New Mexico star Teton Saltes earns Division I offers with highlight video of six plays from his first year of high school football

Video: Teton Saltes ultimate highlights
See some of the best plays from Teton Saltes' junior year - his first year of high school football.

Teton Saltes has been in love with basketball practically from the day he was born. It's really a family heritage now in its third generation.

However, at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, the Valley (Albuquerque, N.M.) senior center often has been tagged with fouls - some just because he is a big man in a small-man's state -  forcing him to spend too much time on the bench.

Practically everyone he knew bugged him as a freshman and sophomore to try football. Finally, he went out as a junior and in his second game as a defensive end, he exploded for three sacks, four tackles for losses and blocked two field goals.

The quickest thing he learned?

"One thing I like," he said, "is that you can hit people and not get in trouble. It's a lot of fun."

Coach Rico Marcelli took just six plays from Saltes' junior year, put them on a highlight video and sent it to college recruiters around the country. The result was an avalanche of interest, and at last count he already had 11 Division I scholarship offers, including Oregon and the University of California, which could be his top two choices at this time. Offers also have come from the likes of Oklahoma, Michigan, Tennessee and Arkansas. They're all interested in a young man who can run 40 yards in a swift 4.8 seconds and in just eight games as a junior posted 38 tackles, 10 sacks and five blocked kicks.

A pretty unassuming 17-year-old, Saltes believed that the local University of New Mexico probably would "come after me. A week after (the season ended) the first call came from San Diego State and it just kind of blew up. I didn't know how to comprehend it. It was pretty shocking. I guess it was pretty amazing for someone who hadn't played football. It gets kind of old sometimes, but you can't really complain."

Saltes will be tested against one of the nation's best offensive linemen in the team's first game of the season. The Vikings will face Rio Rancho Aug. 28 at Community Stadium and Grant Hermanns (6-6, 255) will be on the other side of the ball at tackle. Hermanns has offers from Texas Tech, Washington State, Kansas and Iowa State.

"We're both about the same size. It's going to be a good matchup. He's been playing his whole life. I for one year. I'm definitely not going to let him manhandle me," Saltes said.

Marcelli said, "(Saltes) is just explosive. He's going to be an elite pass rusher. He's almost as fast as our running backs. I sure hope he can control his whole side on defense."

That's not asking much of a second-year player, right?

Knowing that his quickness is a great asset, Saltes said, "One upside of being a basketball player is having to be mobile. I've always been a big guy, but have been quick and have natural strength.

"I'm pretty aggressive, but not blatantly a screamer. I don't gloat. It's kind of no mercy against your opponents. I'm pretty competitive and not very fond of them (opponents) off the field."

Even though he has shown great talent as an athlete (In track he competes in the 100 meters, 200, 400, shot put and discus), the Valley senior is extremely well-rounded outside of sports. He has interest in piano, saxophone and guitar (all self-taught) and vocals, and he participates in sun dances. Of African and Native American heritage, Saltes travels to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota each July and takes part in the Ogala Sioux ceremony where participants "dance in the sun for four days minus food and water. It's a sacrifice and one of the most important things in my life."

His family owns land in Pine Ridge and he spends time there each summer working on the farm, branding cattle and riding horses. He quipped that he will ride "any horse I can fit on now."

But sports is where he is drawing the most attention. Marcelli saw him as a 6-4, 210-pound freshman and was convinced his future was in football, not basketball, where his size was not nearly as important.

"Every year we texted him. I thought after his sophomore year he was going to stay with hoops. I guess we just wore him down. I got a text the first day of school (in 2014) that he would be there. He missed one game (due to needed practices). His first game he stood up a lot. His second game (was incredible). He started to stay a little lower. He got held a lot, but he just hung on for the ride. The last game he improved a lot and started getting a lot of attention. They started double-teaming him and chipped a lot," he said.

Defensive coach Estevan Lucero probably put it best when he explained, "It was a total group effort (to get Saltes on the football field). I don't think he realized he would have so much success early. He's very humble and intellectual."

Saltes recalled, "Every time I saw football coaches, they would say 'Teton we can get you a football scholarship.' They did it in a fun way. Eventually my junior year (I thought) you never know unless you try it. The first game wasn't too good. The second game something kinda clicked. I became more aggressive and got past the line. It turned out pretty good," he understated.

Even his basketball coach, Joe Coleman, encouraged Saltes to play football. He calls him "a big, physical force inside. A great rebounder and a super kid. The kids respect him and listen to him. He causes kids to struggle inside (defensively). He's a super intense kid."

Saltes isn't giving up basketball, even though he averaged just 7.8 points and 5.8 rebounds as a junior and had no solid scholarship offers.

After all, his father, Fontaine Saltes, played high school basketball and one year at Weber State. His mother, Laticia DeCory, was a standout basketball player on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and then played basketball at BYU before transferring to Utah State where she ran track. His great uncle (they call him "grandpa") is World B. Free, a former standout in the NBA.

Teton Saltes has always had a knack for sports, his mother said.

"He was pretty athletic and good at whatever he did. He wasn't afraid to try anything. When he was in fifth grade he enjoyed cross country. People counted him out because he was so heavy, but he placed in the top 10 in the state (when they lived in Arizona)," DeCory said.

As a basketball player he always lived in the shadow of his older brother, Adonis, who was the 2014 Gatorade New Mexico State Player of the Year and led Valley to a state championship.

His mother calls Teton "a big teddy bear and my brainiac," but the normally quiet teenager has had his moments.

"Seems like everybody likes him," she said. "The cheerleaders were twerking (but not getting much help from the students). He came out of the crowd and the kids went crazy. At the prom they weren't dancing. He came and got everybody around him in a circle. He just walked in and changed the whole atmosphere."

Not too many people realize that Teton actually did play seven football games as an eighth-grader, but it was a rather lackluster experience and he fended off football overtures for the next two years.

His stepfather, Eric Sampson, explained, "They really didn't teach him. He didn't understand the game."

It wasn't that football was totally foreign to him, because he has followed the Green Bay Packers.

Fontaine Saltes, who is a teacher in New York, is pleasantly surprised by his son's instant prowess in football.

He calls Teton "a great kid all the way around. I always looked at my Teton as an intellectual. We talk about politics and science. We rarely talk about sports. He is my clone - same height, same weight, same face. I always thought that he felt pressure because his big brother was a (basketball) star. It's a nice break out and he's found his own identification. He's a master of this sport because we know nothing about football. It's been a beautiful thing to watch."