Tonight, when Rowan County and area high school football teams open the 1999 season, there will be the usual traditional openers, like East Rowan at South Rowan and West Rowan at Salisbury.

North Rowan, however, breaks with tradition when the Cavaliers travel all the way to Laurinburg to take on Scotland County’s Fighting Scots.

The road trip of more than 100 miles is probably the longest ever for a local team in a season opener. North’s previous longest trip for an opener was to Mount Airy in 1979.

North had played former Yadkin Valley Conference rival Albemarle the past two openers, but coach Roger Secreast said there was a big reason why that rivalry of six years had to end.

“Coach (Jack) Gaster didn’t want to play us anymore since his wife (H.K.) is principal of our school,” explained Secreast. “I could understand that. It was a lot of pressure on her and him.”

That meant Secreast had to find another opponent, but he had no success. Finally, he sent his school’s name in to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, hoping another school had an opening for an endowment game on Aug. 20.

“Scotland County said they were looking for one. I said, ‘That’s wonderful. We want to play.’ We found the best team that we could find to play us in the first game of the season, because I think that’s the only way you are going to get any better — to play people that are a little bit better than you, or are supposed to be a little bit better than you,” said Secreast.

Scotland, a 4A school, went 10-3 last year, losing out to powerful Richmond County in the second round of the playoffs. The Cavs went 7-4, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1992.

“I think down east they’re supposed to be the No. 3 4A team behind Richmond County and Northern Durham,” said Secreast. “I always like to play somebody as tough as I can get in the first game anyway. That’s why we played Grimsley, Mount Tabor and A.L. Brown.”

North’s fans who make the trip of more than two hours will find that the talented Fighting Scots have their share of Scottish names. The roster includes two McCormicks, two McCoys, McIver, McDonald, McBryde, McRae, McCollum, McKinnon, McMillan, McLean, McNeill, McCanna and McCrimmon.

Secreast points out that the Scots are loaded with 200-pounders, so he hopes his Mario Sturdivant-led passing game will be effective.

The Scots may not be as quick as the Cavaliers, but the home team’s roster has a few Quicks – two coaches and one player.

Making early season high school predictions can be a difficult task, but here goes:

North Rowan hopes to be one of the top 2A teams in the state, and the Cavaliers will be better down the road for having played 4A Scotland. The Scots reportedly have seven NCAA Division I prospects, including a couple of defensive backs to cover North’s quick receivers — Scotland County 28, North Rowan 14.

Improved West Rowan opens its second season under Scott Young, who expects his Falcons to be much better than the 4-7 mark of last year. Salisbury will be playing for its third different head coach, Raymond Daugherty, in three years. Veteran players and a few transfers could make West an exciting team. The Hornets will be trying to improve on a 1-10 mark – West Rowan 27, Salisbury 8.

East Rowan’s Mustangs seek their third straight season-opening win over South Rowan’s Raiders. Jeff Safrit’s East clubs over the past three years have won 25 games, including a 7-5 mark last year. Rick Vanhoy’s Raiders play the toughest schedule of any area team, but will still do better than last year’s 2-9 mark – East Rowan 21, South Rowan 14.

North Stanly’s Comets, under new coach James Harris, will be at home against 4A Charlotte Garinger. The 2A Comets have a lot of talent and should roll – North Stanly 30, Garinger 6.

Davie County’s War Eagles kick off their second season under Doug Illing with high hopes. Tonight’s foe, Statesville, lost a lot of key players by graduation. Davie will be trying to top its 6-5 mark of 1998

Other picks: Concord over Lincolnton, Northwest Cabarrus over Mount Pleasant, Butler over Central Cabarrus, Albemarle over West Wilkes, West Forsyth over Olympic, East Davidson over Southern Guilford, A.C. Reynolds over R.J. Reynolds and Asheboro over Lexington.