By Lauren Estes

The Falkville quarterback spot was up for grabs until junior Peyton Sallee sealed the deal for the Blue Devil role. 

Head Coach Tyler Mitchell said there are, of course, improvements to be made in each position on the team, but he is proud of the effort Sallee has made in the opening two games of the Blue Devils’ season. 

“He works extremely hard and has managed the games extremely well,” Mitchell said. “He has a lot to improve, but I expect him to continue to get better. His best ball is still to come.”

Sallee said he felt like his true development came during this past summer. 

“In the spring game, you could tell I needed some work with staying tall when throwing the ball and learning the coverages. Going to a quarterback camp in Decatur helped a lot with all of that,” Sallee said. “One skill I would like to better is not getting in my head too much after one bad play, which I’ve worked on a lot this past summer. 

“Our back-up quarterback, Caden Burnett, has kept my head up this year and throughout this season so far,” Sallee added. “He’s always one of the first ones to high-five me after a good play or tell me what I did wrong that I can correct for later plays. He’s one of the smartest people on the team about football. He’s younger than me, but I look up to him, honestly.”

Sallee’s goals don’t end at staying out of his own head.

“One of my goals would be to become the best team leader I can possibly be. Former

quarterback Aaron Dove taught me a lot just through his actions on the field,” Sallee said. “Being a leader on and off the field is important to any team because if you’re only a leader on the field, but not off the field, I feel like they won’t respect you that much on the field.

“Another goal would be to do better in school while balancing a job, school work, football and baseball. 

“Lastly, I would like to be able to learn as much as possible this year and try and lead the team to the playoffs again but also prepare for next season and have the younger players that are coming up being able to look up to me as a role model.”

Sallee said the doubt that has been cast on the team’s abilities this season has only made him want to work harder.

“One goal I feel like we’ve accomplished is (shutting down) all the talk about how we won’t be any good this season because we lost all of the seniors last year,” Sallee said. “I feel like we’ve shown that we can be just as good or better, and at the end of the season I think we will have shown how great we are when we make the playoffs.  

“A small team goal is to buy into what Coach Mitchell is trying to achieve at Falkville,” Sallee continued. “A big team goal is to make the playoffs again.” 

One of Sallee’s inspirations is professional pitcher Tyler Flowers because of “the way he always works his hardest in the offseason and during the season to ensure he has the best season he can possibly have,” Sallee said. “He is always encouraging his teammates but also being hard on them if they need it, and that’s the way I want to be on and off the field to my teammates in any sport I play.”

Sallee said he thinks the Blue Devils can control their own future this season. 

“I feel like, for this year, everyone still hasn’t bought into our new coach’s process,” Sallee said. “Once everyone does, we are the only team that can beat us.”