DANVILLE — Introductions were not needed on the opening day of football practice for the Danville Vikings.

Unlike any other season in B.J. Luke’s coaching career, he starts the year with only two new starters.

“These kids have played a lot of games already for us,’’ Luke said. “You have a number of kids that have started 20 football games already and they know what it takes to compete in the Big 12.

“They know we have the ability to be in every game.’’

In all, Danville will take the field this Friday night in Bloomington with eight players that have either started or played in 20 varsity football games leading into their senior year.

“One of our strengths is maturity,’’ said Danville senior guard Alex Janssen, a three-year starter. “ When we started out, we were all just young kids. We had a bunch of sophomores starting on varsity.

“Now that we’re seniors, we have matured into leaders. We’re trying to teach the young kids in the program to do that as well.’’

Luke pointed out that those players have taken ownership of the program.

“When we first started, it was more the coaches having to kick start everything,’’ he said. “Now, it is team driven. The players drive each other to get on board and become better.’’

One of the main leaders for the Vikings this season is senior Mario Crosby.

“When I was a sophomore, we were young and we were in the learning process,’’ said Crosby, an all-Big 12 first team selection a year ago. “As the years have gone on, we have learned how to communicate and work hard.

“Now that we are seniors and leaders, we are letting the rest of the team know what we have gone through to get to this point.’’

Crosby isn’t the only first team all-Big 12 player returning this year for Danville.

Senior tight end Cameron Ford, senior wide receiver Derrick Cunningham, junior defensive back Eddie Clark and junior kick return MykeTez Forman were also first-team selections in the league last year, giving the Vikings five first teamers.

Decatur MacArthur and Normal Community each return two, while Bloomington, Champaign Central and Champaign Central each return one.

“We have a lot of veterans coming back and our goal is to win the Big 12 title,’’ Cunningham said. “Our strength and conditioning program from my sophomore year to now had made a dramatic change in all of us.

“We’re a bigger and stronger football team.’’

That’s one thing that Luke believes will surprise someone that hasn’t seen the Viking program in the past few years.

“I think someone who hasn’t seen our program in a while will be excited with how hard the kids play, how fast we are and we have a element of size of power, that we haven’t had for a while,’’ Luke said. “They will also be surprised to see the discipline that our kids live by.’’

But winning a Big 12 title is something that Danville hasn’t done since 1996.

“We have very high expectations because the juniors and seniors on this team are the two groups that went 9-0 as freshmen,’’ Janssen said. “We are supposed to be the conference champions.’’

It also doesn’t hurt that the Vikings have had a sour taste in their mouths since the end of last season.

Danville lost a hard-fought 7-0 contest to Normal Community in the Class 6A playoffs where the Vikings dominated every part of the game except the scoreboard.

“I think about it every day,’’ Crosby said. “It’s always on my mind and it has made me work harder during the offseason and it has made everyone on this team work harder.

“It gave us that extra motivation that we needed.’’

Ford acknowledged that it was a rallying cry during weight-lifting sessions during the offseason.

“We found out last year that things don’t always go the way your want,’’ he said. “We were an inch away from scoring on three different plays in that game.

“In preparing for this season, every inch that we don’t fight for is that inch that we didn’t get in the Normal game.’’

Luke acknowledged that this group of young men had a tremendous work ethic during the offseason.

“The key for our season is keeping that focus all of the time and not resting on our laurels,’’ he said.

The Danville offense will feature a balanced attack of run and pass led by senior quarterback Malcolm Anderson.

While the defense features 11 players that all started at least one game last season.

Danville opens the year with back-to-back road games at Bloomington and Mattoon.

“I think we’ve got the type of team this year that people are going to be willing to play a few extra bucks for gas to hit the road to follow them,’’ Luke said.

The home opener for the Vikings is set for Sept. 11 against the Champaign Centennial Chargers.