It took some time for Bryant to build up the program. That success started to arrive in 1997 when the Lady Wildcats won their first sectional championship. Ironically that was year Bryant stepped away from coaching, but nearly all of those players had played for Bryant in previous seasons and in summer competition.
Under Bryant’s direction Salem won its first North Egypt Conference championship in 2002, which happened to be the league’s final year of existence. The Lady Wildcats won another conference title the following season during its first year of competition in the Apollo Conference. Besides its championship in 2003 Salem won Apollo Conference titles again in 2005, 2007 and 2008. While Bryant missed out on Salem’s first sectional championship, the Lady Wildcats won three straight under his direction during the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons.

Besides the team’s success Bryant coached 26 players who qualified for state competition, 12 in singles and 14 in doubles from seven doubles teams. Two of Bryant’s players went on to play at Division I level, two more at the Division II level and several at the junior college level.

Bryant along with his wife, Linda, helped develop most of the high school players during the summer when he coached area youth in the United States Tennis Association. Among those players included his daughter Adrienne and sons Alex and Ethan. All three made significant contributions to the girls and boys tennis program at Salem Community High School. Bryant served as president of the Southern Illinois Tennis Association.

Bryant, who graduated from Olney High School, Olney Central College and Eastern Illinois University, taught at SCHS 33 years. After retiring from teaching the Bryants have relocated to Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Whether it was as a player, an assistant coach or a head coach, Jim Koehler was a part of Salem Community High School athletics in five different decades.

A 1966 graduate of SCHS, Koehler was a member of the 1965 Wildcats football team that went 8-1 and won the North Egypt Conference championship. Koehler was a four-year member of the Wildcats football and baseball programs while he was a student at the school.

Koehler returned to his alma mater in 1976 as a world history teacher, a position he held for the next 27 years. A year later he began an eight-year run as the Lady Wildcats basketball coach, a program that was still in its infancy and had just two previous seasons of competition. Under Koehler’s direction Salem won back-to-back North Egypt Conference championships in 1978-79 and 1979-80. His 1978-79 squad had an undefeated regular season of 23-0 and finished 24-1 overall. The 24 wins stood as the school record for 20 years. Koehler had an overall record of 103-84.

Koehler had two stints as the Lady Wildcats softball coach, 1979 and 1985-91. His 1979 squad won the NEC championship, a district title and advanced to the sectional championship game where The Lady Wildcats lost to Cahokia. Salem won a regional championship when Koehler returned to the program in 1985 and added another NEC crown to his resume in 1989. That season the Lady Wildcats had a perfect conference season and also won the NEC Conference Tournament.

Koehler served as a varsity assistant and freshmen football coach from 1991-2002. During his time with the program Salem won NEC co-championships in 1992 and 1993 along with an outright crown in 1997. Koehler was also a part of eight Salem football playoff teams.

Besides what he accomplished in athletics, Koehler was involved with the SCHS Prom and began the tradition of announcing the arrival of the Prom attendees. He also helped sponsor Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

At the time of his induction into the Salem High Sports Hall of Fame, Koehler resides in Salem with his wife, Angie.

Steward, who had played football at Saint Joseph’s College in Indiana, arrived in Salem in 1988 after having served as a graduate assistant football coach at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Steward served as an assistant football coach with the Wildcats for two seasons before he was promoted to head coach in 1990. By the time Steward stepped down from that position after the 2010 campaign he had become the program’s winningest coach with a career mark of 108-92. During that run his teams won three North Egypt Conference championships with shared titles in 1991 and 1992 and an outright title in 1997 with a perfect 7-0 record. His teams qualified for the state playoffs ten times. At the time of his 2023 SCHS Hall of Fame induction Steward was one of just two coaches in the program’s history to win a playoff game, which his 1991 squad accomplished with a 20-10 first-round victory over Highland. Steward was inducted into the Illinois High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013.

Besides the three NEC championships his teams won on the gridiron, Steward was part of two more NEC winners with the Wildcats baseball team with titles won in 1989 and 1996.

Steward moved into the school’s athletic director role in 1995 and held that position until his retirement from the school in 2022. During that time Steward helped navigate the school through the difficult process of moving from the North Egypt Conference to the Apollo Conference after the NEC dissolved in 2003 and again from the Apollo Conference to its current home in the Cahokia Conference in 2017. The school hosted numerous IHSA postseason events under his direction and also served as chairman of the SCHS Sports Hall of Fame committee. Steward served on the IHSA Athletic Administrators Advisory Board, the AD HOC Committee on state football playoffs and AD HOC Committee to review policy and procedures. He has worked as a volunteer at the IHSA state bass fishing competition and has served on the Bass Fishing Advisory Committee, and received a distinguished service award from the IHSA for his work with the Bass Tournament. Steward also served on the Schutt Sports Advisory Committee twice.

Steward was awarded the Division 3-4A Illinois Athletic Director of the Year for the 2015-16 school year, the SIBOA Athletic Director of the Year five times, the Illinois Principals Association Kaskaskia Division Athletic Director of the Year twice and the SCHS Teacher of the Year in 2018. He is also a member of the Lowell High School Sports Hall of Fame.

After Steward retired from SCHS in the spring in 2022, he rejoined the work force later that year when he became athletic director at Kaskaskia College.

At the time of his SCHS Sports Hall of Fame induction in 2023, Steward and his wife, Tracie, resided in Salem where they raised daughters Megan and Mallory and son Cole Steward.

Hargis carried a heavy athletic workload during his high school days as he participated in baseball, cross country, football, track and basketball. His biggest athletic success came in track where he was a member of Salem’s 4X800 relay team that qualified for state during his 1976 junior season. As a senior in 1977, he qualified for state as an individual in the 880-yard run.

Hargis set the school record in the 880-yard run, now 800 meters, during his senior season. That record held for 22 years until 1999. He was also a member of the 4X800 relay team that established a school record in 1977. That mark would hold for 30 years until it was broken in 2007. He received Salem’s Best Runner Award for the 1977 season.

As a basketball player Hargis earned Salem’s Free Throw Award, Defense Award and team Most Valuable Player Award during his senior season of 1976-77. He took those skills on the hardwood to Kaskaskia College where he played the 1977-78 season for the Blue Devils. Hargis completed his education at Eastern Illinois University.

Upon graduation from college Hargis landed at Centralia Junior High School where at the time of his induction has spent the last 36 years. During that time he has compiled a record of 386-136 record as the school’s boys’ basketball coach. His teams won Class L state championships in 2002, 2005 and 2010. Hargis has also served as cross country and track coach at the school. Also at the time of his induction he was serving as a sixth grade health and physical education instructor at Centralia Junior High School as well as the school’s Athletic Director.

Doug Hargis is the son of SCHS Sports Hall of Famer J.D. Hargis, who was inducted as an individual in 2008.

At the time of her induction, Brimberry had spent 23 seasons on the sideline as the Lady Cougars volleyball coach. Brimberry began her stint in 1994 and during her coaching run she has compiled a record of 547-177, a highly impressive .756 winning percentage. Her teams have compiled 17 20-win seasons, three 30-win seasons, and ten Class A/Class 1A regional championships. Her 2004 team won a school record 34 games, while her 2011 team won the program’s first sectional championship and advanced to the Class 1A Elite Eight. Prior to the school’s move to the National Trail Conference, Brimberry’s teams won nine Midland Trail Conference regular season championships and ten MTC Tournament titles. Only once in those 23 years with Brimberry at the helm has South Central had a losing season.

Brimberry has also been a winner off the court as she overcame a battle with cancer that forced her to miss the 2014 volleyball season. She returned to the court in 2015.

Also during her time at South Central Brimberry has served as head softball coach and assistant girls’ basketball coach.

A 1978 graduate Salem Community High School graduate, Brimberry played volleyball softball and track for the Lady Wildcats. Brimberry was named the Lady Wildcats Most Valuable Player for the 1978 softball season.

Brimberry continued her athletic career and education at Kaskaskia College where she played softball and volleyball for the Blue Angels from 1978-1980. Brimberry completed her education at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

After she completed her education Brimberry returned to Salem Area where she assisted the Salem Recreation Department with multiple sports. It was also in the Salem area where Brimberry began her coaching career at the grade school level as she coached volleyball for three seasons at St. Theresa and two seasons at Selmaville.

Besides her long-time duty as volleyball coach at South Central, Brimberry serves as a special education teacher. She has also served as student council sponsor and FCA sponsor at South Central.

While his first Salem boys track team in 1985 came up short at the North Egypt Conference Meet, his squads came back to win the title in each of the next 16 seasons. Phillips’ greatest success with the Wildcats track program came in 1999 when Salem grabbed a share of the Class AA Murphysboro Sectional championship. That remains as the program’s only sectional title. That 1999 team later finished fourth at the state meet. During Phillips’ track tenure Salem qualified more than 30 individuals and 15 relay teams for the Class AA state meet in a two-class system.

When Phillips took over the boys cross country program in 1987 his teams won 15 straight NEC championships. Eight times his teams qualified for state, which began in 1987 followed by trips in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. Salem won six regionals with Phillips at the helm (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998) and four sectionals (1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998). The 1998 squad cracked the top ten at state for the first time when it placed ninth.

Phillips took over the girls cross country program when the sport was still in its infancy. It was not until 1996 when the NEC held its first girls meet. Salem won that inaugural title followed by championships in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001.

The Lady Wildcats qualified for the Class AA state meet six times during Phillips’ tenure with the first advancement in 1987 followed by trips in 1988, 1991, 1996, 1997 and 1998. The 1998 team posted the best finish among those squads with a 15th place mark. Phillips’ girls’ teams won regional titles in 1991, 1996, 1997 and 1998 and the program’s only sectional crown in 1996.

Phillips was named the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Cross Country Coach of the Year for the state’s southern division in 1998 and received the same honor for the 1999 track season.

Phillips has been a lifetime Wildcat having played football and track at SCHS from 1967-1971. Phillips was part of a shuttle relay team that set the school record. Phillips attended Kaskaskia College and Eastern Illinois University before he returned to SCHS as a biology teacher. Phillips began coaching with the Wildcats football program in 1976 as sophomore coach and varsity assistant. Phillips continued that role until 1981 when he moved to the freshmen level.

During Phillips’ tenure as an underclassmen football coach his teams compiled a 48-13 record. Phillips’ best freshmen squad was the 1982 team that went 10-0. His 1984 team went 9-1.

It is not just athletic venues where Phillips enjoyed success. During the 1986-87 school year he filled in as scholar bowl coach and led that team to a second place finish at the state meet. While Phillips’ head coaching duties ended in 2002, he has remained active as a volunteer assistant boys track coach.

Prior to her stop at Salem, Holst had put together a highly successful stint at Newcomb, New Mexico where she compiled a 134-60 record during her eight seasons there, which included four straight 20 win seasons. It took a little while for Holst to rebuild the Salem program, as her first three teams combined for a 33-46 record. Starting in the 1998-99 season her teams had winning campaigns in 17 of the next 18 years, which included twelve 20 win seasons. Her teams won six conference championships, a run that began when it claimed the North Egypt Conference championship in 1999 when it compiled a perfect 14-0 record. That was the first conference title for the Lady Wildcats in 20 years. After Salem moved to the Apollo Conference for the 2003-2004 school year, her teams won the title in 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

The Lady Wildcats had never won a regional championship until her 1998-99 team not only ended that drought, but added sectional and super-sectional titles before they fell 47-45 to Glenbard West on a last-second shot in the quarterfinal round of the Class AA state tournament.

That 1998-99 team compiled a 28-3 record and easily broke the previous school record of wins for a season (24) set back in the 1978-79 campaign. Holst’s 2004-2005 Salem squad matched that 28-3 record, while her 2011-12 team established yet another school win record when they went 29-5. Her Salem teams won 10 regional championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2016) and two sectional titles (1999 and 2012). Her 2011-12 team reached the Class 3A Elite Eight, while her 2007-08, 2009-10 advanced to the Class 3A Sweet 16. When Holst-Behrens stepped down after the 2015-16 season she had compiled a 426-206 record at Salem and a 560-266 career mark.

Holst-Behrens was twice selected to coach the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Game (2007 and 2016). She also served on the IBCA All-State and Hall of Fame Committees.

Starting with the 1996-97 season, Holst-Behrens was assisted by her husband, Scott Holst until his death in an automobile accident in Dec. 2012. That was not the only family connection Holst-Behrens had during her time at Salem, as she coached all three of her daughters. Riley graduated in 2012, while twins Shelby and Sydney graduated in 2015.

Also during her time at Salem Holst-Behrens served as an assistant coach for the Lady Wildcat volleyball team for three seasons, 1995-97. Those teams won three NEC championships, three regionals and the program’s only sectional.

At the time of her induction into the Salem Sports Hall of Fame, Holst-Behrens has relocated to Marengo, Iowa where she serves as a biology teacher at Iowa Valley High School.

During her 20 years of coaching at SCHS, Brown was either a head coach or assistant coach on 41 North Egypt Conference championship teams.

A 1975 graduate of SCHS, Brown began her coaching career in the fall of 1980 as assistant volleyball coach to Pam (McCartney) Raymer. Brown held that position until 1988 when she succeeded Raymer as head coach.

During her 11 seasons as Lady Wildcats volleyball coach, she posted a career record of 224-92, a .709 winning percentage. Her 224 career wins are the most by an SCHS volleyball coach. Ironically it was Raymer, her long-time co-worker, whose record of 141 wins she broke in 1996.

Her teams won nine NEC championships. The first was in 1988. She then won eight straight from 1991 until her last season in 1998. During her final 52 league games, Brown’s teams compiled a 51 -1 record.

Brown’s teams won six regional championships, 1992-94 and 1996-98. Her 1997 team won the school’s first and only sectional championship. Salem advanced to the sectional championship game four times 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998) during her tenure. Her final team in 1998 set a school record for wins in a season when it went 32-3.

Brown coached girls track at SCHS for 20 years from 1981-2000. During that span she won 16 NEC championships, 1981 and 15 straight from 1986 – 2000. Her 1998 team set an NEC record for margin of victory with a 136 point spread over runnerup Olney.

She coached three state medallists. They included Kristi Beeson in the high jump in 1986, the 800 meter medley relay team of Serra Morton, Angie Burroughs, Julie Bierman and Trisha Ward in 1994, and Brittany Bowers in the high jump in 2000.

In addition to volleyball and track. Brown spent nine years as assistant cross country coach to Kirby Phillips. Eight of those seasons came while she was coaching volleyball at the same time.

Thomas ranks third on the school list in both NEC career coaching victories with 40 and overall victories with 47. His .653 career winning percentage ranks fifth behind Kenny Farrar (.765), Chuck Budde (.711), Scott Steward (.700) and Howard Thurman (.683).

Known for his color and toughness on the field, Thomas coached at SCHS from 1959-66 and during that time guided two conference champions. His 1961 Wildcats shared the league crown with Carmi, while the 1965 team won the title outright. Twenty years would pass before Salem would win another NEC championship.

Ironically, his best team may have been the 1962 squad which went 8-1. That squad was not only two points away from a league championship, but a perfect season. Flora spoiled both with a 7-6 victory.

Three future Hall of Famers would roam the field for Thomas, quarterback Tom Horner plus running backs Rod Wells and Dale Donoho.

Thomas left SCHS in 1967 for his native Oklahoma. Thomas had been a standout baseball and football player at Pauls Valley and at Oklahoma A&M, which is now Oklahoma State. After he left Salem, Thomas guided Pauls Valley High School to a state championship, a community where he still resides.

In tandem with Jim Bredar, as the “Gold Dust Twins”, Frala started on a road to successful ventures in the sports world in football, basketball and track as a member of Wildcat athletic teams.

After graduation, he attended the University of Illinois, concentrating on the coaching aspects of sports. While at Illinois, Illini Coach Ray Eliot said that “Bob Frala has one of the most comprehensive notebooks on football I have received from all of my classes.”

In high school, Frala was a halfback for the Wildcats, netting 5 yards per carry his senior year on a team that was 5-5 overall and 4-2 in North Egypt Conference play. He also completed 18 of 24 passes for 526 yards. In the final two games that were dramatically won on the margin of Jim Bredar’s placements, 13-12 over Lawrenceville and 14-13 over Mt Vernon, Frala touchdowns were prominent in the victories.

In the Lawrenceville win, he scored the second touchdown that set the stage for the winning extra point, and in the Mt. Vernon victory in the finale, he passed to Corky Winn for 31 yards for the first touchdown, and scored the second from seven yards out. In basketball, on a team that lacked anyone much over six feet tall, Frala was a perfect tandem with Bredar and with Bob Hayden, Derrell Brame and Winn.

He was also a consistent performer in track. In his senior year in the NEC meet, he won the 200-yard low hurdle race in :25.6 despite taking a face-first tumble in his qualifying heat, which he won easily, exemplifying his determination.

After graduation from the University of Illinois, he entered the military service. While stationed at Virginia Beach, he coached base teams in football and basketball; both teams won the National All-Army titles. Fellow SCHS teammate Jim Bredar was a member of the championship basketball team.

Frala got his first high school teaching job in Skokie in 1956. He went to Belleville in 1960 as a teacher and coach and his teams won 83% of their games. In 1964, he was named Illinois Coach of the Year and selected as All-State team coach.

He left Belleville in 1967 to join the coaching staff of Dan Devine at the University of Missouri as freshman coach and assistant quarterback coach. He worked with Devine for five years and for two years with Al Onofrio. While at Missouri, he was one of the head recruiters, and as freshman coach they won 85% of their games.

Frala lives in Moberly, Missouri, with his wife, former Salemite Erma Sechrest. They have three children, all grown, Jim, Kathy and Julie. He is the son of the late James C. and Lola Frala, for whom Salem’s little League park “Frala Park” was named. He has two younger brothers, Jim and Don.