SALEM, Va. – The 1st and 10 Trophy Tour made a trip to Salem High School to award one of our four yearly honors, the “Steve Motley Unsung Hero Award”. Introduced after the 2024 and named after Roanoke native and avid volunteer coach Steve Motley, the award embodies passion, character and commitment to helping the youth in our area thrive.
This year’s recipient has been doing those things for well over two decades--affecting change for Salem athletics. Joel “Trimmy” Hickerson is a Salem High School alum and has worked at the school as an athletic trainer for a number of years, while also serving a number of roles. No matter the sport, no matter the athlete--Trimmy is simply the go to person.
Wednesday following a Spring signing ceremony, the 10 Sports team was able to surprise Hickerson with the award with the help of Salem head football coach Don Holter. Hickerson crediting the student-athletes for keeping his passion alive.
“It’s the students,” Hickerson said. “It’s the coaching staff and the relationships you build with everybody. It’s just, it’s awesome across the board and like I said, I’m in everybody’s corner. I want everybody to be successful and my favorite sport’s the one that I’m covering.”
“Trimmy and I got an opportunity to go to high school together here,” Coach Holter said. “So when he was a freshman, we kept people from taking his lunch money, but we loved him ever since and he’s homegrown. He loves this community and generation after generation of student-athlete he’s caring for as a trainer, equipment, you name it, he does it. He just wants to make sure that it gets done and it gets done to the standard that we have here in Salem and we are fortunate to have this man.”