KING — OK, it’s high time to take back all those West Stokes jokes.

West Stokes no longer chokes. In fact, it smokes. West Stokes football is no longer an oxymoron. No longer a laughing matter. It’s different strokes for those long-suffering folks from Stokes.

The Wildcats have a confident new head coach in Ed Pekar. They have jayvees. They have a program. West has already won two times this season. In back-to-back weeks, no less.

And before you say big deal, that’s two more times than half their fellow 2A Central Carolina Conference members. Salisbury, East Davidson, West Iredell and Lexington are 0-fer heading into September’s last weekend.

It would take Clorox to wipe the smile off a West coach these days. You can’t blame ’em. They’ve moved into a brand new neighborhood, and it’s called respectability. The purple and gold ’Cats have given new meaning to the phrase, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

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When West opened its doors in 1999, the gridiron facilities were lots better than the Wildcats. Coach Chip Petree had a squad composed of freshmen and some former South Stokes jayvees who had gotten used to taking a hammering.

It didn’t take long for the comedy to start. What do you call a West Stokes player who runs the 40 in 5.5 seconds?

Answer: tailback.

West’s coaching staff had been around the block enough times to know that team speed, or lack thereof, was going to make the first year ugly. But the harsh reality turned out to be worse than their darkest fears.

Not only did West have a jayvee team masquerading as the varsity, it got stuck with a world-class schedule. The school’s enrollment had nudged it into the 3A classification and the closest 3A league was the Tri-County. That meant High Point Andrews, Asheboro, Jamestown Ragsdale and North Davidson.

Tradition. Athletes.

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The ’Cats debuted on Aug. 20, 1999, at North Davidson. When they enthusiastically jumped off the bus in Welcome, they were ready for some football.

They got it. The Black Knights lanced them 77-0. This was more than just a wake-up call. This was getting an alarm clock shoved down your throat.

“It was welcome to football, guys,” says Pekar, an assistant on that first Wildcat team. “Our starting center had been playing at Chestnut Grove Middle. Then, bam, he’s up against North Davidson juniors and seniors. That’s pretty tough.”

Everyone wasn’t as good as North Davidson, but West’s first football fling never got much better. Had there been a poll listing the worst 10 teams in the state, West would have been granted at least three spots. The school’s power rating barely registered in prep guru Arnold Solomon’s weekly numbers.

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After a few weeks of humiliation, word started to get around about the woeful Wildcats. Teams were calling from North Dakota trying to get them on the schedule.

In Salisbury, fans scanned Saturday’s sports pages looking for the latest West Stokes score. If you weren’t a relative of one of those poor Wildcats getting beaten like a drum, each lambasting was a hoot. It was routinely 70-0, 56-0. Maybe a hotly contested 48-6, if the opposition was in a merciful mood.

“We were dismantled,” remembers Pekar. “We knew the other team was gonna beat us. We just went out and got our tails kicked. It was disgusting. We couldn’t even cover a punt.”

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When practice opened in 2000, the coaching staff was understandably concerned that not a soul would show. Instead, they were left a little misty-eyed by a remarkably enthusiastic turnout.

“One or two kids had quit,” said Pekar. “That’s all.”

All told, 45 battle-hardened lettermen came back for seconds. They were older, faster, stronger. They worked like dogs.

They went 0-11 again.

“We were in two,” said Pekar. “We led Trinity at the half and North Stokes beat us like 12-0. Defensively, we weren’t all that bad. We just had no offense.”

West coaches shake their heads in unison at the memory of the High Point Andrews debacle. Andrews had 42 points by halftime even though West’s defense had hardly been on the field. Andrews’ defense simply scored at will against West’s offense and special teams.

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It’s sad that Petree, who absorbed weekly beatings while laying a firm foundation, didn’t last to see the school’s historic first win. He accepted a job as an assistant at Richmond County during the summer. To the delight of the West staff, Pekar was selected to succeed him.

“Hey, every team around has to be better coached than we are,” says Pekar, waving at grinning assistant Chad “Famous” Amos. “We just got head phones for the first time this week. Now we’ve got to figure out if they work.”

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Pekar’s warriors lost on Opening Night 2001 for West’s 23rd straight setback. But in Week 2, West, with its host of three-year starters, stunned North Stokes in front of a hyper-ventilating home crowd.

“To win a football game was so awesome,” says bubbly cheerleader Casey Lee Thomas. “Everyone was on the field celebrating. Even our principal was telling people to come on down.”

“The goalposts might have come down, but we knew if they did, we couldn’t afford to put them back up,” says Pekar.

Seven days later, West Stokes broke through for its first road win against arch-rival South Stokes. That meant a sweep of the three-high school county. And it meant, for the first time, West Stokes was the best Stokes.

What worlds could possibly be left unconquered?

A bunch of them, according to Pekar.

“Yeah, so we’re county champs, so we’re No. 1,” he says sarcastically. “Now we’ve gotta convince our kids that beating South Stokes isn’t the biggest thing there is.”

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Because it’s the CCC opener and could set the tone for weeks, Pekar hails tonight’s winnable home game with Salisbury as the biggest contest in school history.

“We’ve never beaten a team outside of Stokes,” he said. “We still haven’t won a conference game and conference is what really counts. Salisbury is the most important game this year.”

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com