By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Albert Perkins was a 45-year-old hire with a wealth of basketball playing and coaching experience, but in some respects he was a rookie when he took the helm of the Salisbury Hornets in late August.

Perkins had coached talented high school players before both as a head coach and assistant, but guiding Salisbury’s hoops fortunes is still a different gig than coaching at schools such as Christ the King, Woodlawn, Cannon School and Carmel Christian. Those Central Carolina Conference trips to Lexington and Thomasville and North Rowan provide a highly charged and challenging environment for even the best Salisbury teams and the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Classic comes with its own unique atmosphere. Salisbury’s non-conference schedule wasn’t a slice of cake, either. It was spiced with match-ups against powers such as Cannon School and Julius Chambers.

No one locally outside of SHS principal Marvin Moore knew a lot about Perkins when he walked into a situation that came with a blanket of pressure and through-the-roof expectations. The Hornets had been 22-6 the previous season under coach Bryan Withers and had reached the fourth round of the 2A state playoffs. With 95 percent of the scoring punch returning from that team, including superstar Juke Harris, even a 20-win season was going to be perceived as a disaster.

Perkins accepted the challenge, thrived and is the Post’s Rowan County Coach of the Year for boys basketball.

“A lot of our guys were playing football when I got there, but Juke was in the gym, Bryce Dalton, Braylon Taylor and Tre Davis were in the gym, and we had some other kids, including jayvees, in the gym for workouts,” Perkins said. “I could see right away this was going to be a competitive team. Then when the football season ended abruptly, we started getting those kids (led by Mike Geter, Deuce Walker, Dashawn Brown and Hank Webb), and I could see how special a group of young men we had. It was all a lot of fun, really. I watched them develop, watched them grow strong together as a team, and they went far.”

The Hornets were really good in 2022-23, but still got better in 2023-24. They went undefeated in the CCC for the first time since 2008-09 and finally swept nemesis Thomasville for an outright league title. They won another CCC tourney. They returned to the Christmas tournament at Catawba College after a year hiatus and won it emphatically over the Rowan schools and a stout Central Davidson squad, a 3A conference champ. On the big stage of the state playoffs, the Hornets won four times and reached the regional final where they lost 76-72 in Winston-Salem to Reidsville, the best 2A team in the state.

“We were close against Reidsville, a couple of possessions away,” Perkins said. “Reidsville is a really strong team with the big they have and the point guard they have, and the transfer (Johnniyus Sharpe) made the difference for them.”

Salisbury finished second in the final MaxPreps 2A West rankings (behind Reidsville) and 28th in the state rankings, which includes the private schools and all of the NCHSAA classifications. That’s one heck of a season.

Salisbury was able to push pace and use its depth. The Hornets boosted their scoring from 2022-23 by almost 8 points per game, while allowing 4 fewer points per game. They won by 17 in an average outing in 2022-23. They won by 29 on an average night this season.

“I still never got comfortable at any time,” Perkins said with a laugh. “But that’s just my nature.”

The Hornets broke the school record for points per game, averaging 81.1. No Salisbury team, even the powerhouses of the 1980s and early 1990s ever had averaged 80. The Hornets put up points at that dizzying pace, even with a parade of running clocks. A running clock kicks in automatically, in the second half, when a team achieves a 40-point lead.

Most of those overheated scoreboards were caused by Wake Forest recruit Harris, who broke county records for season scoring and career scoring.

“Juke made it easy to coach him because Juke didn’t just want to do well as an individual, it was important for him that the team also do well,” Perkins said. “As talented as Juke is, it would be easy for him to walk around thinking he’s really great and not listening to anything, but he was coachable, and a coachable player with his skills can make a lot of good things happen.”

On Friday, Perkins, a former Mars Hill and North Carolina A&T player, drove to Wilmington to watch Harris play in Saturday’s Carolinas Classic All-Star Game, the basketball equivalent of the Shrine Bowl. Harris will suit up with some of the state’s — and the nation’s — best, including North Meck’s North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year Isaiah Evans, a Duke recruit. Perkins will soak up a few more memories of Harris and will be there in the Hoggard High gym to support him.

Not everyone can score 30s every night, but as far as unsung heroes for the Hornets’ banner season, Perkins sang the praises of Walker and Dalton.

“Dalton is a very good guard, really strong defensively,” Perkins said. “Deuce was an amazing rebounder. If Deuce was 6-foot-2, there’s no telling what he might do.”

The assistant coaches were important to the Hornets’ success. Erich Epps, Dimp Everhart and Greg Tinsley all made unique contributions. Perkins said he felt comfortable with that group from the first time they met in his office.

“Erich is the best I’ve ever seen as far as providing in-game stats,” Perkins said. “He’s got so much life and basketball experience, and he can give you information in real-time that makes a difference. Dimp would get after our guys sometimes to play harder and could be the tough guy when that’s what was needed. Dimp and I could get out on the court and demonstrate what we wanted done. Being able to show them is different than telling them how to do something. Greg, it’s funny, he’s from Lincoln County and I went to church in Lincoln County. We knew all the same people, but we didn’t know each other until this year. He was a positive influence on everyone. He would give you the shirt off his back. If a kid needed a ride home, he was their guy.”

The Hornets closed the books at 27-4, with a season eerily similar to Withers’ 2017-18 team that went 27-4 and lost a four-point game in the regional final to the eventual state champion (Forest Hills). Only three teams in the program’s storied history have won more games in a season.