By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Salisbury senior midfielder David “Fuss” Austin produced a remarkable season that made him one of the Post’s Rowan County Players of the Year.

Austin was a “holding” mid, a defense-first mid, in Salisbury’s 4-2-3-1 scheme, so his primary role was to provide goal-prevention stability in front of the inexperienced youngsters in the back. His assignment was to stop the attack first, win possession second, then think about trying to get a counterattack started. Somehow he scored 17 goals, leading the Hornets. He also had eight assists, second on the team.

“We scored 61 goals, so Fuss accounted for 41 percent of them,” Salisbury head coach Matt Parrish said. “As a holding midfielder, he was primarily responsible for stopping the pass before initiating scoring opportunities, but even from a comparatively recessed position, he was our most dangerous offensive weapon. He was lethal on free kicks from inside the 30 and he was on the receiving end of a lot of corners and longer free kicks.”

Runner-up in the voting for Central Carolina Conference Offensive Player of the Year, Austin shares the county player of the year honor with South Rowan’s senior striker Michael Coles. They are close friends, with their soccer bond dating back to their days with a Catawba College-based youth soccer club. Austin remembers they were about 7 years old then. Their shared love of the sport has kept them tight even as their teams have staged some fierce matches.

“We won 1-0 against South early this season,” Austin said. “Because of my friendship with Michael that was probably my most memorable goal of the year.”

The South game was one of seven this season in which Austin used his instinctive feel for the game and his ability to read everything going on around him to produce the decisive goal for the Hornets (19-3-3).

“He’s a silent assassin,” Parrish said. “Fuss was a leader through example, who never drew any attention to himself. A consummate team-first player, he carried as much responsibility as anyone on our team. We had a two-man senior class with Fuss and Hines Busby. We were supposed to be way down this year, so I don’t think it can be overstated as far as what those two seniors did for our team. Their leadership was paramount in us having the season that we did.”

The two seniors kept Salisbury’s winning tradition rolling, imparting their leadership and wisdom, to, among others, their younger brothers, sophomore Henry Austin and freshman Fletcher Busby.

“It was cool having my younger brother on the team, but also annoying sometimes,” Fuss Austin said with a laugh. “I mean, he’s a little brother and all that, but he did learn a lot this year. We had a lot of young guys on the team, so Hines and I had to step up a lot. Hopefully, we were able to pass on some of the culture of what it means to play soccer for Coach Parrish and for Salisbury High.”

Fuss came by his nickname, a nickname he prefers to David, long ago.

“I had a brother who would pick me up, and I didn’t like it and so I’d fuss,” he said. “They started calling me ‘Fuss.’ That’s where the nickname came from. It stuck.”

After learning the ropes from former teammate Carlos Henriquez, Austin began making a major statistical impact for the Hornets as a junior when he contributed six goals and 13 assists for a very strong, senior-heavy team.

He was All-CCC three times. He made All-Region second team in 2023 and All-Region first team this season.

He saved some of his best for last. On the final night of the regular season. Salisbury lost 4-0 to East Davidson, a loss of disastrous proportions for a team that rarely was scored on. That loss forced the Hornets to share the CCC regular season title with the Golden Eagles, but the teams played again 24 hours later, and Salisbury found redemption with a solid 2-0 victory in a neutral-site match to determine playoff seeding.

“We played our worst game of the season, but then 24 hours later we played our best team game of the season,” Austin said.

Austin didn’t brag about it, but he scored both Salisbury goals in that payback game.

“The East Davidson game, like a lot of our games, was a testament to Fuss and his work ethic,” Parrish said. “Most of the time he just wanted it more than everyone around him.”