I once had the occasion to take 4 people up in a C-172 from a sand strip. First had a talk with the local CFI/operator to see if this was at all possible. His advice was not to keep the wheel all the way back once rolling.
Taxi took considerable power. Picked a point where I would abort if not airborne -- in the sand, 100 yards was plenty
Full power, wheel all the way back got me to about 40 kt and no more; so, eased off on the wheel. The a/c accelerated and I lifted off, built speed in ground effect and climbed away
The trick is to keep the nose wheel just clear of the ground once you have 30 kt or so as you now have lift taking the load off the mains.
Blasting all the way down a soft runway with the wheel/stick all the way back can add you to the statistics as before mentioned
