Brian Hoffman
Salem’s Peyton Lewis is changing shades of orange. Peyton has turned in his Tennessee orange attire for the orange of the University of Virginia.
Peyton, a high school football All-American as a senior on the 2023 state runner-up Salem High football team, has committed to the UVA football team after two years at UT. He entered the transfer portal in late December and last week announced he’d be taking is talents to Charlottesville.
“The main reason is playing time,” said Lewis. “I wanted to get the opportunity to get more carries. I didn’t feel like Tennessee was optimizing my talent.”
In two seasons in Knoxville Peyton played in 23 games and rushed 134 times, an average of just under six touches per game. He ran for 629 yards, averaging 4.7 yards per attempt, and scored 10 touchdowns. He also had eight pass receptions for 56 total yards and 13 kick returns, averaging 21.5 yards per return.
As a freshman he played behind Dylan Sampson, who is now a running back for the Cleveland Browns. This past season Peyton’s 70 carries were third on the team behind 182 for redshirt-sophomore DeSean Bishop and 104 for senior Star Thomas.
Lewis figures to have a chance to be the lead back at Virginia. The Wahoos top two runningbacks in 2025 were J’Mari Taylor(222 carries for 1,091 yards) and Harrison Waylee. Both were graduate students who won’t be on the team this fall, and Petyon likes the style of the UVA offense.
“They run a pro style that correlates to the NFL,” he said. “Tennessee doesn’t really have a pro style offense.”
Lewis has two years of eligibility remaining and he plans to finish school and get his degree at UVA, then hopefully find his way into the National Football League. He was a Sports Management and Kinesiology major at UT.
“I may have to change it depending on what UVA offers,” he said. “I’m really impressed by the school. It’s a cool school and they take academics seriously.”
The Virginia coaches were quite interested in Lewis when he was coming out of Salem High School two years ago. Peyton remembers a conversation he had with UV head coach Tony Elliott.
“Coach Elliott said they would be building something, and two years later they won 11 games,” said Lewis. “He showed a lot of interest in me.”
When Peyton was a high school senior the Cavaliers were 3-9 and Tennessee was 9-4. Two years later the Wahoos were a win in the ACC championship game away from playing in the CFP playoffs, and the future looks bright.
“They have their whole line coming back,” said Lewis.
Peyton will be reunited on the Wahoos with former Salem teammate Josiah Persinger. Josiah was a standout runningback and cornerback for the Spartans and he was a freshman cornerback for UVA last year, seeing time in 10 games. Josiah and Peyton were in touch during Lewis’ decision to join the Wahoos.
Dennis Haley, who played for Salem and UVA before a stint in the NFL, is also a friend of the Lewis family. He was also in contact with Peyton during the transfer process.
“I never really repped UVA growing up, but I’m excited to be going there,” said Lewis. “My main goal is to get playing time.”
FOLEY PLAYS ON VIRGIN ISLANDS TEAM
Salem’s Maia Foley was a member of the United States Virgin Islands Senior Women’s National soccer team in December. The team played in the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, a World Cup and Olympic qualifying tournament, where Maia earned her first international cap with a start against St. Lucia. She had an assist on the game winning goal in a 3-1 win.
The CONCACAF W Championship[a] is a women’s association football competition for national teams organized by the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) that often serves as the qualifying competition to the Women’s World Cup, and recently the Olympics.
Maia was a three-year starter on defense for the James Madison University team, graduating in 2020. For the Spartans she was a member of the Salem team that set a school record for fewest goals allowed in a single season.
The next game for the Virgin Islands team is a home game on St. Croix on March 4th against Puerto Rico. Games are streamed on YouTube.
