By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA —  West Rowan quarterback Brant Graham is still flying under the radar, but that won’t be the case forever.

Graham has been around a while and is in his second season as the starter for the Falcons, but he’s still only a junior. The Rowan quarterbacks who have broken school records this season — North Rowan’s Jeremiah Alford, South Rowan’s Brooks Overcash and Salisbury’s Hank Webb — are all seniors.

“Brant is blessed with incredible arm talent,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “Based on the teams that we’ve seen this year, I’d say his ability to push the ball down the field is just about unmatched.”

There were some growing pains for Graham as a sophomore starter, but he survived and thrived. He threw for 1,577 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Heading into Friday’s Senior Night game against East Rowan, Graham has thrown for 1,494 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. So he’s got 28 career touchdown passes and more than 3,000 passing yards in the bank.

West is balanced on offense and throws 21 times per game, less than Salisbury and East, but more than North, South and Carson. Graham’s completion rate has jumped significantly as a junior— to 53 percent.

“I do think I’ve improved some,” Graham said. “That’s because of more experience and more confidence.”

Graham is close to 6-foot-3 and weighs 175 pounds. He’s not a runner and he’s not exactly elusive, but he moves well enough to succeed. He’s athletic enough to dodge the rush and keep a play alive for that critical half-second it takes to complete a pass downfield.

He also has a super safety net in senior Evan Kennedy, one of the best receivers in county history and a man who can turn a 5-yard flip into a 70-yard sprint in a hurry.

“Evan will make a great catch even if I don’t throw a good ball,” Graham said.

Graham’s older brothers — Bailey and Braden — were good basketball players who focused on that sport.

Brant started playing YFL football in third grade, and he’s always played three sports, like a guy who came through a time warp from the 1960s. He’s been a starter for West’s varsity basketball team since he was a freshman — he can shoot — and he’s a solid pitcher/infielder for West’s baseball team and for Rowan American Legion.

“I always have played all three,” he said. “Football and baseball are the sports where I’ve had the most success, but I like basketball. In the summer, I might have a football workout and then Legion baseball practice in the afternoon or a game at night, but that’s not too hard. The school year is much tougher because there’s no break. It keeps me busy, one sport, and then the next, but I’m hoping to put up some numbers, hoping to make a name for myself.”

Athletes who can handle the football/basketball/baseball grind are a scarce commodity in 2024. Unless an athlete is supremely gifted, all three of those sports require significant effort in the off-season to be able to excel at the high school level.

“Those three-sport jockeys, they’re a dying breed,” Kraft said.

After his sophomore success, expectations for Graham were high in the West camp heading into this season, but things got off to a difficult start. There was a last-play loss to A.L. Brown on opening night, and in Week 3, there was the worst defeat in West history at the hands of Mooresville — 66-0.

Graham exited the Mooresville game with a shoulder injury in the first quarter, which partially explains how things got so out of hand. Fortunately, the only time he missed was the rest of that game. West’s open week followed. Graham was healed and ready to go by the time the Falcons opened South Piedmont Conference play against Carson.

Graham went to China Grove Middle School, so the Carson and South Rowan games are big for him. He has quite a few former teammates on those squads who are still friends.

It took some time this season for Graham’s touchdown total to catch up with his interception column, but his ratio now is positive — 14 to 11.

“Brant would be the first one to tell you we were turning the ball over way too much early in the season,” Kraft said. “But it’s not like it was all on him. There were some bad throws, but there were also some bad protections and some bad routes. One of the most important traits a quarterback can possess is to be able to shoulder the blame for a bad play, focus and move on to the next one.”

Quarterbacks generally get too much credit for team success and too much blame for team failure. That comes with the job. Graham has developed some thick skin. He accepts tough coaching.

“I’d say he gets fussed at more and gets coached harder than anyone in our program,” Kraft said. “But he manages to ride the highs and to manage the lows. And we know he’s still getting better with every rep he takes. We watch the tape and there are times when he makes throws that make us do a double-take.”

Last Friday’s game with Concord was probably Graham’s best effort of the season — 200-plus yards, four TDs and one interception — as West scalded the Spiders 42-0, the worst defeat the Falcons have ever handed Concord.

“Definitely our best game overall this year,” Graham said. “We had it going, offensively and defensively.”

Graham hopes that football or baseball will lead to a college scholarship. That’s a realistic goal. He’s good, and he’s still getting better.

“When Brant plays with anticipation, when he plays with confidence, he has the ability to be lethal,” Kraft said.