Brant Graham.
Brant Graham.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA – Recent West Rowan graduate Brant Graham was one of the busiest athletes in county history.
He was a four-season sportsman because in addition to high school football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring, he still would show up to play American Legion ball every summer.
“You talk about an impactful guy in three high school sports,” said West Rowan head football coach Louis Kraft. “Brant may have taken a grand total of 10 days off in four years, and four of those 10 were on Christmas. He never got caught up in the praise and he was never a guy that gave excuses. All he ever wanted to do was win and he competed his tail off for the Falcons for four years.”
Graham put up solid career numbers in basketball and outstanding ones in football and baseball. A Catawba College baseball signee, he is the Post’s Rowan County Athlete of the Year for the 2025-26 school year.
This breaks a string of five straight Salisbury Hornet male honorees. Salisbury had an award winner every year since COVID with a splendid run of multi-sport athletes that included Jalon Walker, Marcus Cook, Mike Geter, Deuce Walker and Hank Webb.
Graham receives the Darrell Misenheimer Award.
Misenheimer was an exceptional athlete at East Rowan when the school was part of the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association. He was a Shrine Bowl football lineman and was a letterman at guard for the Clemson Tigers. He was the WNCHSAA runner-up as a heavyweight wrestler and WNCHSAA track and field champion as a generational shot putter. He set a Rowan County shot put record with a fling of 61 feet, 5.5 inches. Misenheimer was the Charlotte Observer’s North Carolina’s Athlete of the Year for the 1974-75 school year.
Misenheimer was co-winner (along with Salisbury’s Danny Winecoff) of the inagural Rowan County Male Athlete of the Year Award that was pressented in 1975. As a long-time assistant football coach in Rowan County, Misenheimer added to his local legacy. He also hit thousands of homers in slow-pitch softball. He’s in the US Slow Pitch Softball Association Hall of Fame and the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame.
At 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, Graham, 18, is the same height as the high school Misenheimer, but about 70 pounds lighter.
There were some long summer days (and nights) when Graham participated in all three sports, with football 7-on-7 scrimmages, basketball team camps and Legion baseball.
“My older brothers (Bailey and Braden) were really good basketball players,” Graham said. “But I always played all three and grew up enjoying all three sports. I looked forward to playing all of them as long as I could. The coaches at West always worked with me. No one ever tried to get me to specialize in a sport year-round. They always encouraged me to play everything.”
Kraft agreed with that assessment.
“We all fully supported who Brant is and the brand that Brant is, a legit three-sport guy,” Kraft said. “The one thing that translates to all three sports is competitive drive. He had plenty of that, and when you have that, you’ve always got a chance. Anytime we sent him on to the field or the court, he gave us a sense of calm.”
Kraft knew when he saw Graham as a freshman that he would be the varsity quarterback for the next three years. That turned out to be the case. Graham wasn’t a huge running threat, but he could sling it, and he had three of the top-50 passing seasons in Rowan County history.
He finished seventh all-time in passing yardage with 5,038 yards, throwing for more than 1,500 yards three straight years. On the all-time list, he sits between Mitch Ellis and Tim Houge, which is pretty strong company for a QB to be in.
Graham threw for 1,604 yards as a senior. He fired 49 career touchdown passes, which ranks 10th on the all-time county list. He threw one fewer than all-time greats Ellis and CM Yates.
“Football Fridays is the thing I’m going to miss the most at Catawba,” Graham said. “I’ve always loved playing football, always loved having people counting on me to make good decisions and good plays. The game I enjoyed the most my senior year was the Northwest Cabarrus game (12-for-21, 237 passing yards). We came out and really played that night. That was the best team we’ve beaten in a while. It was a big win for the program.”
Graham was a four-year varsity starter in basketball. He arrived at West the same year that Dadrian Cuthbertson became the head coach. He was mostly a shooter in his early days, but his all-round game grew some each year. He scored 788 points in his career.
While that’s not an overwhelming points total, it’s still significant. Graham is among the top-30 all-time scorers for a program that has produced more than its share of basketball standout. Graham scored more than some stars who focused exclusively on basketball.
He averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists as a senior.
“Brant’s senior season was his best,” Cuthbertson said. “His role was different as a senior because we asked him to handle the ball a lot more. He matured a lot, grew as a leader and defended better. We challenged him, told him we needed him to do a lot more than just shooting 3s, and he did all we asked. His rebounds and assists were up. His scoring stayed steady.”
Graham’s favorite senior basketball memory will still bring a smile to his face 50 years from now.
“Definitely the South Rowan game,” Graham said. “The first time I ever dunked in a game.”
Baseball is the arena where Graham has been considered one of the county’s best for years. He’s a “two-way.” a right-handed pitcher who also gets on base at a high rate and can play multiple positions. Coach Seth Graham, who isn’t related to Brant, knew he could rely him in left field, right field, first base or third base, depending on who was pitching.
As a senior, Brant was the South Piedmont Conference and Rowan County Pitcher of the Year. He was 8-2 with a 1.43 ERA. He was 21-5 for his career with a 2.20 ERA, and he was pitching in marquee games even when he was a freshman. As a hitter, he had a .472 on-base percentage with 12 RBIs as a senior. He had 41 career RBIs, so he was a helpful offensive player.
Brant cited getting eight strikeouts in an emotional comeback win against North Stanly and his shutout of East Rowan – East’s only loss in the SPC – as the highlights of his senior season. He can throw four different pitches for strikes, and they were all working against the Mustangs.
“He was a rock for us, a very important guy for the school as well as for the baseball program,” Seth Graham said. “He was an ace pitcher, a quality offensive player and someone we could use defensively all over the place. Brant is about as nice a guy as there is, but he’s also a competitor. He’s a gamer. I preach all the time that good things happen to good people, so I’m happy to see him get some big accolades as a senior.”
Brant is one of the last of a vanishing breed, a man for all seasons, a throwback to an era when the best athletes played three sports simply because they loved to compete. Maybe his successful career path will inspire some future Brant Grahams.
“We’re all proud of what he’s accomplished as a Falcon,” Kraft said. “You look at the list of the athletes of the year and there are some legends, but Brant fits in. He’s in good company with previous winners. And as much as we’ve loved watching him play three sports, just wait until Coach (Jim) Gantt gets his hands on him at Catawba. When Brant starts focusing on baseball year-round, look out. You could be hearing his name for a long time.”
With rising senior Olyvia Brown winning the Tracy Connor Female Athlete of the Year Award, West swept the county honors for the first time since 2016.
