The Salem High football team will be jumping from the proverbial frying pan into the fire this week when they travel to Dinwiddie for a 7 pm Friday night football game. After losing their first three games the Spartans will have their work cut out for them.
Like Salem, Dinwiddie is a perennial power in Virginia high school football. The Generals were 11-2 last year and have opened this season with three wins over Colonial Heights, 53-7, Granby, 55-6, and Highland Springs last Friday, 28-21. Coach Billy Mills is one of the all-time winningest coaches in VHSL history, having coached a Dinwiddie since 2005.
Salem has the same kind of history, but this hasn’t been a normal Spartan season. The team started out with just 29 varsity players and suffered some injuries to key players in the first two weeks, losses to E.C. Glass and Franklin County. Last week four players were removed from the team for school violations and Salem had a couple more key injuries in a 34-13 loss to William Fleming in Roanoke last Friday. One of the injuries was a broken collarbone by starting quarterback Tanner Overstreet.
It’s been a nightmare for coach Don Holter, who has averaged over 10 wins a season in his six prior years as coach. That includes two trips to the state Class 4 final and one championship.
“We haven’t forgotten how to coach,” said Holter of his Spartan staff. “Our record speaks for itself. We have a sophomore heavy team and I love these kids. They have courage, resolve and resilience, and they’re going to grow up and be a special group. Once they get some experience we’re going to be a state caliber team once again.”
With new faces throughout the offense Salem leaned on junior runningback Kyshead Arrington in the first half at Fleming. The Colonels scored first but Arrington carried the load, culminating in a 35 yard TD run that made it 7-7 with six minutes left in the first quarter. At that point it looked like a typical Salem-Fleming game.
Things went downhill from there for the Spartans. The Colonels scored on fourth and inches with 47 seconds left in the first period, then hit a 29 yard TD pass on third and long with 4:54 on the clock to take a 21-7 lead into the locker room.
Salem hung tough in a scoreless third period but Fleming scored again just one minute into the fourth to go up 27-7. That’s when Overstreet suffered his injury, which was eerily similar to an injury suffered by Salem quarterback Eli Taylor two years ago at Fleming. Taylor, a lefty, broke his non-throwing collarbone on the right side while Overstreet, a right-hander, broke his non-throwing collarbone on the left side. Both happened at about the same spot on the field, early in the fourth quarter. Taylor returned later in the regular season as the Spartans marched to the state final, and with a similar injury Holter is hoping for the same.
Greyson MacBrien finished the game at quarterback and threw a touchdown pass to Tolin Saul but sophomore Jaidyn Rudisell is the likely starter against Dinwiddie this week. How things go for the rest of the season remains to be seen, but Holter certainly isn’t throwing in the towel after three weeks.
“We’ve played against great competition,” he said. “We have to have faith all the time, not just when the sun shines.”
