BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

Realignment has brought eight new schools into the three conferences in the Post coverage area. They will be profiled each Friday.

Today: Mooresville.

MOORESVILLE — Like those inspirational T.C. Williams High Titans that Hollywood helped everyone remember, Mooresville High’s Blue Devils are gonna change.

The Blue Devils are gonna change the way they run, change the way they block and change the way they tackle.

With veteran athletic director and head football coach Mike Carter starring as a much mellower version of Denzel “Coach Boone” Washington, Mooresville is gonna change the way it wins.

Especially — thanks to realignment — Mooresville is gonna change the schools it plays.

Leave Mooresville and ride a dozen miles through the country and you’re in downtown Kannapolis, home of A.L. Brown High. The Blue Devils and Wonders used to battle in the ‘60s but have been strangers for ages. This is Carter’s 13th year at the Mooresville football helm. He’s won 116 games, but he’s still 0-0 against his Wonder-ful neighbors. That changes Oct. 26. Area football may never be the same.

West Rowan’s an easy hop from Mooresville, but the Blue Devils hadn’t played the Falcons in a decade before last season’s state playoff head-knocker. For the next four years, the Blue Devils and West are going to be on a first-name basis.

Mooresville hasn’t played East Rowan in a blue moon. It hasn’t faced Statesville, right down I-77, in 15 years. Those things are gonna change, too.

For the first time since 1978, the Blue Devils’ foes lie primarily to the east. They’ve usually played South Rowan (Carter’s 6-2) and Northwest Cabarrus (he’s owned ’em), then headed west. Now Carter will take on a full plate of Iredell, Rowan and Cabarrus.

Mooresville’s presence in our neck of the woods is good news and bad. The good is the school’s got great fan support. The bad is they don’t lose all that much. Boys soccer teams won state titles in the ‘80s. Volleyball ran the table twice in the ‘90s. Girls tennis made the state playoffs last fall. Boys basketball made the regionals last spring. Wrestling was 24-3 two years ago. Track is top-notch. Baseball’s young and building.

Carter, obviously, believes in a balanced diet. Football’s not everything.

“We’ve changed principals a few times,” says head wrestling coach and football assistant Joe Pinyan. “But Carter’s been the constant. He works hard for every sport.”

Devil coaches acknowledge that in most sports — yes, even football, their bread and butter — life is going to be more challenging. East Rowan baseball and West Rowan boys basketball are obvious roadblocks. Statesville tennis and Northwest Cabarrus wrestling are bears.

But Mooresville coaches seem thrilled, not chilled, by the change of direction. After all, keen competition’s not all bad.

“You measure yourself by the best schools you play,” says Pinyan. “In wrestling, we look forward to facing the good programs like Coach (Barry) Justus has at East Rowan, like Richard Williams has at Northwest.”

The wear and tear on Carter’s activity buses should be better, too.

“We’ve been on the geographical edge,” says track coach and football assistant Barclay Marsh. “Now, we’re in the middle. Travel looks good.”

And the new-look schedule should fill piggy banks. Lots more fannies are going to be in the bleachers to watch the football Moors slug it out with A.L. Brown than turned out to see them stomp St. Stephens.

“We’re in a conference now,” says Pinyan, “where we should have a pretty good rivalry with everyone.”

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No one’s happier about the changes of scenery than Pinyan, still a Rowan County guy at heart, even though he’s been teaching and coaching in Mooresville for 15 years.

Pinyan lives in eastern Rowan, so he faces a 40-minute commute every morning. When Mooresville football practice ends on Wednesdays, Pinyan has to bust it to make his seventh-grade son’s Erwin Middle School football game.

“Usually,” says Pinyan, who also has a daughter at Rockwell Elementary, “I make it for the second half.”

Pinyan says Mooresville’s new-look schedule is above all a blessing for his wife. Now, she’ll be able to make opening kickoffs.

“It was hard for her to make Mooresville games in the past,” he said. “It was 40 minutes for her just to get to Mooresville, then maybe another 30 minutes to somewhere like East Lincoln.”

Pinyan’s coaching career actually began at East Rowan. He was head wrestling coach and an assistant in baseball and football. But he was looking for work after 1986’s disastrous 0-10 football campaign caused a shakeup.

Pinyan landed on his feet at Mooresville Middle. He coached there until Carter brought him across the road to the high school. Pinyan became football defensive coordinator two years ago when legend Pete Stout retired.

“I guess I’m still coordinator,” jokes the self-effacing Pinyan. “After the beating Davie gave us Friday, you’d better check.”

Pinyan was Mooresville’s head baseball coach in the early ‘90s until the head wrestling job — “that was always my best sport” — opened up.

Tonight’s football game with South Rowan means a ton to Pinyan, because he’s a South graduate (Class of ’77). It’ll be a true family affair. Pinyan’s parents and five siblings — all South grads — will be on hand to yell for the Raiders. And for the last four years one of Pinyan’s nephews has played tight end for South.

“My nephew, Daniel, caught a touchdown pass against us two years ago and he’s never, ever going to let me forget it,” groans Joe.

Current Raider tight end Justin Pinyan unfortunately suffered a concussion Monday and probably won’t play tonight. He still says a loss to his uncle’s team would be a fate worse than death.

“Every year at Christmas, he brings us these gag gifts,” Justin sighs. “He’s always giving me and Daniel Mooresville caps and Mooresville conference champion T-shirts. Believe me, we give them right back.”

But Joe has a knack for getting the last laugh. He’s an umpire and has been behind the plate for several of Justin’s games.

“This one time,” reveals Justin, “the guy actually called me out on strikes. What could I say? I just gave him the look and walked to the dugout.”

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