By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.— Three miles separates McKay and North Salem High Schools.

The Royal Scots, a few blocks off of the Lancaster Street Northeast and Market Street Northeast intersection.  The Vikings, a few blocks off of the 14^th Street and Market Intersection.

Both teams are similar in demographic, socioeconomically, a connection with the coaching staff on top of respect said McKay’s Head Coach Dean Sanderson.

“I think it’s a rivalry because both schools are similar in their demographic, their socioeconomic (and) both programs are used to being the underdog recently,” said Sanderson.

“In that sense, whenever you have similarities like that.  I think the rivalry is bigger and I think the North-McKay rivalry is a good one.”

Sitting in the stands during the Scots home game versus Century, North Salem Head Coach Jordan Graneto was impressed how their opponent played.

“They play pretty hard, you can’t deny them for that,” said Graneto.  “They play really hard the entire game for the most part.  That part of it is pretty impressive.”

But come Friday night, at North Salem High School with the Greater Valley Conference Opener happening, the two schools collide for a Battle of North Salem Supremacy come tip-off.

For the Viks, they’re going to go after McKay the same way teams did to the Scots with a clear mind.

“We’ll try to be calm with the ball,” said Graneto.  “We’re going to try to attack it the same way that other people have and be strong with the ball.

“Go to the middle and take advantage of two-on-three’s three-on-twos, two-on-one’s on the other end.”

As to the other side of this figurative coin, is McKay’s approach.

As Graneto wants to slow down their high-pace offense and break the press, Sanderson doesn’t want North Salem to set up their half-court presence.

“It’s a tempo deal for us,” said Sanderson.  “We don’t want them to run their half-court offense against us and we don’t want them to be able to set up in a half-court defense.

“We want to be able to play quick and fast but also make good decisions from that.”

Both North (0-3) and McKay (0-3) are both hungry for their first win’s of the young season.  And with it being the Conference opener at home for the Vikings, Sanderson knows that North will come out swinging.

“We know that we’re going to get North’s best shot,” said Sanderson.  “They get their league opener at home on a Friday night.  We know we’ll be ready to go.”

For the Viks, they know what they need to do to transition their excitement to a win at the end of the night.

Slow down the Scots press.

“Definitely slow them down,” said Graneto. “handle the press and slow them down and limit our turnovers so that they don’t score in transition.”

Tip off is for around 7:15pm,  the Girls North/McKay Rivalry is set for 5:45pm also at North Salem High School.

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!

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