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KANNAPOLIS — Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be football coaches.
Especially don’t let them grow up to be head football coach and athletic director simultaneously.
Imagine you’re Ron Massey, who happens to wears both time-consuming hats at A.L. Brown High.
Massey used to hold both jobs at Kings Mountain, a nice little place where they take their football seriously. Last summer he moved to Kannapolis, a place where autumn Friday nights are more than serious. Try life and death.
In K-Town neighborhoods, a gridiron setback is greeted with roughly the same enthusiasm as a cholera outbreak.
Massey’s team lost two games last year — 25-22 to West Rowan (12-2), 38-31 in OT to South Point (12-1-1). Not everyone’s forgiven him. After all, that loss to West was the Wonders’ first in a regular-season game since 1997.
Wonder fans are riled up at the very real prospect of more losses this fall. The team’s good, ranked third in 3A by the N.C. Prep Football News. But the schedule Massey’s put together is rumored to be ranked third in America. That includes the pros.
Take a look. This slate’s more challenging than sending a man to the moon with a slingshot. It’s cost Wonder fans sleep and has caused more than one fanatic to mutter that Massey must have played a few games without a helmet.
Don’t even count tomorrow night’s Memorial Stadium jamboree at which the Wonders will entertain worldbeaters West Charlotte, Forest Hills and Richmond County. In its first nine games — from Aug. 31 to Oct. 25 — A.L. Brown tackles teams that went a combined 90-26-1 last season. In that stressful stretch, the Wonders won’t play anyone who won fewer than seven times in 2000.
The Wonders’ North Piedmont Conference schedule, over which Massey had no control, is bearish, with Mooresville (13-2) and powerful West the neon signs in a league granted a mere two playoff berths by powers that be who possess a twisted sense of humor.
Nonconference foes who will cheerfully prepare the Wonders for the crucible of NPC play include North Rowan (9-5), Eastern Randolph (14-1), South Point, Concord (8-4) and South Rowan (8-3). No cupcakes baking in that five-week oven.
That’s why every time the phone jangles, Massey steels himself to field a call, a complaint or a criticism with regard to the schedule. His schedule.
“OK, the schedule is very challenging,” acknowledges Massey, his face somewhere between a grimace and a rueful smile. “You know, I always wonder what the hot topic’s gonna be around here. Last year, it was pre-game steaks and buses. This year, it’s the schedule.”
Massey insists the schedule is not a reflection of any masochistic tendencies on his part.
“Look, we’re gonna always play South, North and Concord, because they’re our natural rivals,” he said. “That’s not likely to change. But it’s not like I’ve got a crystal ball and can see what’s gonna happen. OK, North’s gonna have a great team this year, but I can’t help that. South’s program’s on the rise and there’s not much I can do about that, either.”
And it goes without saying that Concord’s going to be on there somewhere — barring an act of Congress. Even though the game will be played in September rather than November, 10,000 will likely turn out to watch the ancient rivals sweat instead of freeze.
Massey admits he had a few options on the final two selections on the slate, but figured South Point, which has a faithful following similar to that of the Wonders, would produce lucrative gates as an endowment series and inked a two-year, home-and-home deal. As A.D., Massey has to think about things like putting fannies in the seats. If thousands of Belmont diehards wander down to Kannapolis on Sept. 14, it might put new uniforms on the soccer and volleyball teams.
“I didn’t come here looking to pad my record,” sighs Massey. “We needed a good gate and the tough competition should make us a better team.”
Massey says the Eastern Randolph thing happened by accident. Massey told his Eastern counterpart, Burton Cates he was having trouble lining anyone up. So was Cates. Finally, they shrugged and shook hands. That clash of perennial titans looms on Sept. 7.
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If putting together a football schedule and a football team were all Massey had to worry about, he’d be OK. But there’s always strange stuff going on. Like that lightning bolt that bopped Bullock Gymnasium last Friday, wiping out power. The outage area includes Massey’s office and explains why the coach was taking Tuesday’s calls while sharing athletic secretary Susan Crites’ compartment.
Then there was that ill-fated decision to start using well water in the middle of a drought. That explains why the Wonders had no water humming through the practice-field hoses last week. “We had to haul every cooler we could find out to the field,” Massey groans.
Then there are the school’s four new fall sports coaches who are learning on the job. Massey’s had to guide them along through these early trying weeks. When he catches up there, there’s always a practice field to mow, equipment to purchase. Always an activity bus that just refuses to roll another mile.
Even the on-field stuff that’s supposed to be diverting has been dicey. The Wonders dodged deteriorating weather at Saturday’s scrimmage with Morganton Freedom long enough to get in roughly a hundred snaps. Massey felt fortunate to get in that contact work — at least, until three Wonders were injured. Tuesday, he was busy finding physicians with the time to treat his wounded warriors.
You get the feeling, as you hear Massey pleading his case with a nurse, that whatever they’re paying this guy — or anyone who’s willing to serve as AD/head football coach — it’s far from enough.
Still, for some reason, Massey can’t wait to get his second K-Town season rolling.
“I’m excited about it,” he says in all seriousness, a small smile finally edging his frown by a field goal. “This could be fun.”
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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