South head coach Chris Walsh and QB Brooks Overcash.

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Conversations with Salisbury football coach Clayton Trivett are always friendly and informative but normally last less than three minutes.

On the other hand, every phone call to South Rowan coach Chris Walsh could lead to the publication of a novel. If he were paid by the word, Walsh would be a millionaire within a week.

Trivett is the strong, silent type and would not be out of place in those early 1960s TV westerns. He would be the white hat-wearing sheriff pushing through the swinging doors of a saloon to punch out three bad guys who are breaking the law. Walsh might not have the size to be the ideal cowboy, but he could thrive with his own late-night talk show. He wouldn’t even need guests.

The lesson to be learned here is that all kinds of men with all kinds of personalities and all kinds of talents answer the noble call to coach high school football. There is more than one path that leads to success. Trivett and Walsh have traveled different roads, but they both found it.

The common denominator for Trivett and Walsh, besides caring deeply about their players, their families and their schools, is that they were able to inspire their teams to surprisingly sensational football seasons in 2024. Expected to be down, really down, Salisbury fooled critics and won 11 times. While 5-6 might lead to the unemployment line at Salisbury, 5-6 at South Rowan qualifies as surprisingly sensational.

That’s why Trivett and Walsh are the Post’s co-coaches of the year for Rowan County.

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Trivett, a former Catawba College lineman, is recognized by the Post for the second time in his three-year head-coaching tenure at Salisbury.

In 2022, he accepted the seemingly impossible task of following state-title-winning legend Brian Hinson. Trivett kept the program from slipping with a solid 11-2 team. This season, the Hornets went 11-2 after graduating a conga line of all-stars.

The season in between those two 11-2s, the Hornets had an even better record with a 12-1 mark, although it was a 12-1 that merely lived up to sky-high expectations.

In three seasons, Trivett’s teams are 18-0 in Central Carolina Conference games. No one wins them all, they say, but so far he has.

The 2024 season was one that a lot of opposing teams had been waiting for. Salisbury had graduated 10 defensive starters from that powerful 12-1 squad, along with record-setting quarterback Mike Geter and record-setting receiver Deuce Walker.

After Jamal Rule, one of the nation’s top running back prospects, announced his departure from Salisbury during the summer, opponents were practically drooling. Teams that didn’t have Salisbury on the schedule wished they had them on there. Teams that were scheduled to play Salisbury wished they were playing them twice.

Salisbury’s shaky debut in a 7-6 loss to West Rowan in a Rowan County Jamboree scrimmage didn’t change anyone’s mind, and then the Hornets were beaten with authority in Week 2 of the regular season by Walkertown.

But Trivett, his staff and players went back to work and figured it out. They switched some guys. They moved some guys. Then the Hornets went out and won 10 in a row, including a second-round playoff payback victory against Walkertown.

“I know a lot of teams were expecting to get some payback this year because of all the guys that we lost,” Trivett said. “We got everyone’s best shot, but our guys are used to that and they were prepared for that. We didn’t have a lot of returning starters, but we’ve had talented jayvee teams for years, and those guys proved to be more than ready when it was their turn to play. As a coaching staff, we really weren’t surprised at how well they played.”

Salisbury got a boost from guys who had not been playing football, such as defensive end Keial Matthews and DB Bryce Dalton.

There also were breakouts by athletes who had been cast in lighter roles in previous years — QB Hank Webb, receiver Macari House, linebacker Emmanuel Asare, defensive lineman Ny’Gel Elliott and running back Hez Krider, just to name just a few. They more than thrived in the spotlight. They became legitimate stars in their own right.

“The thing is we had another great senior class, but it was a class that no one realized was great until they got their chance to be starters as seniors,” Trivett said. “They’ll be tough to replace, but our jayvees were good again, and we’re going to keep working.”

•••

Walsh is the first South Rowan football coach to be honored by the Post as Rowan County Coach of the Year since Rick Vanhoy in 2001.

Now that’s a serious drought, but it’s been mostly tough times for the Raiders in football in this century, especially since Carson opened in 2006 and split the southern Rowan talent pool and fan base.

This was Walsh’s fourth season at the helm, and 5-6 and a berth in the 3A state playoffs — South’s first playoff appearance since 2009 — was quite a step up from 1-9, 1-9 and 3-7.

“I knew some of the South history when I took the job, but I’m glad I didn’t know all of it,” Walsh said with a laugh. “I guess it was probably insane, kind of crazy, to set some of the goals that we set for the first group of freshmen that we had in 2021, but those goals turned out to be much more than pipe dreams when they had matured as seniors. Our playoff game at West Henderson, when we realized the ride was over, when we knew we’d gone just as far as we could go, there were a lot of hugs. I’m so proud of the Class of 2025. They accomplished every single goal.”

South won four South Piedmont Conference games. South was supposed to beat East Rowan this year, but the wins against Concord (the first in 40 years), Central Cabarrus and Carson all required extraordinary deeds and unusual efforts, and the Raiders needed every one of those games to end that 15-year playoff drought. There was no margin for error.

“We knew in July that we had a chance to do what we did,” Walsh said. “I knew we had the kind of dedicated staff that could make a push for a playoff berth, so many committed guys and so many guys with deep ties to South Rowan. I am so happy for every one of them. They did their thing and our players did their thing. The administrative support from our ADs was amazing. The community support was fantastic. In a lot of ways, it was a dream season. I’m sure I worked harder than I ever have in my life, but I enjoyed every second of it.”

Walking out of the South Piedmont Conference meeting at East Rowan, Walsh felt a glow of pride about having four players recognized as All-SPC. As the last order of business, East co-AD Brian Hightower said, “And congrats to South’s Chris Walsh, the SPC coach of the year.”

Walsh was stunned for a moment.

“That was very cool, but also very humbling to be voted coach of the year in a league with so many great coaches,” Walsh said. “I called my wife and texted her a picture of the award. I think it meant even more to her than it did to me. She knows how far we’ve come. She’s been there for every step of it.”

A hug from his young daughter as soon as he came home from the meeting also meant a lot. That was a reminder of why he puts in the hours that he does.

“This season meant lifetime memories for every single person who was part of it,” Walsh said. “Ten years from  now, 20 years, this is going to mean even more to the players, especially the senior class. What’s next? Getting back to work, so we can try to do it all again in 2025.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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