By Dave Roberts
Sports Editor
No, the Salem and St. James High football programs do not share a practice field every day of the season.
It just seems that way.
Over the last few years Salem and St. James — both Tigers — have seen each other more than they have their biggest conference rivals.
For the fourth consecutive year the two will open the season against each other, as Salem will host St. James Friday, Aug. 29 to kick off 2025.
St. James’ Dusty Craft and Salem’s Neal Myers are both starting their third season as head coach. Friday’s game will be the fourth time in those three years they’ve faced each other, including playoffs.
In addition, the two teams have seen each other in summer 7-on-7 leagues for a number of recent seasons. And the past several years the two squads have been participants in the Sullivan Jamboree — including last week’s on Friday, Aug. 22, although the two did not collide in a scrimmage session.
So to be sure, the two squads have a pretty good idea what to expect from the other when the whistle blows Friday.
Friday’s festivities in Salem begin at 5:30 p.m. with the annual Tiger Parade, which begins downtown and ends at Salem High School. The town firetrucks will escort the host Tigers to Schuchardt Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Over the past two years St. James has won all three of the meetings between the two, including last year’s 28-0 opener. St. James is coming off a 4-7 won-loss record while Salem was 2-8 in 2024.
Last Friday both teams avoided the type of major jamboree injuries that have played roles in past years. And both coaches feel the jamboree capped successful preseason preparations.
“I think we have gotten better each practice,” Myers said. “At the jamboree I thought we did a lot of things right and a few things wrong. We did things very vanilla; we didn’t throw a pass. But we left the jamboree fired up. What mistakes we made were all correctable. I think we’ve got a lot more speed (than last year). At the jamboree we had some breakaways, some big runs. We haven’t been able to see that in the past.”
“I thought defensively we looked pretty sharp,” Craft said. “The kids were flying all over the field. At times the offense looked good; at times we struggled. I attribute that to rotating so many kids in and out. There were a lot of things we wanted to do, but decided to just keep it in our pocket. I think we’re ready for Week 1. This is Year 3 (as head coach) and the kids have been around me and know my expectations. They know what our staff wants to do. We have really great seniors and they have come a long way. We’re looking forward to the season getting rolling.”
Another reason the two teams should be familiar with each other is they run similar, flexbone type offenses.
St. James had to replace most of its offensive backfield due to graduation. However, sophomore quarterback Owen Spurgeon got valuable varsity playing time as a freshman due to injuries. Craft feels good about his running back duo of senior Zane Achterberg and junior Steven Holt, while the offensive line is dominated by seniors. And St. James may have the top receiver duo in the Four Rivers Conference in seniors Aiden Boone and Nick Gleason.
The St. James’ defense figures to be led by inside linebacker Achterberg, who was one of the state’s leading tacklers last season, along with senior Josh Carpenter on the front line, Holt at linebacker and Boone and Gleason in the secondary.
“They’ve got some athletic skill players,” Myers said of St. James. “Boone and Gleason are both exceptional players. They’ve got players in positions who can move and can run. Spurgeon at quarterback looks better in person than we saw before. And there is the familiarity; I think a lot of the boys know each other from basketball and other sports. And the coaches know each other’s staff.”
Salem also has many changes in the backfield with the exception of senior Hayden Ragsdale, back for his second season as quarterback. The Salem backfield gets a boost of speed and quickness with the junior running back duo of Brody Ray and Sylis DuBois. Seniors Gavin Sapaugh, Charlie Terrill and Titan Shepherd help anchor the offensive line. The senior linebacking duo of Everett Campbell and Ira Barton and Sapaugh at strong safety are among the returners on defense.
“Salem is a very physical team; that’s their approach,” Craft said. “They do a good job in the quarterback run game and will get their slots involved. We saw them in 7-on-7 and knew they would be more athletic. Ragsdale has come a long way in his play. They’ve got an outside linebacker who is a beast. They laid some hits in the jamboree; that’s something we’ve got to be ready for.”
