SALISBURY — Next Generation Academy began as a program to offer academic, athletic and personal enrichment building blocks for Rowan County youth. 

At the time of its conception, founders Romar Morris and John Knox were leading the programs at Hall’s Gym in Salisbury’s West End neighborhood. As its offerings grew, so did its need for more room. This week, after almost four years since opening its doors, Next Gen Academy celebrated opening a new location on Catawba College’s campus.

Although it began strictly as a sports outlet for local youth, Next Gen Academy has blossomed into a multi-tiered development program that emphasizes academics, leadership and sports to empower, inspire and unite young men and women in the community. 

Next Gen Academy’s website described the mission as an aim to create a supportive, fun and enriching environment to prove a safe space that cultivates knowledge, character and the behaviors needed to succeed in a world full of temptation and competition. 

Morris and Knox are not alone in the endeavor. Morris’s wife, Chelsea, is integral in the day-to-day, bringing a Teach for America background that aids in the program’s academic instruction. 

Next Gen Academy offers various programs in addition to year-round academic support, such as athletic development and mentorship for students ages 5 to 14+.

Training during the school year includes football, cheerleading and track and field. There is also a summer camp that runs for six weeks from June to July to provide enrichment while the children are out of school.

Thanks to the new facility at Catawba College, Next Gen Academy has room to learn and grow as it continues to service the community. 

“The sky’s the limit,” Morris said. 

While Morris and company have always been ambitious about what the program could become, it hardly happened overnight and the evolution of the program has taken time and effort from numerous community partners as well as a supportive board. 

History of the program

“We started about 2020-2021,” Morris said. “That’s when we became official. We had our first season. Hall’s gym was our first official landing spot for Next Gen Academy.”

Back then, they had about 50 kids that they were working with. Since then, that number has quintupled. 

“Right now, flowing through our organization, I would say we have about 200 to 250,” Morris said. 

As with any program getting off its feet, it took a little time for self-discovery.

“We were in the process of learning what we were and who we were,” Morris said. “Our actual first name was Next Generation Sports Academy. Then, we eventually changed it because we wanted to be more than just sports. We wanted to have a holistic approach with the kids, be able to do academics, be able to do wellness, nutrition and be able to be in the community.”

Morris said that he and Knox spent countless hours brainstorming what they wanted the program to look like. Morris added that Chelsea, who also now leads the program alongside him and Knox, supported their mission from the onset. 

Both Morris and Knox were standout football players at Salisbury High School who went on to collegiate and, eventually, professional careers. While hanging up the cleats presented an emotional obstacle, Morris indicated that he and Knox are both grateful for the opportunities that playing football gave them, and so they wanted to give something back to the community that supported them for so long.

As the vision for the program progressed beyond simply being sports-centric, the constraints of Hall’s Gym started being more apparent. 

“It’s our second year when we try to do academics,” Morris said. “So we’re using Hall’s Gym for the academic rooms. But we were having way too many kids, and we actually had to stop taking kids in because we didn’t have any space.”

Turning young people away ran counter to the group mission, so they started exploring alternatives that would allow them to meet demand. 

“It was very hard because we didn’t want to, we didn’t want to turn the parents away, and because a lot of parents, they saw a value in what we’re doing,” Morris said. 

Empowered by the board and a fortuitous conversation with the President of Catawba College, the Next Gen Academy leaders learned about a space opening up on Catawba’s campus. The space had previously housed Partners In Learning, a program for special-needs children, which has since moved to a new location on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. S. 

The space has proven to be a natural fit because it expands the available facilities to enhance the sports offerings while giving them sufficient classroom space for after-school academic instruction. However, Morris mentioned another benefit to being on a college campus. 

“I think it makes (college) attainable,” Morris said. “I’m always about seeing is believing and with them actually being on this campus like our kids in our summer camp, some of them said, ‘I want to go to Catawba now.’ Many of them are actually from here that have never seen this campus.”

Besides just putting college within reach for area youth, being at Catawba has elevated the standard to which they hold themselves. 

“We have to carry ourselves completely differently, not just because of who we are, but we want to have a certain standard,” Morris said. “We’re on a college campus now where there are high-level athletes and students that are trying to better their future.”

Morris indicated that several Catawba students regularly interact with his kids, which brings even more advantages. 

“I think it’s very, very beneficial for our students to see, especially when we have Catawba students come in,” Morris said. “They volunteer with us as well. So it’s cool being able to see the kids interact with their students.”

For Morris, the growth of Next Gen Academy has been a dream come true, and one that he hopes will only continue. 

“I’m from here,” Morris said. “I’m from this community. I’ve seen the good. I’ve also seen the bad. And I’ve seen how, if you don’t grab a kid and try to teach them, try to work with them, try to love on them, they can go the opposite direction to find the same thing, but from different people.”

Thanks to the minds and hearts at Next Gen Academy, those youth have an outlet and like Morris said, the sky’s the limit.