Heard today 98 Salem team to be honored Friday night
- Thread starter southbottomU
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The 98 team featured a great defense with nine shutouts in fourteen games .Also, the offensive line was huge with Joe Bender at 6'7" 320 , Anton Jones at 6'5" 318 and tight end Gabril Bangura at 6'1" 288 . A> J. Everett was a smaller offensive lineman but was bench pressing 400 pounds in high school. Andy Mullins at QB . the running backs were Matt Anderson at fullback who was a bruiser who practicall ran over Lafayette defense and E>J. Thomas and JR. Dennis Haley , who also played free Safety at 6'3" 220 and a 4'4' 40 yard dash. Haley would later play at UVA and for the Baltimore Ravens at LB. Awesome team .
20% chance of rain Friday. carroll co. may be a no-show.
Defense was best. Great d line. Chris Gumear at linebacker (state defensive player of the year). Great secondary with speed and ball skills (played press coverage all year---lake Taylor like)and a kicking game that put 90percent of kickoffs into endzone
Best that's been in this part of the state in my opinion. How many points did that Lafayette team average? I think Lafayette that year would have won ninety percent of the state championship s played .
Lafayette was very very good. That Salem team is still the one that the others are measured by here in Salem. Some of the players on that team helped the Spartans win the State Championship in basketball that same year. Special group of 99 and 2000 graduates
Greatest AA team ever imo. Supremely fast, strong, and talented. It was like the team was machined and manufactured. Smart QB, enormous lines, speedy skill positions, huge and fast RB/FB, vicious defense, tremendous STs. If you have like 2 of those things you're probably going to have a good year but that team had it all and they were essentially flawless for it.
I hate that the VHSL-Reference site cuts off at 1999 because I'd love to see what their formula would say about the 1998 team.
I recall reading an article prior to the start of that season, probably in the Salem paper. Coach White was asked if the '98 team was going to be his best at Salem. His response was something like, "I don't know if it will be the best, but we should have the most size, the most strength, and the most speed we've ever had."
As dominant as that team was, it was in a serious tussle in the state semis at Martinsville. The Bulldogs had an excellent team; not quite on Lafayette's level offensively, but probably better on defense. Salem got an early long field goal from Trey Shiflett to go up 3-0, and that's the way it stayed for most of the game in one of the most tense games I've seen. Martinsville's star ball carrier was Marcus Hairston, who rushed for 1,650 yards in the regular season. Salem's D held Hairston to 55 yards for the game - five yards in the second half. Shiflett returned an interception for a TD with around six minutes to play to put the Spartans up 9-0, and all of us in maroon could finally breathe easier. Another late TD and two-point conversion against a totally gassed Bulldogs defense (on an unusually warm day) made the final 17-0.
Salem's defense in that '98 season was like the proverbial stone wall.
As dominant as that team was, it was in a serious tussle in the state semis at Martinsville. The Bulldogs had an excellent team; not quite on Lafayette's level offensively, but probably better on defense. Salem got an early long field goal from Trey Shiflett to go up 3-0, and that's the way it stayed for most of the game in one of the most tense games I've seen. Martinsville's star ball carrier was Marcus Hairston, who rushed for 1,650 yards in the regular season. Salem's D held Hairston to 55 yards for the game - five yards in the second half. Shiflett returned an interception for a TD with around six minutes to play to put the Spartans up 9-0, and all of us in maroon could finally breathe easier. Another late TD and two-point conversion against a totally gassed Bulldogs defense (on an unusually warm day) made the final 17-0.
Salem's defense in that '98 season was like the proverbial stone wall.
It was a different game in 98. Defense and field position were the important things. Today it's more about spreading the field and out scoring your opponent. That Salem team could have adapted to today's game. Lots of playmakers and speed and the defense would still be dominant.
Certainly on the short list and, in my opinion, the best of Salem's teams. As far as the state goes the discussion cannot ignore a number of other teams. The folks from Briar Woods will point to their most recent state championship team and they were classified AA, the dispute over the accuracy of the classification notwithstanding. A couple of the Amherst teams from the mid 2000's will be brought up I would guess. Gretna fans will chime in with the Vic Hall team. The Terry Kirby and Chris Slade led Tabb team will be in the discussion. For the old timers on this board no discussion is going to be complete without the Southampton and Martinsville teams of the 70's which included the likes of Cyrus Lawrence, Ashley Lee, Dennis Mahan, etc.. Virginia high school football fans have been very fortunate to witness a lot of great teams with a lot of great players over the years and the debate of the greatest is not a clear cut decision, IMO, at any classification level.
I agree it is impossible to pick the best of all time (but it is fun to try) You probably can get it down between 5 or 6. But, without question Salem 98 should unanimously be on that short list. By the way, saying that the 98 Salem team is the best of the Salem teams is quite a statement (7 state championships 3 State runner ups)
