By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Royce Perkins (Class of 2029) was the main attraction at middle school basketball games in Cabarrus County last season.
The youngster threw down some dazzling dunks and a lot of people thought he was the best eighth-grader they’d seen in a while.
Perkins will be joining Salisbury High for the 2025-26 season. The Hornets had a hard-to-beat recruiting advantage. Royce’s dad, Albert, is the head coach of the Salisbury squad.
“I’d go to Royce’s games and every coach in Cabarrus County would be there,” Coach Perkins said with a chuckle. “They were trying to figure out who this kid was and trying to find out where he was going to high school. We live within walking distance of West Cabarrus and my daughter goes to West Cabarrus, but Royce is going to be riding to Salisbury with me.”
Royce Perkins is 6-foot-1, but his size 14 shoes are an indication that there’s a lot more growth in his future. He’s someone the Hornets will rely on for immediate varsity help in 2025-26.
“Royce is not a typical freshman in that he already knows all of our guys,” Coach Perkins said. “He’s been working out with them for two years. He’s been in the gym with them. The difference this summer was that he got to play with them.”
Salisbury has fielded two sensational teams in Perkins’ two seasons as head coach. They had a Juke Harris-led 27-4 team and then a Myles Smith-led 26-4 team, teams with different styles and strengths that posted almost identical records and rolled through the 2A state playoffs until encountering Reidsville.
“This will be another different team without having Myles out there,” Coach Perkins said. “But the summer is the time when you find out who you are and what you can do and also hen you find out what you need to work on. I saw enough to really like the guys we have. We should be very competitive.”
Rising senior Braylon Taylor scored 17.4 points per game last season, fourth in Rowan County, so he’s someone the Hornets can build their offensive attack around. He scores more on the drive and at the foul line than from the 3-point line.
“He’s a crafty scorer, a finisher, and everyone knows that,” Coach Perkins said. “But people are going to be surprised, I think, by his athleticism. He’s taken a jump in that area. He’ll look like a different player.”
Blake Smith, Myles’ younger brother, is smart and tough. He returns as a defensive anchor and probably will double last season’s modest scoring numbers.
“We’ll need him to score more and we saw this summer that he is capable of scoring very well,” Coach Perkins said.
Salisbury played in summer events at Catawba College, UNC Greensboro and UNC Charlotte as well as in one of the Rick Lewis Phenom Hoop showcases.
They unveiled a number of new assets, including forward Josiah Young, who is transferring from West Rowan. Young is about 6-foot-5 and has been a starter at West. He wasn’t always consistent during his time with the Falcons, but he’s talented. On the nights when he brought focus and intensity, he produced double-doubles and blocked shots.
“He’s impressed us,” Coach Perkins said. “For a kid his size, he’s got a lot of skills. He’s going to be helpful.”
Jonathan Ross is making a comeback on the court (and the football field) for the Hornets and had impactful scoring games this summer. Ross can shoot and put up several impressive games as a varsity freshman in 2022-23, including a 21-point outing against Lexington.
But he hasn’t suited up for the Hornets since the first semester of the 2023-24 season.
“He can give us some of those things that Hank Webb did for us last year,” Coach Perkins said. “He can make 3s and he can be that third ball-handler, and I like to have three ball-handlers.”
A couple of jayvees moving up whom Perkins expects to be important are Darius Greene and Jayden Jones.
While there will be a lot of new faces in uniform, Perkins will still have assistants Horatio Everhart and Greg Tinsley on the bench with him.
Perkins is enthusiastic about the Hornets’ move to the South Piedmont Conference, although the Hornets will be one of the smaller schools in the 4A/5A league.
“I don’t hear our guys talking about it a lot, but I know they’re as excited as I am about the challenge,” Perkins said. “Some of the Davidson County schools we were playing just aren’t basketball schools. But the Cabarrus schools are good basketball schools, and we know how dangerous Carson is. We expect to have a lot more competitive games than we were having in the CCC and because of that we’ll do some things differently. Our game preparation will change some.”
Salisbury and North Rowan are not scheduled to play in basketball in 2025-26 — unless they meet in the Christmas tournament. Perkins expressed some disappointment with that.
