Salem's Maroun ready to get back on the football field

Josh Maroun has been waiting for Friday to come for almost a year.

The first official day of high school football practice for the 2019 season is not only the start of his senior year at Salem, but it's also a chance for Maroun to begin to prove what he can do.

Prove that he's still the player he was before missing all of his junior season with a knee injury suffered in the preseason. Prove that he can carry on the family tradition of gridiron success for the Blue Devils.

"I’m just more eager and ready to get out there and get going," Maroun said. "Once the day comes, I’m going to be ready. We’ve all been working hard all summer. We want to get back and be ready to be successful this year. We think we can have a good run this year."

It begins for real at practice, but it's a path that was set in motion for Maroun at the end of last August, during the Queen City Jamboree. In Salem's scrimmage against Bedford, Maroun caught a pass and went to turn up field when he was hit low by a Bulldogs player.

"It hurt for a couple of seconds and I didn’t know what it was at first," he said. "I thought it was a stinger. I got up and jogged off the field, went back in a couple of plays later and ran the ball. I went to go cut and (the knee) just gave out. I knew right when it happened, I tore (his ACL)."

Salem coach Rob Pike was hopeful that the injury wasn't as bad as it could have been, but when Maroun got the results of his MRI, the team's worst fears were confirmed - torn ACL and some damage to the meniscus.

Surgery was scheduled and not only would Maroun be sidelined for his entire junior year - he also has played for Salem's baseball team - he'd couldn't do much of anything for the first six weeks, other than be there for the team.

"Josh was great," Pike said. "Right after his surgery, he was around every day, he was positive with the guys and upbeat. I think that showed them something. He wasn’t crying about it so we don’t have to either. He was a real leader about the way he handled it."

Maroun's injury wasn't the only one the Blue Devils were dealt last season, including a season-ending injury to senior Dom Paci midseason, but despite the adversity, Salem kept moving along.

"I’d talk to the guys all the time," Maroun said. "I’d text them before practices and games. I just let them know what they needed to do, and if they needed help, they could talk to me, that I was there. They did better than I thought they were going to do."

The Blue Devils were able to fight through to finish 7-2 in the regular season and get the third seed in the South/East cluster. After knocking off defending-champion Winnacunnet in the Division I quarterfinals, Salem fell at home to Pinkerton in the semifinals for the second year in a row.

Maroun thinks the Blue Devils can go further this year, in a division that appears to be wide open.

"It makes us think if there’s not powerhouses this year, let’s work hard and get better every day and see how it goes," Maroun said. "Everyone has been consistent. Usually all the juniors and seniors, and even a lot of the younger guys, come every week. We’ve all been working hard."

The third of three brothers - Doug Jr. graduated in 2016 and Adam in 2018 - Maroun has carried on a family tradition that started with his grandfather, George, at Lawrence (Mass.) High School in the late 1950s, and continued through his father, Doug Sr., who graduated from Salem in 1986.

While each Maroun sibling has been different off the field, Pike has come to expect the same things from Josh that he got out of his older brothers.

"We’ve had some tough Maroun kids here for a stretch," the coach said. "They have different personalities. Once they’re on the field, there are a lot of similarities. All three of them are so tough and physical. They wanted to get in there and wear down the other team. That’s a nice trait.

"He didn’t miss a single weight room session all summer. He’s always been that way, too, from the time he was a freshman. It’s tough to say I’ve seen any more, but do I think he’s really excited about this year and itching to play real football? Yeah, I do."

Maroun hopes to turn that offseason work into not just a great 2019 season, but also the opportunity to continue playing somewhere at the next level.

"Junior year of football is kind of the recruiting year," he said. "After I got back, I was thinking, I’ve got to work hard this year. I was hoping to have a plan after (last) football season, but now I’ve got to plan off this and see how it goes."