BY RYAN O’CONNOR Sitting outside on the clubhouse deck, glancing at the familiar 135-acre landscape of rolling fairways and pristine greens, Marilyn Campbell sat expectantly, waiting for the storm to roll in. Yet there wasn’t a dark cloud in the sky, and the only precipitation in the area were the tears swelling in ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Days after suffering its first loss of the season, the Salem girls soccer team showed its mettle by winning a tough match on the road. The Lady Blue Devils, who fell to perennial force Manchester Central on Sept. 16, 5-0, rebounded by taking down a feisty West squad, 1-0, on Friday, Sept. 19. “We took it on ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Prior to the season, she predicted her team’s wins wouldn’t be pretty, but the victories would be there nonetheless. Through four games, Carol Merchant’s words have proven prophetic. Despite losing a large chunk of players from last year’s veteran roster, the Salem High School field hockey ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Another week, another two wins for the Salem boys volleyball team. With back-to-back 3-0 victories against Pinkerton Academy and Souhegan High School, the Blue Devils extended their national-record winning streak to 76 games. The previous record of 69 consecutive triumphs was due to six years of dominance ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Carol Merchant had to admit, anything less than a championship last season would have been a disappointment. After all, the Salem field hockey team featured five all-state seniors, including the state’s Player of the Year, Carolyn Malloy, and a handful of other veteran standouts who had worn the crown the ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR If forced to choose a model for postseason success, last season presented the ideal scenario. Dan Young, entering his fourth season as coach of the Salem girls volleyball team, now has two state titles to his credit. Two years ago, he said, the squad peaked early, yet was able to rely on pure talent to ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEY It took Mike Ball an intramural football game to find out that he could bounce back from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. After suffering a knee injury in the first half of his first-ever Southern New Hampshire University men’s lacrosse game, the Salem resident rehabbed and returned as one of the ...

BY RYAN O’CONNOR Last year, Auburn’s Joey Dudek rode his arm and leg to Gillette Stadium – and very nearly the Super Bowl. Dudek, who won the 10- and 11-year-old division of the local Pepsi Punt, Pass and Kick competition last August, also triumphed at the sectional competition in Bristol, R.I., and then the regional ...

BY MATT SCHOOLEY After 14 years in middle school, David Rozumek is moving up. Rozumek, a physical education teacher at Woodbury Middle School in Salem since the beginning of the 1993 school year, has been chosen as the Salem High School interim athletics director for the upcoming school year. Chris Bergeron, former AD at SHS, accepted ...

BY DERRICK PERKINS A couple of days every week, a group of old friends gets together on the second floor of the Ingram Senior Center to swap stories, tell jokes and shoot pool. For Joe Swift, a retired police officer, the morning sessions are an opportunity to reminisce and spend time playing a game with some good friends that he ...