Peyton Lewis and Chris Cole are teammates on the Salem High School football and track and field teams, but they also have something else in common.
They are highly coveted football prospects that have reaped scholarship offers from Southeastern Conference, ACC, Pac-12 and Big Ten programs.
Lewis, a running back, has received 36 FBS offers after rushing for 1,560 yards and 17 touchdowns as a junior last season.
He announced Friday on Twitter that he has narrowed the list of schools he is considering to six: Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Penn State, South Carolina and Florida.
Lewis said he talks to about 25-30 FBS coaches every week.
“It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time,” Lewis said at a recent Salem track practice. “But knowing that I at least have the opportunity to play at the next level [is] all the satisfaction that I need.”
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Cole, a linebacker, has 27 FBS offers after making 76 tackles and 11 tackles for loss as a junior last season. Cole said he talks to about eight FBS coaches per week.
Cole has FBS offers from Miami, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Virginia, Auburn, Virginia Tech and Southern Cal.
The summer after his sophomore season, Cole attended a Virginia Tech football camp.
“After the camp, [Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry] brought me to [his] office and said that he wanted to offer me,” Cole said.
That was Cole’s first FBS offer. His mother and grandmother got to experience that moment with him.
“That is a once in a lifetime feeling,” Cole said. “[My mom] almost cried too. It was a super exciting moment for me and my family.”
But Lewis’ and Cole’s athletic prowess does not stop on the football field. Both are on the Salem track and field team and competed in the Nike Indoor Nationals at Armory Track in New York in March.
The team went to the meet under the name “Ballout Track Club” and was featured on a billboard in Times Square.
The 4x200-meter relay team finished first with a time of 1:28.40 at the meet. Lewis was the anchor on that relay team, which included teammates Jonathan Vernon, Josiah Persinger and DaRon Wilson.
“When you get people to buy in because they’re seeing the example being set, they follow it,” Salem track and field coach Darryl McCoy II said at practice. “[Lewis] plays a major role for us in that.”
Lewis also placed second in the boys 40-yard dash (4.59), 55-meter dash (6.28) and 60-meter dash (6.73) at the Nike Indoor Nationals
Cole finished sixth in the emerging boys 55 hurdles (7.83) and fourth in the emerging 60 hurdles (8.44) at the Nike Indoor Nationals.
Lewis overcomes injuries
Lewis didn’t always know he would become a Division I athlete. During his sophomore football season, he faced a ton of adversity.
In a Week 2 game that season, Lewis suffered a broken left fibula. He returned for the team’s playoff game and tore his labrum.
“Facing adversity and going through those experiences where other people might stop and give up really built me up as a person,” Lewis said. “And I think overall [it] made me a better player because in order to succeed, you need to fail. And I needed to be in that mindset first because I never felt like that before.”
While recovering from his broken leg and torn shoulder, Lewis still competed in indoor and outdoor track his sophomore year.
“My friends told me to come out for track because I was still kind of fast,” Lewis said. “So I came out … with a torn shoulder.”
That year the 6-foot, 190-pound Lewis won the 55-meter dash (6.41 seconds) at the Class 4 state indoor championships and won the 100-yard dash (10.62) at the Class 4 state outdoor meet.
Lewis said that those state track titles helped raise his profile to FBS coaches.
“As [college football coaches] got more eyes on me with recruitment, that kind of just opened my eyes to, ‘Wow, I can really take my athletic ability, go to the stars and beyond,’” Lewis said.
That’s just what Lewis did.
He received all-state first team honors as a running back and all-state second team honors as a punt returner last fall.
Lewis received his first FBS offer in November from Old Dominion.
“It felt great when I got my first offer because coming from my sophomore year and building up, I didn’t think it would be possible for me,” Lewis said. “And then I reached my first offer and from there on my mom told me that this is just the beginning of much more.”
Lewis said the process at the beginning was overwhelming, but he cut down on some schools to lower the pressure.
“Narrowing down my schools and just marking out schools that I know I probably can’t see myself at early on has helped me kind of get an idea of maybe the people I should probably prioritize talking to,” Lewis said.
Virginia Tech and Virginia were among the schools that offered him scholarships.
The 247Sports recruiting website rates Lewis as the third-ranked player in the state and the 14th-ranked running back in the country in the 2024 high school graduating class.
At Salem’s track practice Monday, Tennessee quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle was there to watch Lewis and Cole run. Every time they were running sprints, Halzle recorded both players.
“I really like building relationships with people from all over the country,” Lewis said. “I’ve talked to people over on the West Coast, people from down south, people up north. And really getting to meet people and know more about them and their family has kind of helped me become more extroverted.”
He said he will make his final decision by the end of this month.
Nike sponsored Salem’s “Ballout Track Club” at the Nike Indoor Nationals and will do so again at the Nike Outdoor Nationals. Lewis’ six finalists in his football recruiting are all Nike schools.
“Being already [that I’ve] built a relationship with some Nike representatives … has set me in the mindset that maybe I should go to a school that is represented by Nike that might help me with the foundation that I’ve already built,” Lewis said.
Cole is still grinding
The 6-foot-3, 212-pound Cole has an 81-inch wingspan.
He made the all-state second team at linebacker last season and joined the Salem track team for the first time this year.
“I’ve always been an athlete,” Cole said. “I started playing football at 6 years old.”
Cole realized at an early age that his talent could take him far.
“When I first started, it just came natural to me,” Cole said. “My first time practicing, I didn’t really know where to go, but I got the hang of it and then I’ve been just great ever since.”
Cole started at safety his sophomore year after he took a senior’s starting position.
“There’s a lot of guys that are that size,” Salem football coach Don Holter said. “But do they hold themselves to the standard of excellence? And do they prepare, do they practice hard on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday? That young man does those things to be the best that he can.”
Cole’s junior year helped him raise his profile even more after he moved to linebacker.
“He is a violent football player,” Holter said. “He embraces the violence of the game. There’s physicality and then there’s violence of the game. He enjoys the physicality of it and has the desire to be the best at whatever he does.”
The 247Sports recruiting website rates Cole as the 27th-ranked player in the state and the third-ranked linebacker in the state in the 2024 graduating class.
“I already hold myself to a high expectation,” Cole said. “I’m still working hard and trying to get better every day.”
This mentality to constantly improve led Cole to join the track and field team for his junior year.
He said he considers himself a football player, but uses track to stay in shape.
Cole hasn’t been able to compete often because he has taken more than 12 unofficial visits over the last couple of months as he seeks to pick a college football team.
“Right now we can’t even really judge him of these certain performances just because he hasn’t been here,” McCoy said. “He’s going to come into form when you need him, but right now he just hasn’t had that many races.”
Cole plans to announce his college decision in the fall.
Since becoming highly recruited prospects, Lewis and Cole have felt as if their lives have changed.
“Everywhere I go, people already know your name,” Lewis said. “So, sometimes it can get monotonous. But at the end of the day, it’s good to feel the love from the place where you grew up.”
“I’d say for my friends [the notoriety] has helped them with their recruiting process because everyone’s been here,” Cole said.
Each has one more season to play football for Salem.
“It’s their turn, the torch has been passed to them,” Holter said. “They’re the leaders and they’ll do a fine job with that.”
