By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — This will be the last school year for the current configuration of the South Piedmont Conference.

South Rowan’s boys basketball program will be pleased no matter what realignment brings. It’s been a challenging stretch for Raider roundball, to say the least — 0-14, 0-14 and 0-16 in SPC games. Robinson moved up to the SPC last school year to bump those back-to-back 0-14s to 0-16.

Overall, South is 1-67 the last three seasons. West Iredell was the lone victim on an opening night when South splashed 77 points.

Playing in such a large league limits South’s non-conference opportunities, the Christmas tournament rarely provides any relief, and South’s handful of non-league games are normally against talented neighbors such as A.L. Brown and North Rowan. So it’s not a shock that wins have been few and far between.

Head coach Daniel Blevins has maintained his competitive nature, his sense of humor and his sanity through all of it. Blevins took charge back in the COVID days, and he’ll tell you that losing is still a whole lot better than not being able to play at all. His guys have learned plenty of life lessons the last few years.

Blevins’ debut season came when South was still in the 2A Central Carolina Conference. The Raiders got a boost from baseball stars such as Nathan Chrismon, Ty Hubbard and Kane Kepley and won four ball games, even in a drastically shortened season,

But competing in 3A and the SPC has been a tougher task.

“A lot of good teams in the SPC,” Blevins said. “Those Central Cabarrus teams of the last few years, I mean, what are you gonna do? The (Daniel) twins, plus the size and the depth they had, they were about as good a high school team as you’ll see. When we played them, there wasn’t much to do except pray. You hope no one gets hurt. You try to win the next one.”

Central Cabarrus will be human this year. Concord has subtracted a lot. Most coaches believe Robinson and Carson will be the teams at the top of the SPC.

Blevins isn’t dreaming about the top. When you’re where South is now the goals are modest — play as hard as you can, be as good as you can be, get better every game, and if you have a chance to win a few in the fourth quarter, get the job done.

Like most of the local basketball teams, South went at it hard in a busy June and vacationed and recuperated in July, a time when thoughts start slowly turning toward the football field. Blevins just got back from a vacation trip to the Outer Banks that included plenty of fishing.

“We did go as a team to two 12-team jamborees at Reagan and South Stokes in June,” Blevins said. “Sometimes when you go play outside the area against people you don’t know and people who don’t know you, you can find some things, and I believe we found things that will work for us.”

There was some bad news — a second ACL injury to Elijah Anderson, who was viewed as a potential rising star when he was a youngster. He missed all last season with the first injury, but he does intend to brace the knee and play this season — as Kayvone Norman did for West Rowan last season.

“He really wants to play his senior year,” Blevins said. “He’s told me he wants to help in whatever role he can.”

Blevins figures his most improved player from last season is Jadon Moore. Moore may be the school’s best senior athlete, as he already has had his moments in football, basketball and track and field.

“Not saying he was the same kind of basketball player Central’s twins were, but as far as quickness and speed, he could hang with them,” Blevins said. “He’s been mostly a driver and transition player, but his outside shot has improved a lot, and that’s going to give him the ability to score at all three levels. It’s a matter of finding a consistent release point on his shot. He could have a huge year.”

Tristian Littlejohn is another talented South athlete who has made strides since last winter.

“He was very fast last year and he’s faster now,” Blevins said.

Carter Rohletter and Corbin Goodman turned in good basketball summers.

Rohletter is an elite shooter when he has time and space to shoot. He balanced summer basketball with pitching for the Kannapolis American Legion baseball team.

“He had a couple of games where he shot with mid-season form and he had a couple where he shot with June form,” Blevins said. “He is a very good shooter. We’ll find ways to get him open.”

Blevins also likes his rising juniors, a class that includes Brycen Burris and Ryan Kluttz, a skilled ball-handler.

“The future looks brighter,” Blevins said. “We’ve got a really group of guys right now and team chemistry was as good as it’s been.”