When you’re out in the middle of nowhere and need a tool that can do almost anything, you’ll be glad you brought along a Swiss Army Knife. And when Perryville High School Pirates coach Brent Roth needs somebody who can play more than one position —be it receiver, tight end, defensive end side linebacker or anything else — 18-year-old senior Dominic Seiler is his go-to guy.
“That says the team needs me, and they know I can be there for the job,” said Seiler, who started playing sports early. “I've been interested in sports since I was about five years old. My dad would have us throw a football in the backyard, play catch and everything. I was playing in Little League as soon as I could, throughout middle school and then up to high school. It's always been my thing.”
Having taken off his freshman year, Seiler, the son of Randy and Michelle Seiler, joined the PHS Pirates team as a sophomore, and he has a lot of good things to say about coach Roth and the team’s assistant coaches.
“Coach Roth and the other coaches show a lot of heart,” he said. “They get a lot of respect from me and all the other players on the team. When we have a bad loss, they're not going to bring all the bad energy. They're going to try to bring us back up and get us ready for the next week — and that's always something special.”
Asked how he’s improved as a player since joining the Pirates, Seiler said, “My sophomore year, I was confused. I had been playing throughout middle school and was running a different position. Then they had me switch to tight end. It was my first year playing. I was a newcomer. They showed me how to do everything, showed me how to up my running and catching. I got a couple of touchdowns in my sophomore year, and then I was starting varsity in my junior year.”
According to Seiler, the team is supportive of each other and have as their goal to make each player successful.
“Like Friday night, for example, our starting quarterback, Kayd [Luckey], put a lot of pressure on himself since it’s his first year starting and we lost. But, you know, we all made mistakes. We shouldn't be putting each other down. We should keep pushing forward for the next week. And, like I said earlier, our coaches push us for the next week. They don't have us look too much into the past. They just want us to try to win as many games as possible and try to be the best that we can be throughout the whole season.”
Seiler offered some thoughts on the importance of football on and off the field.
“Football is a lot more than just a game,” he said. People think you just go to practice, and then you leave and go on with your day. But we’re just a big family. We've had a couple of wins and then a loss against St. Vincent this past Friday, but throughout all that, we've come together and shown that we're more than just a team. We’re a family. We put a lot of expectations on ourselves. We have some goals set for this year, and we're just hoping to move ahead and make sure those goals are accomplished.”
