Salem High School (Salem, Virginia)


Salem High School is a public high school in Salem, Virginia. It is the sole high school for the .
Salem is an International Baccalaureate world school, certified for the Diploma Programme.

History

Salem High School was opened for the 1977-1978 school year by to consolidate the student bodies of Andrew Lewis High School in Salem and Glenvar High School 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 when it was opened but dropped down to the Group AA Blue Ridge District 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, and has won nine Group AA, Division 4 championships, in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Salem has also won Group AA state titles in boys basketball, boys tennis, girls basketball, girls volleyball, girls soccer, golf, baseball and softball. 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 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, 69, 67, and 64.
Salem won the VHSL's Wachovia Cup in Group AA for academic competitions in the 2009-2010 school year.

Notable Alumni

current head men's basketball coach at James Madison University. Class of 1994.
Dennis Haley a former NFL linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, and New York Jets. Played college football at the University of Virginia. Class of 2001.
Adam Ward, photojournalist killed on live tv in August 2015 at Smith Mountain Lake while working for WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia. Class of 2007.