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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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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Many of the same faces that helped the Salem Lady Wildcats golf team to a 13th place finish at the 1989 state meet and a tenth place mark at the 1990 state meet took the program to even greater heights in 1991.

The program won its first ever regional and sectional championship and improved its state meet finish to ninth under the direction of Coach Bill Morgan.

Salem lost just once during the regular season and compiled a 39-1 record going into the state meet before it settled for the final mark of 44-9.  During the regular season the Lady Wildcats won the Benton Invitational by 15 strokes over Carterville, an event where Julie Morgan and Anne Clark tied for Medalist honors. The Lady Wildcats were even more dominant when they won the Olney Invitational, as they had a 27- stroke margin of victory over second place Benton.  Amber Boyles was the individual medalist in that tournament. (more…)

While the 1995 Salem Lady Wildcats golf team was not large in numbers with seven players, they still rank as the most successful team in school history at the time of their 2010 Hall of Fame induction.

Six of the team’s seven members were returnees from the 1994 squad that finished 11th at the state meet. The only newcomer was freshman Candice Vogt.

Coach Mary Riley’s squad compiled an amazing 77-8 record, which included two wins over eventual state champ Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin.

In fact, those were the only two blemishes Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin had the entire season.
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More often than not the history book followed the 1994 Salem Lady Wildcats golf team. Under the direction of first-year coach Mary Riley, the Lady Wildcats had an undefeated regular season in nine-hole matches wi1h a 25-0 record.

That regular season record also included first place finishes at the Benton and Olney Invitational’s, a second place mark at the Edwardsville Invitational and a fourth place effort at the Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Blazer Classic.

The Lady Wildcats broke school team records for lowest nine-hole and 18-hole scores. Melissa Cantrell also broke the school record for the lowest individual score in an 18-hole match.

A furious pace on the back nine enabled the Lady Wildcats to win the Carbondale regional championship by 19 strokes over the host school, 383-402.
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Mary Riley started her coaching career at Salem Community High School in the spring of 1983 coaching softball. She had previously taught and coached softball at Flora High School. Mary coached softball only three years but her real accomplishments would start in 1994 when she became the head girls’ golf coach at SCHS.

The 1994 Lady Wildcats golf team would prove to be one of the most dominant teams in SCHS history. The team’s record was an impressive 58-15. They won the Olney and Benton Invitational tournaments, finished second at the Edwardsville Invitational, and fourth at the Blazier Classic.
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