By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Indiana University soccer fan Matt Parrish is rarely seen without his weathered, trademark ball cap.
That’s his most famous accessory. It’s always accompanied by black shoes and khaki shorts.
“Every waking moment that I’m not in Salisbury High, I wear the Indiana ball cap,” Parrish said.
Owen Miller had a daughter (Emma) and son (Connor) play soccer for Parrish, who coaches both genders at Salisbury. Miller brought Parrish’s original “Indiana Soccer” cap back from the Hoosier State.
There have been several replacements over the years, and Parrish even has received his favorite headgear as a Christmas gift. He’s always happy to get a new cap because he wears them out.
“I’m rough on caps, constantly mowing and maintaining the field,” Parrish said. “Fortunately, right now, I’ve got the one I’m wearing — and a replacement cap waiting.”
Parrish “retires” caps when they’re part of state championships. That’s happened three times — in 2011, 2013 and 2015. For each of those years, there’s a cap resting comfortably atop a championship ball.
Parrish isn’t likely to retire another cap and ball this season, as the odd years have been better to the Hornets than the even ones.
But he’s ready to take his best shot. Salisbury, a No. 5 seed, starts the 2A state playoffs tonight at 6 p.m. against Polk County, a No. 12 seed.
Salisbury is 13-4-4, the worst record Parrish has had in six seasons as head boys coach, but it may have been his finest coaching job. The Hornets won another Central Carolina Conference title, and that’s 13 in a row. He has just three returning starters from last’s seasons 27-0-2 state champs.
“Not many guys back and tough injuries on top of that, so it’s been our most challenging year,” Parrish said. “We lost Jamie Henriquez early on, and he may have been our best player and the best in the county. A lot of guys who didn’t play much last year have not only had to play a lot, they’ve had to be key people. We’re so young. Eight-five percent of our guys don’t drive.”
The handful of returners have had to adjust to new roles. Melvin Bonilla, formerly a forward with a scoring mentality, has performed admirably as a center mid and center back.
Salisbury got a lot of goals from Andrew Kalogeromitros, and then he went down. He was injured in the first half of a 1-0 loss to Thomasville and then missed Senior Night. He has returned to practice and is expected to play tonight.
Parrish (129-14-8 in six seasons) assisted coach Tom Sexton for 10 years before he got the head boys job, so the Midwesterner has put in 16 school years with the Hornets since relocating to North Carolina.
On a recent trick-or-treating venture on Halloween, it struck Parrish that he and his wife, Megan, an English teacher at West Rowan for six years after 10 years at Southeast Middle, have been around longer than he realized.
“We went to a house out in Mount Ulla, and the guy who came to the door recognized me standing a pretty good distance away and without much light,” Parrish said. “I guess it’s the ball cap.”
Salisbury has a unique coaching team. Taylor Strode, who teaches art at Concord High, is still Parrish’s assistant with the Salisbury boys in the fall. Strode, 2A state assistant coach of the year in 2015, pilots the Concord girls program in the spring.
“We have very similar coaching philosophies,” Parrish said. “And when we’re coaching girls, we both have a star player named Julia (Salisbury’s Honeycutt and Concord’s Patrum).”
Parrish has encountered an unexpected obstacle this season — a shortage of games. North Rowan decided not to have a team, so the Hornets had two holes in the schedule that couldn’t be filled.
“We didn’t play at all the last week of the regular season,” Parrish said.
Then, because of the hurricane-created flooding in the eastern part of the state, the state playoffs were pushed back a week.
“That means when we take the field on Saturday it will be our first game in 16 days,” Parrish said. “You do everything you can to stay sharp, but it’s definitely been different.”
The Hornets may not have any easy playoff games this year, and while Polk County’s Wolverines have a modest 11-10-1 record, they beat C.D. Owen recently and played a competitive match with highly regarded Hendersonville.
Salisbury is 7-2-2 at home this season, while Polk County is a respectable 5-5-1 on the road.
Salisbury has outscored opponents, 61-26, while Polk County has been outscored, 59-47.
“You look at who they’ve played, who they beat and who they lost close ones to, and it’s a pretty scary first-round game,” Parrish said.