By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS— South Rowan senior forward Michael Coles scored 62 goals in his career, with a steady progression from 10 as a freshman, to 16 as a sophomore, 17 as a junior and 19 as a senior.

Coles rhymes with goals, a happy coincidence, or maybe it was just meant to be.

“Michael is one of those special players who is always around the ball, can always find the ball and often finds himself in great position to score,” South head coach Timothy Hopkins said. “He was right where we needed him to be a lot of times this season, and he has that knack for finding the back of the net.”

Coles, one of the top finishers in 3A this season, is Rowan County Co-Player of the Year. He shares that honor with his friend, Salisbury midfielder David “Fuss” Austin, who scored 17 goals for the Hornets, a remarkable total for a defensive mid. Austin had seven game-deciding goals for a 19-3-3 team.

Coles and his South Rowan teammates played in an intriguing league, not a fantastic league — all the South Piedmont Conference teams were done by the second round of the 3A playoffs — but a league with unusual parity. There wasn’t a massive difference between first-place Concord, which pulled out match after match, and ninth-place West Rowan, which didn’t get many bounces. As one of the middle teams in the league, South (8-10-2, 6-9-1) had no automatic wins and no automatic losses. Almost every SPC match was going to be decided by one mistake or by one outstanding play, so every goal Coles scored mattered.

Carson had the best record of the four Rowan teams in the SPC and made the playoffs with a late surge, but Coles saved his best for Carson. He had a hat trick in a 3-2 win and two more goals in a 3-all tie with the Cougars.

“He scored a lot of very important goals for us,” Hopkins said. “We beat Central Cabarrus, one of the upper-tier teams in our league, probably our best win of the season, coming back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to win 3-2. Michael scored two of our goals. In the match with North Rowan, we got down 3-0, but we came back to tie 3-all with Michael scoring twice. He converted a PK that was the turning point. If he doesn’t score that goal, I don’t think there’s any chance we get a tie.”

Coles remembers getting started young in soccer, and it didn’t take him long to realize he could be good at it.

“I tried basketball and I played football for a while, but I could see that I had more of a gift for soccer than the other sports, and I could see that by the time I was about 9 years old,” Coles said. “Soccer became serious for me early. I started playing for club teams in Lake Norman and Charlotte.”

He was making an impact with the Raiders by his freshman season, although South had several capable scorers then, and Coles was sometimes used as an outside midfielder.

But eventually he became a forward, the most dangerous guy running up top for the Raiders.

“I try to work hard every game and try to have fun every game,” Coles said. “I’ve scored a lot of goals, but I realize those goals don’t happen without my guys, my teammates. Alex Morales and Jacill Perez-Gutierrez looked for me and made a lot of great passes to me this season.”

Coles isn’t a loud, brash guy. He tried to keep a level head and a cool approach in all those tight SPC matches.

“He’s never going to be the most vocal guy,” Hopkins said. “I’ve always respected him as someone who wanted to let his play do all the talking.”

College soccer has a heavy international flavor, and the transfer portal has further complicated and limited opportunities for high school players, but Coles (5-foot-11, 155 pounds) aspires to play in college and will likely get a chance to do so.

“He’s looking at some schools and there are some good schools looking at him,” Hopkins said. “He’s got some time before he needs to make a decision, and we’ll wait and see what happens.”

All-Rowan County soccer

Players of the Year — Michael Coles, South and David “Fuss” Austin, Salisbury

Honorable Mention goes to Anthony Beckham Medina, Carson’s best player and an All-Region pick.

Keeper of the Year — Finnegan Avery, Salisbury

Coach of the Year — Kudos to Lauren West for guiding Carson’s late charge to make the playoffs, but Salisbury’s Matt Parrish gets the nod for another stellar season. The Hornets weren’t as strong as they usually are and were a rebuilding project with just two seniors, but they still only lost three matches and were Central Carolina Conference co-champs. They tied SPC champ Concord on the road.

Coaches picked their all-county players. The Post determined the number for each team. MaxPreps rated the Hornets as the county’s best by quite a bit (210th in the state for all classifications), although a Salisbury-Carson match late in the season would have been interesting. Carson was ranked 281st in the state by MaxPreps. Other rankings: South (323), East (420), North (431) and West (453).

There were some differences as far as players chosen for All-Rowan County and for all-conference teams. South opted for guys with offensive stats for All-SPC, but went with intangibles and defense for all-county. Carson chose two goalkeepers among its four all-county players, including Adam Gardner, who made an amazing comeback as a senior after missing two seasons with a shattered ankle. Hard to argue with that choice.

All-Rowan County:

• Salisbury — David “Fuss” Austin, Mohammed Jabateh, Hines Busby, Finnegan Avery, Johnathan Barrera Quintero

• Carson — Anthony Medina Beckham, Jon Pendleton, Kevin Guerrero, Adam Gardner

• South — Michael Coles, Alan Ballinas-Gutierrez, Carlos Landaverde

• East — Sawyer Riley, Matthew Avalos, Noah Dillon

• North — Salim Shamman, Johan Castro, Jordin Moreno

• West — Daniel Hernandez, Alex Melchor