CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Khevin Peoples is practicing with the second-team defense.

Peoples joins Warriors
family

With memories of his late father
spurring him on, Khevin Peoples
is thriving at UH

How do you prepare for the inevitable when the inevitable is your father's death, and he is your hero, and you are 17 years old?

The Khevin Peoples File Height: 6-foot Weight: 205 pounds Class: Freshman Position: Outside linebacker Notable: Peoples is thriving in fall camp, playing with the second-team defense, and looks to get more reps in practice after an injury yesterday to Paul Lutu Carroll.

How do you cope?

How do you answer the questions? How do you deal with the stigma? How do you go on, when your father, the man who was the big local legend and the role model, dies alone in a motel room of a drug overdose?

Khevin Peoples knew it was coming.

He knew his father was going to die -- die young, way before his time.

"When my Ma told me, when I got home and she told me, I didn't even cry. Because I knew it was coming around. I didn't know when, but I knew it was coming. Before she told me, my heart started beating fast, because I knew she was going to tell me Pops was gone."

It was Nov. 23, 2003 when George Peoples, 43, died. Like his son, most who knew him well were not surprised. Peoples had battled cocaine addiction for years.

The way Khevin sees it, George is with him all the time now. The freshman linebacker at the University of Hawaii hears his father's voice often, telling him how to stay on the right path, the one from which his dad had wandered.

"I feel like he's standing right behind me, in my ear, telling me, 'Khevin, you knew this day would come, this would happen to me. It happens to everybody. You just have to keep moving. Lift your weights, eat right, sleep right. Don't be out all night, just do right,'" Khevin said Saturday.

The cynic will say George Peoples should have followed his own advice, that he shouldn't have chosen drugs over life, especially with a loving wife, son and daughter to think about.

"Death happens to everybody. He died at 43. Whether it happens at 4, at 88 or 108, it's still gonna happen at some point of time," Khevin said. "When people ask about the way he died, I just tell them it didn't affect me. That was his path that he chose. To each his own. What he did with whatever drugs he used, that's none of my business because I don't do it."

Khevin's mother and George's widow, Regina, said George did not match the public's general perception of a drug addict. When he was clean, which was most of the time, George was an ideal father and husband, she said.

"He was a great dad, Khevin thought the sun rose and set on his dad, and George felt the same way about him," she said in a telephone interview. "Obviously, he had some struggles. It was amazing to me how he was so good and kind and talented and helped people the way he did, yet he had this huge struggle within himself.

"He was more than a husband. He was my best friend."

George and Regina met the first day of school at Auburn University. George became a star running back who went on to play in the NFL for the Cowboys, Patriots and Buccaneers. Regina became an SEC sprints champion who is now a district supervisor for the Tampa parks and recreation department.

George and Regina settled in Tampa, George's hometown. In addition to raising Khevin and his older sister, Tia, the Peoples' helped lots of other kids. He coached high school football, and together, they started a track and field foundation.

"Man, I can't even begin to tell you, so many kids he helped," Khevin said. "Coaching some of them, others being like a big brother or mentor. He knew what it takes to succeed. He'd step in and tell us x, y and z to get the job done. His whole deal is you go out there, and you got no room to mess around. The second you go 90 percent, that's when you get hurt. You've got to go 100 percent."

But he could never completely shake the drug habit that eventually killed him.

"It was years and years, off and on," Regina said. "He tried rehab on several occasions. It just didn't work. He just couldn't stop. Now he finally has peace and comfort."

Regina and Khevin feel no bitterness toward George, accepting the addiction as illness. Both said their religious faith and family support helped them make it through the rest of Khevin's senior year of high school. Not that it was easy.

"It was right in the middle of recruiting season. I was like, 'So what. Football? I don't even care anymore.' I just wanted to go somewhere and crawl under a rock," Khevin said.

Khevin, blessed with his father's physical strength and his mother's explosive speed, was an outstanding high school football player, and George was setting things up for Khevin to get a scholarship at Auburn, his alma mater.

"George could sell sand at the beach, so Khevin's coaches laid back, leaving it to George," Regina said. "But midway through the season, George was out of the picture, and he was handling everything. It still baffles me Khevin didn't have more offers."

After George's death, Khevin's didn't think about college. But his uncle and George's brother, Stanford strength coach Nathan Peoples, stepped in to help Khevin plan his future.

"We got together and we made a couple of highlight films and circulated them to different schools. He told me he sent one to Hawaii, and I said OK and forgot about it. Out of nowhere I'm sitting at home and I see an 808 area code come up on my telephone. I pick it up and it's Coach Singletary and we just start talking," Khevin said.

Vantz Singletary is UH's defensive line coach. They started out with at least two things in common, as both are African-American, and Singletary is also related to a former NFL player, Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary.

The more Peoples listened to Singletary, the more he thought Hawaii might not be a crazy idea. Especially when Singletary talked about the UH program's "family atmosphere."

"I wasn't worried about playing time, I was more worried about getting somewhere where the coaches would believe in me and I could prove I was worth bringing in," Khevin said. "So, that whole family atmosphere idea was important. Everybody knows down south we have southern hospitality, and when I came to visit I saw the same kind of characteristics here in Hawaii. It felt just like coming home."

It's only been one week, but so far Khevin is thriving at UH's fall camp. He is with the second-team defense at outside linebacker. At 6-feet and 205 pounds, he displays a rare combination of speed, strength and athleticism, and coaches say he is diligent.

"He's really a good kid, good instincts. I would think he has a bright career ahead of him," UH head coach June Jones said.

Khevin's mother was here helping him get settled in. She left last Monday to return to Tampa.

"Khevin is a lot like his father in that if something is required of him, he has a desire to go beyond the minimum. He worked himself into such good shape getting ready to go to Hawaii, I can't describe it. It was like coaches were standing over him, but he did it on his own. I think he got that from his dad," she said.

Of course, she worries.

"Sometimes I wonder. I can't help but wonder. Does he need to cry? There were so many things his dad missed. His diploma, his MVP trophy, when he got dressed up for the prom.

"But Khevin has so many supporters, and it looked like he was really fitting in. I left feeling very good. I feel like I left him with family," she said.