Honoring work ethic
Lobos lineman finalist for Wuerffel Trophy, which honors community service, academics
It’s been a long four years here but it’s gone by really quick.” Teton Saltes, UNM offensive lineman
Hindsight being what it’s worth, losing the recruiting battle for Teton Saltes five years ago was one of the best things that ever happened to Danny Gonzales.
The head coach of the University of New Mexico football team was part of the staff at San Diego State in 2015 when Saltes was a standout multisport athlete at Albuquerque’s Valley High School. A great-nephew of former NBA standout World B. Free and the younger brother of a former New Mexico Gatorade basketball player of the year, he was garnering attention from several major-college programs as well as SDSU and, of course, his hometown team.
“That’s the only New Mexico kid I lost when I was out there, by the way,” Gonzales said.
This week, Saltes looked back on his celebrated run as a UNM offensive lineman by being named a finalist for the Wuerffel Trophy, a tribute given to college football’s top philanthropist through his devotion to community service. The 6-foot-6, 322-pound senior is one of three candidates up for the award.
It’s his life outside the game that has come to define Saltes. Spending part of his youth on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he is the son of a Native American mother and a Black father from
New York.
“To have those two cultures within me and to be raised to know both of them, both sides, is invaluable, it’s incredibly powerful for me,” he said. “I grew up on the reservation. To know that there’s young Native kids that I grew up with or that are watching me that were growing up in the same place that I grew up in, for them to see me being able to do something and make it out and make a name for myself it makes me happy. It fills me with pride knowing they have somebody to look up to.”
As a kid he was exposed
to overwhelming poverty. The unemployment rate of his reservation hovers around 80 percent, and the suicide rate is, according to the latest data, nearly five times the national average.
Saltes shared stories of cutting down the body of a young man who had hanged himself and the memory of entering a South Dakota home when a gunshot blast from one of the rooms ended the life of a young man he was checking up on.
At UNM he dealt with the 2019 suicide of teammate Nahje Flowers, a shocking death that prompted him to approach political leaders at the state Legislature to lobby for funding that would start mental health initiatives for student-athletes in New Mexico.
He has also been part of the
Save the Children Advocacy Network, a national organization that allowed him to lobby Congress on behalf of Native American youth. Moving forward, Saltes said he will proudly devote even more time to any organization that allows him to champion the cause of those in need.
This year he was named a captain of the 22-player Allstate AFCA Good Works team for charitable contributions off the field.
“It’s been a long four years here but it’s gone by really quick,” Saltes said. “It’s just crazy to think were we’re at. When I started my freshman year, I don’t think any of us knew — I mean, we all had high hopes that we would do really good things.”
In short, his mission is giving a voice to the people who need it, to mobilize an effort for those
who don’t have the means to get the resources they require. Living in New Mexico for much of the last decade has helped teach him the value of diversity and that anything is possible with the right support system.
He earned his undergraduate degree earlier this year and is already in UNM’s law school. He has his sights set on training for the NFL Draft but still hasn’t ruled out a return to the Lobos next season.
“It’s been crazy how busy it’s been lately,” Saltes said, referring to national initiatives that granted him an audience with former Heisman Trophy winner and former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and discussed what made him a respected leader on and off the field.
What lies ahead is anyone’s guess.
The pandemic that cut short the 2020 season prompted the NCAA to grant seniors an additional year of eligibility in 2021,
giving Saltes one last shot at representing the university he has given so much to since stepping foot on campus in 2016. “I’m honestly not sure what comes next but those are conversations I’ll have to have with coach G and my family,” Saltes said.
This month, Saltes was named an all-Mountain West Conference lineman, a tribute to the relentless work ethic he’s crafted during what has otherwise been a tumultuous time at UNM. The football team won less than 10 games his final three seasons, but he continued to shine.
Saltes has excelled in class and worked with student groups and spent time in the offseason to help those less fortunate back home in South Dakota.
Gonzales has penciled Saltes in as a future governor of New Mexico. When asked about it last week, the coach took it a step further by saying he sees Saltes in
the White House one day.
“When he puts his bid together to run for governor or president, we’re going to support him because he’s going to win,” Gonzales said. “And it’ll benefit us, obviously.”
Laugh if you must, but there just might be some truth to it. Saltes said of New Mexico’s congressional delegation, which includes three women in the House of Representatives and a female Hispanic governor, that anything is possible.
“To have that representation in Congress and our state government here, it’s huge,” he said. “We’re leaders in that sense, so we’re first to do it.”
If and when the time comes to start a campaign for public office, one thing is certain. Saltes said he’d probably keep the ponytail he’s had as long as he can remember. “Just for you, I’ll keep it,” he said.