Roaming the county getting ready for tonight …I was telling Scott Young the other day that it felt like the Salisbury Post was snubbing his West Rowan Falcons.
He kinda laughed, but you could tell he kinda agreed.
He also understands that the media is looking for drama, and there just isn’t that much at West Rowan. The Falcons go out every Friday night, take care of business and move on.
Which, in today’s world, is B-O-R-I-N-G.
Off the field, there’s no kids getting in trouble, no starters being kicked off the team … no juicy stuff.
So it’s easy to be overlooked, even if you’ve won 27 straight games in the county, 31 of the last 32 North Piedmont Conference games, 20 straight road games in the league …
Ho-hum.
Young points to his star tailback K.P. Parks as another example of being an afterthought. Parks has racked up 5,516 career yards (1,259 this year) and 77 touchdowns in 21/2 years. He is expected to do something spectacular every single week.
“It’s amazing how he has changed the standards,” Young said. “Let’s say he gets 147 yards on 25 carries. That used to be something to write home about. Now, people will tell me, ‘K.P. didn’t have a real good game.’ ”
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Young laughs at his fans’ mentality. He realizes it’s going to happen. And he’ll take B-O-R-I-N-G every time.
“I guess it’s a good thing, but they do take us for granted,” Young said.
Like tonight, for instance. West (6-1, 5-0) travels to East Rowan (1-6, 0-5). East hasn’t beaten West since 1998. Everyone is going to expect West’s 21st straight NPC road victory, the 28th straight in the county and a big night from Parks.
But don’t expect West to be overconfident.
“We can’t afford to,” Young said. “If you go out there not ready, the other team is going to take it to you. A prime example is the first quarter of the Carson game last week (a 48-0 West win). Two of our first five plays were turnovers.”
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Let’s not forget that Young is a graduate of East Rowan.
“It’s my alma mater so I want us to play well,” Young said. “I’ll know a lot of people in the stands. Our kids know their kids. It’s a big game, not just because it’s a county game. It’s a conference game.”
As we enter Week 8, West is (ho-hum) alone in first place in the NPC. That’s pretty much where the Falcons always are, huh?
Boring, man, boring, I chide Young.
He laughs again,
“We feel we’ve got the best kids around,” he said. “They’re so businesslike, so professional for student-athletes. We don’t have problems with kids missing practice or making the wrong choices. We don’t have any drama.”
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And that’s why, when the season began, we seemed to concentrate on everyone else:
– Carson came into 2008 0-22 in its history. Would it win a game? The Cougars are favored tonight to beat North Iredell at home. It could be their fourth win.
See Scott, that’s drama.
– Salisbury is 7-0. It plays host to Lexington tonight. Both teams are 3-0 in the Central Carolina Conference and this could decide whether the Hornets win their sixth straight title.
Drama, Scott, drama.
– North Rowan brought in a new coach this season in Tasker Fleming but the team has yet to present him with a victory and is 0-7. North Rowan has never been 0-7, has it? Providence Grove, which is 0-3 in the CCC, visits Spencer for the Cavaliers’ Homecoming. North could break through.
That’s drama, Scott.
– South Rowan entered the season much-improved but is still trying to figure out how to win consistently. Big win. Bad loss. Big win. Bad loss. The Raiders, however, have won two in a row and go to Lake Norman tonight. Lake Norman lost to South’s neighbor Carson but knocked Mooresville out of first place last week. Who knows what to expect?
See, Scott, more drama.
– East Rowan has not had a good year for Brian Hinson but if the Mustangs could somehow, some way, upset West Rowan, well, would that be some drama or what, Scott?
Probably won’t happen. West will win and win big.
Of course, we’re taking that for granted.
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Other area games have Mount Tabor at Davie and Piedmont at A.L. Brown.
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The Post will be covering all seven games. Where will the radio stations be?
– The dynamic duo of Howard Platt and Wilson Cherry will call the Lexington at Salisbury game on WSTP 1490 AM.
A shoutout needs to go to my main man Cherry, who was inducted into the Livingstone Hall of Fame on Thursday. (Nobody at Livingstone bothered to tell the newspaper about it, but hey, congrats Wilson).
– WSAT 1280 AM will have its usual group of reporters at all the area games.
– The politician, Carl Ford, joins up with the coach, Bob Parker, to bring us the South-Lake Norman game on WRNA 1140 AM.
– After a bye week, the velvet-voiced Randy Whitley is back, along with sidekick Buddy Amerson, for A.L. Brown’s game on WRKB 1460 AM.
Go to a high school football game tonight folks. And be nice. Let the drama play out on the field, not in the stands.
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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4287 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com.