By: Alaina Wood

This may be Chris Salem’s his first year here as a tennis coach, but he is very familiar with Southeast High School.

If you take a walk down the Prasch hall of fame, you can find a photo of Coach Salem and his brother and their great accomplishments when they attended high school here.

Not only did he graduate from Southeast, but he met his wife in D hall when he was a sophomore.

“I have been a teacher and tennis coach at Southwest for eight years,” said Coach Salem.

Wait! Did he say Southwest? That’s right! It’s pretty ironic if you think about it. Southeast and Southwest High School are rivals.

Since graduating in 2001, Salem has noticed many changes to his alma mater.

“It’s changed physically. The hallways are a little bit different; they have extended. For the most part, it looks very much the same,” he said.

One of his favorite memories when he attended this school was getting to be apart of three state championship teams.

As head coach, he has his own techniques for preparing his team for a game.

“I try to make sure they look at the big picture. Point to point and match to match isn’t quite what we are too worried about, but you need to look at the big picture the entire season.”

Settling into the building and being in that head coach position is what Salem has been looking forward to the most this year.

Being on the Southeast tennis team years ago has made him who he is today – a proud coach who is excited for his team.

“They are a group of guys you want to be around,” he said, “They are the group of guys that I can already tell are going to get better as the season goes on.”

It’s easy to see how happy Salem is to be back on Southeast soil from the look on his face. He is more than ready to start this year off right and to enjoy every bit of it.