As fall sports come to a close, students involved in basketball, wrestling and swimming are preparing for the start of their seasons. Swimming and boys basketball both have new coaches this year.
Basketball is coming off a not-so-successful season last year for both boys and girls. Jaelen Nice is the new boys’ basketball coach. Nice predicts that the team of 21 players will be very competitive this year. With an entirely new offense and defense, the boys are looking to hold themselves to new expectations. Nice said every game is an opportunity to compete and improve, but he is most looking forward to the West Washington game on opening night. The game will be played Nov. 22 at West Washington. The boys have five seniors on the team: Les Bowles, Wyatt Chastain, Jaden Cheatwood, Alex Wilcox and Avery Robbins.
Girls’ basketball is coached by Jerry Hickey. This is his 11th season at Salem and 21st season overall. With seven experienced seniors on the team, Hickey predicts they will be competitive in every game. The seniors are Kendall Hickey, Maggie Gibson, Sarah Heightchew, Kirsten Sexton, Lanie Roberts, Allison Clodfelter and Bree Carey. The team is most looking forward to playing Eastern because it is always a competitive game. While the overall philosophy of the game is the same, Hickey plans on emphasizing limiting turnovers and controlling the tempo this season.
Salem’s swim team has been very successful for the past couple of seasons and with a new coach that success might continue. Amy Whitlatch is the new swim coach, who came out of retirement to coach this season. With only three girls and seven boys, the team is going to be smaller than in the past. The seniors are Jonny Tally, Isabel Tunney, Ethan Dawson and Victoria Gomez.
Whitlatch said success this season is going to be on an individual basis and she plans on striving for school records. Training for swimming has changed drastically from what it was in the past. Yardage has increased and the sets are more specific than they have ever been.
“There is talent here in Salem, they just need to have the training to showcase those talents,” Whitlatch said.