The 1990 Salem Lady Wildcats golf team was the middle squad of a threeyear run to the state tournament. Several of the squad’s members also competed on the 1989 team that finished 13th at state and the 1991 team that was ninth.

Coach Bill Morgan’s 1990 version compiled a 19-3 regular season record. One of the biggest highlights of the regular season came when the team broke the school record for low score in a nine-hole meet when the Lady Wildcats shot a 179 in a meet against Olney at the Salem Country Club.
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Shandeen (Hunt) Gomez took a long path, literally, for her induction into the Salem High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Gomez spent the first two years of her prep career at Newcomb, New Mexico and twice helped lead that school’s basketball program to the state tournament. Newcomb had a combined 45-5 record during those two years.

Gomez made the move to Illinois for her junior year and followed Newcomb basketball coach Janet Holst to Salem. Gomez continued her success on the hardwood with the Lady Wildcats and was an All-North Egypt Conference First Team selection in both her junior and senior seasons.

Gomez’ athletic talents carried beyond basketball at Salem. It carried over to track and volleyball. During her junior track season Gomez was a member of the NEC 3200-meter relay champions. She was also a starting setter on the 1996 Lady Wildcats volleyball team that went 26-7, won the NEC and regional championships and advanced to the sectional championship games.
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Anne (Clark) Cather was the anchor for three straight state-qualifying teams at Salem and help lay the foundation for the girl’s golf program that began her freshman season.

The 1992 SCHS graduate played in nine postseason meets and led the Lady Wildcats in eight of those. That included the regional and sectional as a sophomore for a Salem team that finished 13th at the 1989 state meet. Cather had arguably her best high school postseason in 1990 as a junior when she was the individual runner-up at the Mt. Vernon Regional, the individual champion at the Belleville Sectional and finished 19th at the state meet for the Lady Wildcats squad that improved its state finish to tenth. Cather led Salem in all three of its postseason meets as a senior, as she was fourth at the Murphysboro Regional, seventh at the Edwardsville Sectional and 24th at the 1991 state meet. Cather’s performance helped Salem win its first ever regional and sectional championship and helped the Lady Wildcats improve their place at the state meet by another notch to ninth.
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The 1991 Salem Wildcats football team turned in one of the best seasons in school history with a stifling defense that shut out four opponents and limited three others to only one touchdown.

The North Egypt Conference co-champions compiled a 9-2 record, a victory total topped only by the 1985 team’s 10-1 mark, and at the time of its inductions was one of only three Salem football teams to have won a playoff game.

Coach Scott Steward’s team kicked off its season with a 35-21 win over Centralia in the annual Shriners Game, as running back Brad Mabrey rushed for a school record 354 yards and had touchdown runs of 48, 6 and 57 yards.
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An incredible postseason ride helped the 1994 Salem girls 800 medley relay bring home the first state medal by a Salem relay team in school history, boys or girls.

The quartet of Angie Burroughs, Julie Bierman, Trisha Ward and Serra Morton, which was coached by Suzanne (Henry) Brown, broke the school record in three straight postseason races. They began their path at the Class AA sectional race where they defeated a very tough East St. Louis squad on its home turf as well as several other strong relay teams from the metro east and southern Illinois with a first place time of 1:51.1.
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Coach Bill Morgan’s 1991 Salem Wildcats golf team compiled an impressive resume, which included a North Egypt Conference championship, a regional crown and an overall 63-8-1 record.

Salem was nearly perfect in the regular season where it compiled a 47-1 record. The Wildcats won the NEC Meet, which was played at Lawrenceville, by 33 strokes over second place Carmi. Salem’s winning score of 304 included a 73 from NEC individual champion Mike Williams and a 75 by runner-up Blake Morrison. The Wildcats also got identical rounds of 78 by Ryan Andrews, Jeff Morgan and Mike Russell.
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