Roaming the county getting ready for tonight …
The first week of the high school football season was dominated by two new coaches, Joe Nixon of North Rowan and Danny Misenheimer of East Rowan.
Tonight, they play each other and they’ll be overshadowed by what is usually the biggest county matchup of the year: Salisbury at West Rowan.
We talk about what a great rivalry West-Salisbury is, but facts are facts. West’s Scott Young has never lost to Salisbury. He’s 10-0.
Young is taking nothing for granted, however. He said after watching the film of Salisbury’s victory over North last week, the Falcon coaches were impressed by the improvement of the Hornets from Week 1.
Will this finally be the week the wishbone comes through against West? It will be tough against an unbelievable defense that is carrying the offense right now.•It’s that time of the year where everyone is scratching his or her head wondering how West is 2-0 … again?
The Falcons were going to lose to 4A Mooresville. They didn’t. They were going to lose to 4A Davie County. They didn’t.
“It’s like they’re hiding in the bushes,” Young smiled of the annual Falcon detractors.•The most entertaining game of the week may well be at North. East coach Misenheimer said in the preseason that he and Nixon would probably go eat lunch together, then talk after the game.
Win or lose, they’ll be talking about their dramatically improved football teams.•Hickory Ridge is at Carson and Cougars’ coach Mark Woody is already predicting the game will be played.
What’s so great about that prediction? Woody always jokes about this game. It seems like something wacky happens every time the teams hook up.
One year, they only got one half in due to weather and played the second half on Saturday.
Another year, the weather was so bad down there, the teams were going to play on Saturday. Then Monday.
But Woody’s in charge now.
“I’ll guarantee you we’re playing football here on Friday,” he laughed.•The best football ritual is at Carson.
Popsicle Tuesday.
Midway through practice, the players enjoy something besides water.•What are we to make of the South Rowan Raiders?
Wait until the game at Northwest tonight to get a real gauge on the team. The Raiders seemed to be in a fog the first two weeks, beaten in Week 1 by an extraordinary game by Central Cabarrus’ quarterback and in Week 2 by an extraordinary bunch of athletes from A.L. Brown.
But South usually plays a decent game with the Trojans, who are coming off a loss to Carson.•Other games have Davie making the road trip to Alexander Central while A.L. Brown plays host to improved Rocky River.•On the air tonight. ..
WSTP 1490 AM will be covering the Salisbury-West game with Hall of Famer Howard Platt and sidekick Wilson Cherry.
Ditto for WSAT 1280 AM and its crew of Mark Loman, Glenn Taylor and Jeff Vail.
WRNA 1140 AM will broadcast the South game with the “Commissioner of High School football” Carl Ford.
Go to a game tonight, folks. And be nice.
•Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4287 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com