Staff report

Salisbury and North Rowan were the top two finishers in the 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference.

Together, the rivals placed 23 players — yes, 23 — on the All-Central Carolina Conference team, with 14 Hornets recognized and nine Cavaliers.

No problem. Looking at the list, there’s no one who doesn’t belong on there. All four Salisbury defensive line starters made it, but who’s going to argue with any of those four?

There’s even a North punter and a Salisbury kicker on All-CCC (both of whom helped out in other ways), plus a handful of offensive linemen, and those are the guys who often get overlooked for all-star teams.

Between them, North and Salisbury won 23 games, with five playoff victories, so the Post can find room for all the All-CCC guys on all-county.

Rowan’s four South Piedmont Conference teams didn’t fare as well on the all-conference squad in a league that was dominated by Jay M. Robinson and Northwest Cabarrus.

West Rowan had at least a dozen players worthy of consideration, but only five got All-SPC nods. West’s leading tackler, Cameron Martin, was left off All-SPC. So was Aubree Robinson, who was the second-leading tackler and contributed three special-teams touchdowns. Addison Hunt, Brant Graham and Christian Addison also didn’t make it, and we could go on for a while.

Carson also got five All-SPC players. South Rowan got three. East Rowan had one.

Hey, it’s Christmas. For All-Rowan County, we’ll add two Falcons to the All-SPC guys, plus one each from Carson, South and East.

It was a special football season and not just because North Rowan made the fourth round of the playoffs and the Hornets made the third.

An incredible amount of school records were set by individuals such as Salisbury’s Jamal Rule, Mike Geter and Deuce Walker and North Rowan’s Jeremiah Alford, Jaemias Morrow and Khor’on Miller. A story wrapping up all the records set and all the season stats for 2023 is in the Post’s next print edition.

The Post dished out player of the year accolades to Rule (offense), Miller and Salisbury’s Jaden Warren (defense) and West’s Robinson (special teams).

Rule also was CCC Offensive Player of the Year, while Warren was CCC Lineman of the Year. By the way, that’s five straight years a Hornet has been named CCC Lineman of the Year.

Carson’s Tristen McBride didn’t have the stack of sacks that Warren did, but he excelled on both sides of the ball and was honored as SPC Lineman of the Year even in a league that had a Florida State signee.

Geter and Walker, a Division I recruit (Georgia State), played in the Shrine Bowl.

McBride and Salisbury’s Dashawn Brown played in the East-West All-Star Game.

That’s one heck of a year in the county.

All-Rowan County football:

Coach of the Year — Josh Sophia, North

Offensive Player of the Year — Jamal Rule, Salisbury

Defensive Players of the Year — Khor’on Miller, North and Jaden Warren, Salisbury

Special Teams Player of the Year – Aubree Robinson, West

Salisbury —  QB Mike Geter, RB Jamal Rule, K Hank Webb, WR Deuce Walker, OL Josh Burns, OL Anthony Young, DL Jaden Warren, LB Jaylin Graham-Taylor, DB Tyree Brown, DL Dashawn Brown, DB Bennie Howard, LB DJ Adams, DL Jelani Ziyard, DL Saderion Robinson

North — RB Jaemias Morrow, OL KaMahri Feamster, QB Jeremiah Alford, WR Amir Alexander, DB Tsion Kelly, P Daniel Montes Medrano, DB Jaiden Brown, DL Yasir Wactor, LB Khor’on Miller

West — RB Jaylen Neely, WR Evan Kennedy, DL Kevin Toomer, DL Hunter Miller, OL Blake Rogers, LB Cameron Martin, DB Aubree Robinson

Carson — DL Tristen McBride, RB Jay McGruder, LB Nehemiah Baldwin, DB Carson Aman, DB Foday Dyer, DB Trevor Vaughn

South — TE Alex Furr, LB James Ritchie, OL Ryan Walden, RB Landon Richards

East — OL Tim Grooms, WR AJ Goodman