When players transfer from one county high school to another and show up for practice, they don’t usually tell their new coaches that they came primarily to join that team.

They don’t have to.

“They don’t tell you it’s for sports, but you sort of know that’s behind the scenes,”said Scott Young, West Rowan’s football head coach. “I know that, everybody knows it, but we don’t talk about it much. We treated every kid that came to us new this year fairly and welcomed them with open arms. We’re glad they wanted to join us.”

Scooter Dalton moved from Lexington High School and stars for West at running back this year. He used a school transfer to leave the Lexington football team and broke a personal 17-game losing streak when West scored a season-opening 53-0 win against Salisbury.

Of the three new transfers on Young’s team, all have come from outside the county, which is something other coaches wouldn’t mind.

Salisbury’s Eric Mowery and East Rowan’s Jesse Boger transferred to North Rowan and joined Bill Kesler’s baseball team.

Kesler said a transfer can make for an uncomfortable situation for someone who’s been coaching in the county since 1985.