Common Sense says 100 football wins at one high school is special.
West Rowan’s Scott Young will accomplish the feat tonight if the Falcons beat Statesville in a 3A state playoff game.
Obviously, you’ve got to stay in one place for a while to get 100, and you’ve got to be pretty successful since only 11 regular-season games are scheduled each year.
West, which almost lost Young to bigger schools with bigger wallets a couple of times, still employs a coach who is 99-37 in his career.
It’s been a while since a coach logged his 100th in the county.
Legends Spencer Lancaster (Price) and Bill Ludwig (Boyden) logged their 100th victories more than 50 years ago. Ludwig’s 100th came in a 16-0 victory over R.J. Reynolds during his state-championship season in 1955.
Larry Thomason logged his 100th as North Rowan’s coach in style. The Cavaliers beat perennial power Thomasville 22-14 to close the 1984 season.
Roger Secreast is the most recent to win 100 at a county school, and he did it in his final season at North in 2001. The Cavaliers battered East Rowan 44-14 for the milestone victory.
The 100s are few and far between, so if West wins tonight it should be a very big deal.
Alphabetically, Young’s teams have won against schools ranging from A.L. Brown to West Iredell.
He’s racked up a ton of wins against the other Rowan schools. West is 37-5 in county games under Young. He’s enjoyed more wins against South (9-2), North (9-2) and East (9-1) than anyone.
He’s also 7-0 vs. Salisbury and 3-0 vs. Carson.
Young is 7-1 against Statesville. West was 0-4 against the Greyhounds before Young’s arrival.
Young also owns seven wins against current NPC members Lake Norman, North Iredell and Northwest Cabarrus.
Young has a losing record against only three schools he’s coached against more than once ó Concord (1-2), A.L. Brown (1-7) and Davie County (3-5).
For some, the glass is always half empty, and Young is 0-1 against five schools ó Anson, Gastonia Ashbrook, North Gaston, Winston-Salem Parkland and Crest.
Obviously, those were all playoff losses.
The playoffs haven’t been overly kind to Young’s seven previous playoff teams.
The Falcons lost in the third round in 2000 and 2005, the second round in 2004, 2006 and 2007 and the first round in 2002 and 2003.
But maybe this is the year for a breakthrough if the Falcons can stay healthy.
The bad news for West is Statesville has improved since it lost to the Falcons 41-7 on Sept. 26.
The good news is Statesville is in the NPC. Counting a 2005 playoff victory against Mooresville, West has won 34 of its last 35 against NPC foes.
Common Sense says go with the Falcons.
The picks were 16-4 in the first round of the playoffs, with most of the misses in the 2A and 2AA ranks.
The picks are 121-37.
Second-round games:
West 28, Statesville 14
That’s assuming B.J. Sherrill is close to 100 percent.
A.L. Brown 27, Marvin Ridge 14Brown struggled to an OT victory over its SPC rival on Sept. 29, but the Wonders are now officially an offensive machine.
Coach Ron Massey, who came to Kannapolis from Kings Mountain for the 2000 season, isn’t far from 100 wins at Brown. The Wonders are 94-26 during his tenure. Brown made it to the fourth round in 2005 and lost in the third round in 2001 and 2003. They were ousted in the second round in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007.
The Wonders have been knocked out by Charlotte Catholic, a probable third-round foe, each of the last three seasons.
Kings Mountain 21, Mooresville 17: As even as it gets, but the Mountaineers have the home field.
W. Davidson 21, Starmount 14: Revenge for a 28-24 loss to the Rams on Sept. 12.
A.C. Reynolds 17, R.J. Reynolds 7: This one could get confusing on the radio, but we’ll take the Asheville version of Reynolds.
Also, Fayetteville 71st to upset Mount Tabor in 4A, Anson to edge Olympic in 3AA, and South Columbus to outscore Lexington in 2A.