter is North's Week 2 game Friday at Twinsburg (0-1).

Powell, 30, is preaching the importance of focus to his players because he knows the pitfalls of a rare win. He pushed the right buttons in the buildup to the opener, and he'll need to continue to do so.

Old-school coaches often tell players to ignore the “noise” from outsiders.

In the right moment, however, it can be a useful tool, and Powell is smart enough to capitalize.

North players ate their pregame meals Friday afternoon and returned to the locker room to prepare for their bus ride to Coventry. What they found were negative comments about North's team and coaches printed on sheets of paper and affixed to their lockers.

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Powell was the culprit. He said he found most of the insults on Yappi Sports message boards and wanted his players to consume them as fuel. One of the online antagonists had Coventry in his username, which only helped Powell fire up his players.

“When they got off the bus [in Coventry], it wasn't the same team that left North,” Powell said.

It was an angry, hungry, unified group, one with a coach who deserves credit for the impact he has made out of the gate.

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Parris Campbell donates to Akron North football before win