Salem High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Salem, Virginia Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,346. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combin ...

. It is the sole high school for th
City of Salem public school system
Salem is an

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

world school, certified for the Diploma Programme.

History

Salem High School was opened for the 1977-1978 school year b
Roanoke County public schools
to consolidate the student bodies of

Andrew Lewis High School Andrew Lewis Middle School is a former high school in Salem, Virginia, United States which was named after Andrew Lewis, an American pioneer, surveyor, and soldier from Virginia. He served as a colonel of militia during the French and Indian Wa ...

in Salem and

Glenvar High School Glenvar High School is a public high school in Roanoke County, Virginia, United States. It is one of the five high schools for thRoanoke County public school system Glenvar High School serves the western end of Roanoke County and is located in t ...

in western Roanoke County. Beginning with the 1983-1984 school year, the city of Salem established a separate school district. Glenvar High School was reopened. Salem competed in the now defunct Group AAA Roanoke Valley District in the

AAA Northwest Region The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VHSL first sponsored debate and also continues to sponsor sta ...

when it was opened but dropped down to the Group

AA Blue Ridge District The AA Blue Ridge District is a district in the Region III of the Virginia High School League. The district is centered around the Roanoke Valley in Southwest Virginia and is named for the Blue Ridge Mountains, which feature prominently in the reg ...

in 1988, a few years after Glenvar's student population left. When the Blue Ridge split in 2003, Salem was assigned to the new River Ridge District. Salem was a member of Region III from 1988 to 2007. Salem has won VHSL state championships in athletic and academic competitions. The football team plays in the

Salem Football Stadium Salem Stadium is a stadium in Salem, Virginia, United States. It is primarily used for football and hosts the home football games of the Salem High School Spartans. It was built in 1985 and seats 7,157 people. The stadium is part of the James E. ...

, and has won ten Group AA, Division 4 championships, in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2016, 2017 and spring 2021 (Covid-19 delayed 2020 season). Salem has also won Group AA state titles in boys basketball (1994, 1999, 2013), boys tennis (1993, 1994, 2011), girls basketball (2013), girls volleyball (1998), girls soccer (2003), golf (2012), baseball (2018) and softball (1991). The school's only Group AAA team state championship was won by the boys golf team in the spring of 1983. The Quiz bowl team won the Group AA VHSL state championship in 2003) and the

forensics Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimina ...

team won in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. The forensics team holds the top four scores for team points in state forensics competition with 79 (2008), 69 (2007), 67 (2009), and 64 (2010). Salem won the VHSL's

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...

Cup in Group AA for academic competitions in the 2009-2010 school year. Salem's ''FIRST'' Robotics Competition team 5724 Spartan Robotics attended ''FIRST'' Championship, the ''FIRST'' Robotics World Championship, in 2018 and 2019. Additionally, they won the Hampton Roads District Event in 2018 and were the Miami Valley Regional Champions in 2019.

Notable alumni

Mark Byington Mark Byington (born April 22, 1976) is an American basketball coach and former college basketball player. He is the head men's basketball coach at James Madison University. High school playing career Mark Byington played high school basketball at ...

current head men's basketball coach at

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

. Class of 1994. *

Dennis Haley Dennis Haley (born February 18, 1982, in Roanoke, Virginia) is a former gridiron football linebacker. He most recently played for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. He was originally signed by the New York Jets of the National Football ...

a former NFL linebacker for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

, and

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

. Played college football at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. Class of 2001. *

Alex Light Alex Light (born May 2, 1996) is an American football offensive tackle who is currently a free agent. He last played for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Richmond, and was originally sig ...

NFL player * Adam Ward, photojournalist killed on live tv in August 2015 at

Smith Mountain Lake Smith Mountain Lake is a large reservoir in the Roanoke Region of Virginia, United States, located southeast of the City of Roanoke and southwest of Lynchburg. The lake was created in 1963 by the Smith Mountain Dam impounding the Roanoke River. ...

while working for

WDBJ WDBJ (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Roanoke, Virginia, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Roanoke– Lynchburg market. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Danville-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WZBJ, chann ...

Roanoke, Virginia Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...

. Class of 2007.

References

{{authority control Public high schools in Virginia Schools in Salem, Virginia 1977 establishments in Virginia Educational institutions established in 1977