Christen King has been named the new Head Swimming and Diving Coach for Salem High School. The Salem School Board formally approved her appointment at its June meeting. King will replace Marianne Fleenor who coached the program for seven years.
"I'm honored and very excited to be given this opportunity at Salem High School,” said King. “I hope to continue the excellent program Coach Fleenor has created.”
While this is King’s first fall as a head coach at the high school, she likely knows the student-athletes who will comprise her team better than anyone. For the last 15 years she has coached swimmers of all ages at Salem’s Stonegate Swim Club.
“I know most of the kids who competed for the high school team this past year since many of them swim for Stonegate in the summertime,” she said. “I’ve known quite a few of them since they were five years old, so I’m very grateful to know that there will already be relationships built when we begin.”
Along with her years of club coaching teams in the Roanoke Valley Aquatic Association, including six as Stonegate’s head coach, King swam competitively for four years for the Spartans when she was a student at Salem High School.
King is a 2020 Bridgewater College graduate with a degree in Elementary Education. She is preparing to begin her second year as a fifth-grade teacher at West Salem Elementary. Prior to joining the Salem School Division, she taught for three years in Roanoke City. Ironically, her mother, Jenny, also is a fifth-grade teacher at East Salem Elementary.
In addition, King has all types of sporting roots in the city. Her dad, Chris King, and her grandfather, Dale Foster, were both athletic directors at Salem High School. Both men also served students and the community as coaches, teachers and administrators during their respective careers.