Peele making most of second chance at COS

By Nick Giannandrea

COS Athletics

Bobby Peele wears jersey No. 2 with a purpose for College of the Sequoias' football team.

It serves as a symbolic reminder of the second chance he has received to play the game he loves after spending nearly five years in prison for robbery with force.

And the 26-year-old sophomore has not squandered the opportunity given by Giants coach Joe D'Agostino.

"I was at the bottom. Now I'm climbing to the top," Peele said. "I'm about halfway up the slope, but I'm trying to get even higher than that. I'm not going to stop.

"Yes, I messed up. But that doesn't matter. It's how you come back. Like in football, you can have a crappy first quarter, a crappy second quarter and a crappy third quarter. But it's how you finish. You can't stop until the clock stops."  

With five interceptions (tied for second-best in the state) this season, and a 3.1 grade-point average, Peele has achieved success both on the field and in the classroom heading into COS' homecoming at 7 p.m. Oct. 26 against San Joaquin Delta at the Giant Chevrolet and Cadillac Mineral King Bowl. The Giants are 3-3 overall and 0-1 in the Valley Conference, while the Mustangs are 2-4 and 0-1.

That Peele ended up at COS, looking to rebuild his life, certainly didn't appear to be in the cards in the fall of 2011.

At the time, Peele appeared headed for college football stardom as a senior at Fresno's Edison High.

Peele was enjoying a first-team All-County Metro Athletic Conference season for the Tigers, who he helped lead to the semifinals of the Central Section Division I playoffs.

Major NCAA Division I programs showed interest, including most of the schools in the Pac-12 Conference, Nebraska and Maryland.

Peele seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of former Tigers such as Tim McDonald, Ricky Manning Jr., Robert Golden, T.J. McDonald, Clifton Smith and Cliff Harris, who all played major college football before moving on to the NFL.

"I gave him the No. 2 because COS is his second chance," D'Agostino said. "What's he going to do with that? Can he use football to change the trajectory of his life? At this point, he should be on his second NFL contract."

But there would be no major college football for Peele. 

No NFL.

Early academic struggles - Peele missed half of his freshman season and all of his sophomore year because of poor grades - caused Peele to make up classwork that delayed his official graduation until the summer of 2012.

Scholarship offers never developed because Peele didn't meet NCAA academic eligibility requirements.

That proved the catalyst for an imperfect storm of events that saw Peele go from gifted athlete to prison inmate.

Pressure began to mount as Peele dealt with an uncertain college future and the life-altering news that his mother, Taunja Jones, had been diagnosed with cancer.

Without the structure of a football program to fall back on, Peele ended up running around with acquaintances already involved in criminal activity. 

He began using drugs. 

And he started committing robberies.

At least until he was arrested in December 2012.

"I wasn't in my right state of mine. Most of the time, I was under the influence," said Peele, whose mother would eventually become a cancer survivor. "There was a lot of weight on my shoulders. Things that were not in my plans. I got to a point where I didn't care. The drugs took over more than anything."

Peele would spend 17 months in Fresno County jail before agreeing to a plea deal of five years in prison, with credit for time already served. 

He was transferred to Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, a minimum to medium security facility that trains inmates in wildfire suppression.

Once there, rather than associate with other inmates around his age, Peele gravitated toward older men, those who had a different perspective on life without freedom.

His bunk mate, Ellis Edmond, had a post-prison plan and provided a consistent source of motivation. Edmond got out six months after Peele and started his own mobile detailing business. They still talk nearly every day.

"I think the best thing I ever did was to surround myself with people who were older," Peele said. "A lot of them took me under their wing and gave me guidance. They kept me humble and positive. The younger guys, you could see they were going to go back to jail, if not end up dead. That's not where I wanted to be. My mindset was to get out and accomplish my goal. I had a hiccup in life, but I wanted to play football."

After three years at Sierra Conservation Center, Peele was released in July 2017.

With a nearly 1-year-old son to support, Peele said finding work was priority No. 1 after he earned his freedom. But as an ex-felon without a college education, landing a good job proved difficult. He took hard labor - and low paying - jobs doing landscaping and janitorial work before getting a job at Foster Farms on the processing line.

"I tried to do any job I could," Peele said. "But it was hard with my background. I wasn't going to get a job behind a desk, obviously. I wasn't going anywhere." 

A year later, in the spring of 2018, Peele received a phone call from a former Edison teammate, Billy Wright, who was an assistant coach at COS. Wright told Peele he could arrange a tryout with then new Giants coach D'Agostino.

But before stepping foot on the field, D'Agostino wanted to hear Peele's story. 

So Peele shared everything, from his descent into drugs and criminal activity, to his time in prison to his plan for the future: use football as a means to a college education.

"I told him the good, the bad and the ugly," Peele said. "The only thing I could do was be honest about it."

D'Agostino said he was advised not to take on a player with Peele's history heading into his first season as COS' head coach.

"But I trusted Bobby. I believed what he said to me," D'Agostino said. "I wanted to give him a second chance. And he hasn't disappointed at all."

Peele not only went on to make the team, he because a starter. 

And an impactful one at that.

The 6-foot, 190-pounder led the Giants with five interceptions last season while earning first-team All-Valley Conference honors. With five more interceptions this season, Peele sits three away from tying the college's career record of 13 held by Tom Roberts (1963-65) and Jacob Yavasile (1997-98). Peele said his ultimate goal is to end his COS career with 15 interceptions.

"I want to make that record untouchable," Peele said.

D'Agostino said Peele has made as big an impact on his impressionable teenage teammates off the field as he has in leading the Giants' defense on it.

"Not only has he delivered as a player, he's had a greater obligation to not let these kids fall victim to some of the stuff he did," D'Agostino said. "He's a great presence in the locker room. He can put into perspective what it means to play at this level that not a lot of other players or coaches can."

Peele takes setting a positive example to both his teammates, and his now 3-year-old son, Bobby Jr., very seriously.

That means you won't find Peele in baggy, sagging pants. And you'll never see his face covered in tattoos.  

"I know I'm going to be judged," Peele said. "So I try to carry myself in a different way. It's not because I don't want people to know about my past, because I'll tell you. But I feel like that wasn't me, so I try to carry myself a little different."

Despite his age and criminal past, Peele is hoping to land a scholarship offer that will allow him to finish his playing career at a four-year university and earn a degree. He received a verbal offer this week from Chadron University, an NCAA Division II program in Nebraska, and also is drawing interest from D-II Northwestern Oklahoma State.

"I'm 26 and I do have a background," Peele said. "So I understand why some people won't take a chance on me. But I'm only going to give me best to anyone who does."

Peele said he plans to major in psychology, more for his personal well-being than any desire to pursue that as a profession. Peele would like to work as a firefighter after he is done with college.

"Education is bigger than anything," Peele said. "With education, you get out of this. With education, you can do anything you want."

Peele is thankful to be living his dream of playing college football. And for the opportunity to gain an education that will provide a better future for himself and Bobby Jr.

"This is not promised. For me to be here today, I'm blessed," Peele said. "I could have said (expletive) all this, I'm going back to the streets and keep doing criminal activities and not better myself. But where would I be right now? Probably back in (prison). This is by far the best decision I've ever made in my life."