By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Salisbury offensive lineman Malik Williams has committed to Barton College.
Barton is a Division II program in Wilson. The head coach since the school revived football in 2018 has been Chip Hester, who was the head coach of the Catawba Indians from 2002-2012.
“Coach Hester has got a lot of ties to Salisbury and Rowan County and he knows the area and the schools,” Williams said. “When I visited there, we sat in his office and we must have talked face-to-face for 30 minutes. I don’t know if he does that with everyone they recruit, but it impressed me. He talked about how football is really important, but football comes after faith and family. He said a lot of things I really respected.”
The distance to Barton was a little daunting for Williams, who measured the drive at 2 hours, 40 minutes from Salisbury, but his visit went extremely well in all respects.
“It’s a school with no negatives,” Williams said. “Yes, it’s a long way, but it’s a really nice school with a good football program. I talked several times to the offensive line coach (Cam Avery) as well as Coach Hester. I’m confident it’s a school where I can grow and develop.”
Williams, who has played mostly right guard for the Hornets and is 6-foot-1, 285 pounds, attracted interest from other colleges, but Barton had seen his film and recruited him the longest and strongest. Barton was coming to see him practice and scrimmage even before the 2025 season started.
Williams is a pretty remarkable success story in that he went about seven years between football games.
“I played some youth football in the fourth grade when I was a lot smaller and was playing positions like cornerback and receiver,” Williams said. “Then I didn’t play football again until the summer before my junior year. The coaches, my friends, a lot of people wanted me to come out there.”
At first, head coach Clayton Trivett was just hopeful that a very raw Williams could provide some depth. But Williams was a quick study with surprising strength and nimble feet. When the Hornets suffered a medical setback to starter Bo Bricefield, the offensive line had to be shuffled, and Williams became the guy the team counted on at right guard.
“For a first-year guy, he was pretty good,” Trivett said. “He’s very smart, so he started picking things up quickly. His technique was surprisingly solid for someone without a lot of experience, and he kept getting better every week.”
Williams enjoyed the competition, the camaraderie and the contact. He liked being part of something bigger than himself for the first time. He also realized he was getting in the best shape of his life.
Salisbury had a super 2024 season (11-2, Central Carolina Conference champs) and Williams received postseason accolades such as All-CCC.
His senior year was a lot different, The Hornets’ roster was depleted by graduation and transfer and the program took a step up in competition moving from a 1A/2A conference to a 4A/5A league with the NCHSAA’s shift to eight classifications. The 4A Hornets took it on the chin from all of the 5A schools in the South Piedmont Conference and went 2-9.
“It was very hard for a lot of our guys who had been winning like crazy for a long time,” Williams said. “But this was only my second year of football. It did hurt to lose so many games, but it didn’t affect how I practiced or played. I still lived in weight room, still gave everything I had on Friday nights. My senior season was an experience that I’ll use to be a better player and person.”
Salisbury only had two All-SPC players. Williams was one of them. He was one of four all-county Hornets.
“He’s a great player and a better person,” Trivett said of Williams. “He was a bright spot in our season. He’s the type of player every coach wants on their team. He’s only played two years of football, so he could blossom into something really special. I’m excited about his future.”
Trivett was one of the coaches for the Queen City Senior Bowl, an all-star game played in Charlotte in December. Williams was one of the players chosen for the game.
“The first day of practice, I felt like I was really behind some of the players from the big schools and they were throwing a lot of information at us,” Williams said. “But I studied all night, and I caught up. I was ready for the second day. I was able to compete out there and hold my own. We lost a close game, but I thought we played very well together for an all-star game. It was a positive experience. I thought Coach Trivett would probably be my o-line coach, but he coached the receivers. That wasn’t a negative. You can learn something from every coach. They all have different ideas.”
Williams is a National Honor Society student with a GPA in the 3.6-3.7 range. That was one of the reasons Barton got excited about him.
“When a college coach visits Salisbury and they see you have a solid GPA, it just lights them up,” Williams said. “You can be 6-foot-5 with all the talent in the world and it won’t matter if you don’t have grades.”
Williams obviously has his head on straight and is more mature than the average high school athlete. He’s got a pretty good plan for the future. He hopes to be a Barton Bulldog until graduation day.
“I’m not one of those guys going to a Division II school, looking to hit the transfer portal and still thinking about the NFL,” Williams said. “I want to play four years of football for Barton, and but after those four years, there’s life. I’ve seen some adversity growing up and I want to major in psychology and get into social work. That will give me an opportunity to help some kids.”
