The trip to Dinwiddie is in the rear view mirror, it’s Homecoming Friday night and Blacksburg is on the schedule. It’s time for Salem to win a football game.
The Spartans have had the season from hell thus far. They’ve had injuries to key players and key players dismissed from the team. On top of that they’ve played a difficult schedule with the last two games on the road.
“This is a tough, gritty group and they’re focused on getting better,” said Spartan coach Don Holter. “They want to be good, and they will be good.”
With that said, they weren’t good enough to handle Dinwiddie last Friday on the road. The third ranked team in the state took a 42-0 win and Holter saw the clock running continuously with his team behind for the first time in his coaching tenure at Salem.
“We hung in there,” he said. “We gave them three short fields off turnovers but I saw a lot of encouraging things. Our young offensive line has been overwhelmed but they’re getting better. Our linebackers are playing more physical. We started six sophomores on offense and six on defense Friday.”
Salem started Jaidyn Rudisell at quarterback in place of injured Tanner Overstreet and Greyson MacBrien also saw some time. Both are sophomores and they combined to complete two of four passes for nine yards.
Kyshead Arrington rushed 14 times for 52 yards and sophomore Jayden Wood, who opened the season on the jayvee team, had 58 yards on 14 carries. Tolin Saul spent time at fullback and ran 16 times for 49 yards.
This Friday, in lieu of actual medical miracles, Spartan fans are hoping Blacksburg is just what the doctor ordered. The Class 4 Bruins are 2-2 with wins over Class 2 James River and Class 1 Giles. In the past two weeks they’ve lost to Class 2 Floyd and Class 1 Altavista.
Regardless of that, the Bruins are definitely improved from the teams that lost 29 straight games from the end of 2019 to the beginning of the 2023 season. Zack Leonard, a former Glenvar assistant, is in his fourth year as coach and the Bruins are 8-13 since breaking that long losing streak.
“They’re much better,” said Holter. “Coach Leonard does a great job and they’ve worked hard in the off-season. They’re sound in what they do.”
At 0-4 Salem is in no position to take anyone for granted, and the Homecoming Dance will be a whole lot better if the Spartans win Friday night. Holter isn’t one to let the big weekend be a distraction.
“Our kids understand there’s a Homecoming dance because there’s a Homecoming game,” he said.
