Salem coach Kemp Carr directs his team during a drill Wednesday; Rams open their season in 16 days in Ohio
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
SALEM – Kemp Carr gets excited about every season opener, but this year the Salem football coach is “super-duper pumped” for it.
Carr is taking his team on a little adventure to open his third season with the team that’s full of promise. The Rams play in Ironton, Ohio, Aug. 29, an ambitious trip that has more layers than just a game.
“Can’t wait,” Carr said after practice Wednesday night. “Excited. Super excited.
“For one, these kids have an opportunity to travel to play football. They get to open their eyes and see something else.”
Of course, it’s more than a game to lift the curtain on what many expect to be a deep run in the Group 1 playoffs. On the way over, the team will make a stop to experience West Virginia University and on the way back they plan to visit Marshall University.
“So it’s a business trip, it’s not just a football trip,” Carr said. “It’s a business trip with a vacation tag to it, an educational tag to it, an exposure tag to it, and an opportunity to bond tag to it. There’s a lot going on here with this trip, so I’m super excited … and if it goes well hopefully we’ll be able to do it in the future again.”
Carr isn’t the only one stoked about the trip. Junior RB-DB Isiah Santiago has been excited about it ever since Riverview Sports News reported the school board approving it this past spring. Carr said “a lot of people” from the community also are expected to make the eight-hour trip to the Ohio-Kentucky border.
“That’s going to be a great experience,” said Santiago, who had two rushing touchdowns and a pick-six in the Rams’ opening-round playoff win at KIPP last season. “Go out of state, (play) a new team we’ve never seen, just go out there and do us. It’s new competition, so you don’t know who it is, you just have to give it all. I was just excited to go on the trip to show everybody what we can do.”
“To go down to Ohio, that’s a major blessing,” defensive end Tony Merendino said. “I’ve never been out of state playing football before, so that’s something different for me. It’s definitely exciting.”
It will be the first time the Rams have played an out-of-state opponent since 2023, when they lost to Executive Education Charter in Lafayette’s Fisher Field. Carr’s last game against an out-of-state opponent was 2009 when his Penns Grove team that eventually reached the South Jersey semifinals lost to a Red Lion (Pa.) team loaded with D-I prospects.
The Rams have already started preparing for the Fighting Tigers and their Boston College-committed three-star quarterback Kayden Edwards. They’ll get a feel for what they’ll see in a Monday quad scrimmage against host Absegami, Rahway and Pt. Pleasant Boro. All three teams are said to have a similar look to their faraway foe.
“I’m excited to go put Salem on the map,” running back Cashmir Parsley said. “I’m just ready to go play.”
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