‘He’s a true Alma kid’

Senior Brayden Peppas bides his time, happy to contribute to the Airedale squad

By Kevin Taylor

Alma Schools

Zach Jones came charging toward Joseph Potts like a linebacker trying to protect a one-point lead with the game on the line.

“I think I flew about five yards back,” Potts said.

Jones and Potts are not part of Alma’s football team. At least, not as players.

They are coaches.

And last week, when Brayden Peppas swooped up Vilonia quarterback Coulson Ashcraft’s errant pass for the team’s fifth turnover, no one was more pumped than Jones.

“I think I shoved Potts at least five yards,” Jones said. “That’s the thing. Good things are going to happen when you get in the right spot. Yeah, he’s (Peppas) not the greatest athlete of all time, but he’s smart enough not to get himself beaten.

“He’s a true Alma kid.”

“I would tell people I got pretty lucky, but I feel like it was pretty calculated,” Peppas said of his first-career interception. I was going to hit him (the receiver), and the ball just bounced right toward me, and he brought me down. I was happy to get an interception and finally put myself on the stat sheet.”

Brayden Peppas wasn’t the smallest seventh-grade football player in the history of Alma’s program. But, to quote someone who might have coached this sport 50 years ago, he couldn’t have been “any bigger than a minnow.”

“You would have to ask coach Potts, but I couldn’t have been bigger than 5-foot-1 or 5-2 and 95 pounds,” Peppas said. “I wasn’t very big, and he (Potts) likes to make fun of the high-pitched voice I had back then. He’ll tease me about that.”

Even now, at 5-6 and 135 pounds, Peppas is usually one of the smallest players on the field.

“Oh my gosh … he (Peppas) was so tiny,” Potts said. “But he played a lot for us in seventh grade. He played corner for us. He’s the most vocal kid out there and does everything you ask him to. Really, intelligence-wise, he’s one of the smartest kids we have.”

Relationships aren’t always just about X’s and O’s, or scheming to beat teams. The heart of the matter is those relationships built off the field, too.

“They’ve (coaches) been with me since the seventh grade,” he said. “Coach (Thomas) Mata; he’s been here, too. I’ve been blessed to have them as defensive coaches from seventh grade all the way up to high school.”

“He’s the type of kid we’ve always had at Alma,” Jones said. “He’s stuck around. He played a little bit in junior high but wasn’t a starter most of the time. He definitely hadn’t played anything but JV these last few years.

“He does everything right and knows exactly where he’s supposed to be.”

Peppas, who backs up free safety Jackson Rust, has four tackles for the Airedales.

“The effort is there, he lines up right, and he plays hard,” Jones said. “I just wish he were a little bit bigger. He’s a great kid who stuck around and worked his tail off in the off-season.”

“As a senior, it’s great to play with guys like (Caleb) Liles and Rust; we have a lot of great friendships,” Peppas said. “We’ve had some tough losses this year, but I’m so glad we’re still fighting. We have a big game with Greenbrier this week, who is one of the better teams in 5A, so it’s good to be able to compete against a good team like this.”

All in the family

Peppas may not be the last of his family to don an Alma football jersey. His little brother, Brancen, is a first grader.

“My older brother, Brant, was more of a baseball player, and I’m my parents’ first football player,” Brayden explained. “My little brother, he’s in first grade, he’s going to play tackle football next year.”

Peppas’s mom, Kelli, played basketball for Madelyn Flenor while in high school. Like Brayden, she wasn’t the biggest player, but played with a ton of grit.

“My mom graduated from Alma; she played basketball here,” Peppas said. “She was little, but she played with a lot of heart. I’ve learned a lot from her, personally.”

Parents Kelli and Josh Peppas are the proud parents of five kids (four boys and a girl) — Brant, Brayden, Brenden, Brancen, and Berkley.

“Sports is one of the main things we do in our family,” Peppas said. “We watch a lot of college basketball, and college football is huge for me on Saturday. I will sit down and watch college football for hours.”

Student athlete

Athletics aside, Peppas is part of a bigger picture at Alma High School. He’s a key cog in Sherry Siler’s DECA program, where he serves as DECA President.

“It’s a great honor to me, personally, to wear the ‘A’ and have the opportunity to represent the community, the school, and the organizations that I’m in within the school,” he said. “I feel honored.”

“Those are the kids we point at when the seventh graders come in for a tour,” Potts said. “You tell them, ‘You may not play a lot as a seventh, eighth, or ninth grader, and you might be JV (junior varsity) — kind of like Jacob Dollard last season.

“But if you stay around and keep working, you’ll get your chance.”

It’s 6:38 on game day. The crowd is filling up the stadium, and the football team begins its descent from the locker room to the field.

No one is more pumped than the kid in the No. 3 jersey.

“There’s nothing like it,” Peppas said. “There’s no other experience like it; you won’t play high school again. You won’t play football after this, either, unless you go to college. It’s one of my favorite feelings, walking on the field with my teammates and locking in and doing what I can for my team.”