Sugar-Salem High School sports have become a force to be reckoned with and a 4A District powerhouse, notching 98 state title banners hanging in the school’s gym.
Varsity boys’ basketball is responsible for a number of those banners, especially in the last few years thanks to Head Coach Shawn Freeman.
Freeman is a Sugar-Salem graduate and has been coaching there since 2007. He started coaching the freshman team in the 2007-2008 season, then coached the junior varsity team from 2010 to 2012. He now coaches varsity, dating back to 2013, winning state championships in 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020 through 2022, and again in 2023.
He says a lot of his inspiration for coaching comes from one of his old high school coaches.
“My head coach, Glenn Romney, he was instrumental in helping me with that,” Freeman said. “I just looked up to him a lot. He won two state championships when he was coaching, and I always looked up to those guys that were playing.”
Freeman says he’s coached under a lot of different coaches, which has helped him develop his own philosophy.
“I’ve been under some great coaches that have helped me develop my own philosophy, which I basically call it like a Frankenstein type of deal,” Freeman said. “You just take the good parts, and you try to create a monster with everything that you like and what fits your personnel.”
The Diggers have started their season strong, winning 10 of their last 12 games. Their two losses of the season were close, losing by a combined three points in both games, making the Diggers a team to look out for.
“Our defense has improved a lot, way better than last year,” Freeman said. “So, it’s fun to watch things grow and to see where we’re weak and then make those adjustments to where we’re going to go.”
Sugar-Salem will face off against Snake River at home tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. with hopes to notch one more win into the win column, keeping their eyes set on hanging one more championship banner in the rafters.