Roaming the county, getting ready for tonight …The best matchup in the county tonight won’t be between teams but between sprinters.
Salisbury’s Romar Morris and Carson’s Shaun Warren will square off at Ludwig Stadium. They are without a doubt the two fastest players around, and they will take top billing in a very interesting game. Both teams are 1-1 and coming off victories.
For the record, Warren ran for 200 yards last week while Morris had 184.
On Morris, Carson coach Mark Woody exclaimed, “Romar is frightening fast. He may be the fastest kid I’ve ever seen on the field.”
Morris and Warren are both juniors.
“Romar is a different kind of fast than ours,” Woody said. “(Warren) makes you miss. Romar will just run by you.”
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East Rowan won’t face Carson and Warren until Oct. 2, but the Mustangs are still having nightmares about Morris, who had runs of 56 and 67 yards.
One fan who saw it said, “Romar makes Usain Bolt look slow.”
East coach Brian Hinson won’t disagree.
“Nobody around here has someone who can run like Romar,” he said.
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There’s another matchup to watch at Salisbury ó the one between the coaches.
A few years ago at Mooresville, Mike Carter’s team had a defensive coordinator named Joe Pinyan, now of Salisbury, and a linebackers coach named Woody, now of Carson.
“We’ve known each other since 1995,” Woody said. “He did a good job ó and still does a good job.”
Pinyan repaid the compliment, saying he knew Woody would be a head coach when they worked together.
“Mark’s a great, great football coach,” Pinyan said. “I tried to get him on the staff here when I came. We didn’t keep him long at Mooresville because he was good. Coach Carter knew it would happen.”
So how about facing each other from opposite sidelines?
“It’s not a whole lot of fun,” Pinyan said. “For a couple of hours, we’ll have to be enemies, but after that, we’re OK.”
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South Rowan coach Jason Rollins found out the magnitude of the rivalry with A.L. Brown while coaching the Raiders to a 21-19 win Friday night.
“I found out a lot more about it after it was over,” Rollins said.
He got to shake hands with Landis mayor Dennis Brown.
“I met him right after the game,” Rollins said. “He came over and said, ‘This whole community is appreciative. Thank you guys for pulling this off.’ ”
Rollins asked Brown if he was jumping up and down on the sidelines.
“He said he was,” Rollins grinned.
If Landis had a White House, the Raiders would’ve been there shaking more hands.
Landis does have a famous house nearby ó the Stag ‘N’ Doe restaurant. Rollins said the people there told him, “Let’s celebrate” and invited the coaches and players down for chicken wings and pizza.
WBTV out of Charlotte then visited Landis for a South Rowan feature, shown Wednesday night.
It was one more thing to celebrate in Billy Ray Barnes’ town. And why not? It was only the eighth win against A.L. Brown in 49 meetings and the first win against the Wonders since 2003.
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In sports, coaches have to shift gears quickly. South’s celebrating stopped after Monday’s practice began.
“We brought them in and said ‘Congratulations’ one more time,” Rollins said. “Now, let’s focus on Northwest Cabarrus.”
The Raiders came back down to the earth quickly.
“We broke down film and showed them all of the mistakes,” he said. “Trust me, there were a lot of mistakes.”
You could say the celebrating officially ended when the Raiders ran and ran for their 150 yards in penalties during the Brown game.
“I think they got the point,” Rollins said.
Rollins said his team’s 2-0 record puts even more emphasis on this Friday.
“This is a game we’ve got to win,” he said. “No doubt about it.”
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Oh yeah, West Rowan is 2-0, too.
It’s funny, but two years ago, East Rowan won its first two games and the hoopla in Granite Quarry kinda made you forget about the Falcons for a minute or two.
Same thing this year with South’s quick start.
You say, “West is 2-0” and everyone thinks, “Yeah? So what? They always win.”
Which is a compliment of major proportions. The defending state 3A champ has won its winning streak up to 16 games.
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By the way, West will be favored tonight against Davie County.
Go ahead and say it.
“Yeah, so what? They’re always favored.”
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East will play host to 0-2 Concord and first-year head coach Glen Padgett, who is returning to Rowan County soil. He coached Salisbury for one year in 1998 and was at North Mecklenburg before taking over for E.Z. Smith.
A.L. Brown travels to Thomasville for a game between two powerful traditions.
Two powerful traditions coming off losses.
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On the air tonight …
– On the WSTP 1490 AM Platt-form tonight will be Howard Platt and sidekick Wilson Cherry, who will have a treat watching Romar and Bush (Bush is Warren’s nickname because his favorite player is Reggie Bush).
– On WSAT 1280 AM, Mark, Johnny and the boys will have their weekly studio show with updates and live calls of all the games.
– On WRNA 1140 AM, Carl Ford, the Commissioner of high school football, and The Coach, Bob Parker, will travel to Northwest and see if South can make it to 3-0.
Go to a game tonight, folks. And be nice.
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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4287 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com.