When people look at the Salem Community High School girls’ basketball record book, they will find the name Marla (Sapp) Tolliver in numerous places.

Tolliver is Salem’s all-time career scoring leader for both boys and girls with 2347 points. At one time it was believed she was the state’s all-time career scoring leader. Sixteen years after she graduated from Salem that total still ranks among the top 20 in Illinois history for girls.
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It took Salem Community High School basketball 44 years to produce a 1000 career points player in Mike Gibbs. Fifteen years would pass before the next Salem player reached that plateau and that player was Carla (Haney) Jourdan.

Haney reached that plateau late in the 1978-79 season. She wound up with a final career mark of 1087 points.

Haney saved her best season for last. In her senior campaign of 1978-79, she averaged 21.8 points per contest. Haney was a member of the All-North Egypt Conference First Team, a member of the Decatur Herald All-Area Team and a member of the Chicago Tribune All-State team.

Haney’s senior team produced the best overall season mark for both boys and girls at Salem. The Lady Wildcats went through the regular season undefeated at 23-0 before losing to Centralia in the regional championship game. Salem won its only NEC girls basketball championship that season with Haney.

Haney was also a great track athlete at Salem.
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