By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  South Salem has had a long history of success, and to be apart of it like Trey Galbraith has been the past four years has been a treat to live up to that history and the school name across his jersey during Basketball season.

“South Salem has a very long history and more successful than any of the schools around the area, there’s a tradition at South a legacy,” said Galbraith.  “I did my best to keep that alive and have it everything I had night in and night out for 4 years.  I hope the kids coming through now work as hard as they can to keep this special legacy and family alive.”

Considered some of the things he has done in his career around guys like Tyler Wadleigh, Jaden Nielsen-Skinner, Ryan Brown and Eric Lungu the past four years with some big games to boot.  100 Varsity games, four-year starter, First-Team All-Conference and Honorable Mention in Conference as he helped South Salem become Back-To-Back Conference Titles and Back-to-Back trips to the Chiles Center.

This past trip to the Chiles Center was a painful one especially.  It marked an end of his High School Career that came prematurely because of the Coronavirus.

It was painful knowing he won’t have one last game in the Saxon uniform, knowing the work they put in as a team…but the message was simple out of it as Galbraith will continue playing at Lane Community College next year.

“This season hurt more then anything, battled a lot of adversity all year long with these guys and we had everything we worked for taken away,” said Galbraith of the pain of the end of the year.  “I’ll never forget how hard I worked to bring home a banner that I never got the shot of getting.

“For the guys coming up through this family don’t ever take a day off, you don’t know when your last game on that special court would be and don’t take it for granted.  I would do anything to play one last game on that court in front of the best fans in the State South Salem forever.”

Coming off of a year in which he broke the school record in three-point shots made (10) and ended his High School career seventh All-Time in points at 1,105, that dark ended to one chapter of Galbraith’s career will dawn into a new chapter when he trades in his Columbia Blue for the Deep Blue of Lane Community College.

“This opportunity is huge,” said Galbraith, who has a 3.85 GPA and was on the All-Conference Academic team for four years.  “With the state tournament being cancelled and no AAU this year I feel like I’ve lost out on some scholarships with schools I was right on the cusp with.

“Now with 2 more years to continue to work on my craft I can keep working so schools can’t pass up on me again.  I’m really excited to prove what I can do to a lot of people I just needed the chance to showcase myself at the next level and I’m thankful Lane gave me that opportunity.”

Lane Community College went 15-12 this past season, a year after winning the NWAC South Region Title and going 27-4 and reaching the Final Four of the NWAC Tournament.