By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
Cleaning out the West Rowan notebook …West Rowan football coach Scott Young proved he had compassion for special players in the latter stages of the 35-7 state championship win over West Craven last Saturday.
Up 28-0, he ordered a pass throw to Brantley Horton, his senior receiver.
Running up the score? Hardly. This pass was for you, Brantley.
At the time, Horton, who has been such a valuable part of the success over the past three seasons, had been shut out.
“I wanted to get Brantley involved in the game officially,” Young said, “because of all he has done for us.”
Think about it. Horton was a varsity receiver as a sophomore, then was quarterback last year. He was moved back to receiver this season to allow sophomore B.J. Sherrill to take over under center.
“For him to take a side seat and go back to receiver is something I’ll never forget,” Young said. “I’ll truly always remember he was team above self.”
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TV WATCHING: Time Warner Cable is replaying all of the eight state title games on Channel 1234. Young finally got to watch his final earlier this week.
On the first play, Parks ran 81 yards for a score. Young knew that fullback Jeremy Melchor made a block that sprung Parks. But on TV, he noticed Joseph Kerley making a big block, too.
Sherrill ran in from 52 yards. Watching TV, Young got to see good blocks by receivers Horton and Jon Crucitti.
“Everybody knows K.P. scored a touchdown. Everybody knows that B.J. scored a touchdown. But TV shows you that the team scored those touchdowns,” Young said.
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STILL HIGH: It’s seniors like offensive lineman Kerley and tight end Dustin Davis who enjoyed the title as much as anyone.
“I knew we had a good shot at winning it,” said Davis, who also made a good block on a linebacker during Parks’ long run. “I’m still up there. It’s pretty crazy.”
Kerely had trouble sleeping the night after the title game.
“It all hit me on Sunday night,” Kerley said. “I woke up at 11:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep until 4 in the morning.”
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THIS ONE’S FOR YOU: Young said the title was for every player who has ever suited up in West Rowan blue.
Wake Forest defender Tristan Dorty was on the sidelines Saturday and kept telling Young, “That should’ve been us.”
Young got calls from many of his former players.
“Everybody wanted to talk about how exciting and how much fun it all was,” Young said. “That’s good. We need to carry the momentum and build off of it.”
Young thinks back to his second season in Mount Ulla back in 1999. He was coming off a 3-8 head coaching debut.
“Scooter Sherrill, Scooter Dalton and Justin Davis put us on the map with an 8-3 season,” Young said. “Those guys are the ones who changed us into winners and we’ve been competitive ever since. They laid the foundation.”
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HIGH NOON: Young was asked how he liked playing early in the day. His game started at 12 pm.
Thomasville coach Allen Brown, whose Bulldogs won the 1AA title that same day, only at 7:30 p.m., told Young he had the best starting time of all.
“With a 7:30 game, you’re waiting around all day,” Young said. “We got here at 7:30 a.m., ate breakfast at 7:45 and were on the bus at 8:45. And we were playing before you knew it.”
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AND FINALLY: Athletics director Todd Bell ordered 30 dozen championship shirts, which he began selling on Monday.
By Tuesday, he had ordered 24 dozen more.
Go to the school and ask for Bell if you’re interested.
There are long sleeves, short sleeves and hoodies, ranging from $15 to $25.