By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Salisbury senior Hank Webb understands that as an athlete who plays basketball, baseball and football, he is a stegosaurus, a brontosaurus, a triceratops.

He is a long, wiry, 6-foot-3, 170-pound dinosaur.

West Rowan junior Brant Graham comes to mind as another athlete who is keeping year-round ball players from becoming an extinct species in Rowan County, but Webb realizes it’s a fraternity with a limited and shrinking membership.

Still, he wouldn’t have life any other way.

“I like staying busy and I really enjoy playing all three sports in their season,” Webb said. “I can’t imagine not playing all three.”

Assuming he can keep his body in one piece, Webb will be a more prominent athlete for Salisbury this school year than he’s ever been. He’s played roles and he’s helped for a long time, assisting superstars such as Mike Geter in football and Juke Harris in basketball, record-setters who have sparked the Hornets to elite 2A state rankings.

But especially on football and baseball fields, Webb is going to be expected to lead now. Some teen legends graduated or transferred, and now the Hornets will be looking up to him.

“It is a much different feeling as a senior,” Webb said. “There’s definitely more responsibility.”

In the past, Webb has contributed mightily to Salisbury football as the kicker and punter and as a wide receiver. He’s still the kicker and punter, but Webb also has moved up to the position of greatest responsibility on the gridiron, that of starting quarterback.

That development says a lot about the caliber of athlete Webb is, as he grew up going to Salisbury Academy, which doesn’t field a football team. He was behind in football. His first serious football experiences came as a freshman on the Salisbury High jayvee team, but he became the starting quarterback.

He hadn’t started a game at quarterback since his freshman year, but that changed Friday when he took the snaps for the new-look Hornets on the road against North Davidson.

“First offensive series there were some jitters, for me and for a lot of the guys,” Webb said. “But once you get hit, you settle down and you play the game. Each series got more comfortable for the offense.”

It’s not like Webb hasn’t been on the field. He came into this season with 25 career catches for 491 yards and seven touchdowns, some of them important ones. He wasn’t Deuce Walker, but he was a very solid receiver.

As Geter’s backup, he got to take quite a few snaps at quarterback last season in blowout games, but they were situations where the Hornets were up 40 and weren’t looking to throw. They were just killing  the clock. He only threw 12 passes, one for a touchdown.

Webb’s opening-night stats weren’t amazing.

If you examine the county passing stats for Week 1, you’ll see Webb had the fewest passing yards (93) of any of the county’s starting quarterbacks. He rushed for a modest 11 yards. Still, Salisbury head coach Clayton Trivett was pleased with his performance. After all, the Hornets won, and that’s always the most important stat for any quarterback.

“I realize Hank’s stats weren’t way out there,” Trivett said. “But it was our first game, and he did everything that we wanted him to do. We’ve got six new starters on offense, and we know we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’ll keep getting better.”

Webb’s biggest play in the 20-12 win at North Davidson was an 18-yard touchdown pass to Macari House. The play had broken down from its original design, as House had not run the route Webb was expecting, but they’re athletes and they found a way to make it work.

“Had to scramble around a little bit, but I was able to find Macari, and he made a big catch,” Webb said. “He had some nice receptions, and Evan Koontz had a couple of big ones.”

Mentored by former Salisbury star Wade Robins, who is now at Catawba, kicking is what Webb does best on a football field. It’s probably what he will do in college. He has offers from Catawba and a couple of small schools to kick and punt, although he has not committed yet.

Webb kicked really well on opening night, despite the demands of playing quarterback. All four of his kickoffs were touchbacks. He averaged 40 yards on his punts.

Salisbury went three-and-out on a shaky offensive possession following a third-quarter fumble recovery, but Webb kicked a 35-yard field goal that kept the Hornets from losing momentum. He also ran for a 2-point conversion and he kicked a PAT. He’s a versatile guy.

“I’ll be running around a lot, I guess, ” Webb said. “If we get stopped on third down, I’ll be punting or kicking a field goal. After the touchdown pass to Macari, I was excited, but then I remembered I had to go kick the extra point. And then I had to kick off.”

Webb, whose 4.4 GPA helps make him recruitable by colleges, does a lot of things well. He always has. It’s just that now he’s going to be noticed a lot more.

“I’m glad he’s on our side,” Trivett said. “We’ve just got to keep him healthy.”