Aaron Peck: Overcoming Adversity

The Fresno State fall 2015 football camp was a time in which Aaron Peck will never forget.

“I was lined up to the boundary and the play was designed for me to run a fade route in the end zone, which I did. Umm, the quarterback threw it up. I want to say Chason threw me the ball and I jumped up, caught the ball, and I came down and I thought I was fine like I came down – caught the touchdown,” Peck says. “I’m pretty sure I celebrated like on the ground – put my arms up or something and I got up and my foot felt like it was burning – like a weird burning sensation.”

Peck tore a ligament in his left foot, which required surgery. He was ruled out for an entire season.

“I was upset. It was supposed to be my senior year. I was feeling good. I was playing well in camp. I feel like coaches had high expectations of me to come out and perform.” Peck says. “I also had these expectations for myself, so I’m like ‘OK it’s kinda all down the drain now.’ I gotta kinda start over. I gotta be here for another year when I was supposed to be done last year.”

But Peck wasn’t about to let that stop him from coming back even stronger the next year.

Teammate and close friend Dalen Jones watched how hard Peck worked to get ready for this season.

“He accepted it at the end of the day alright this happened — gotta push forward, reach for the future. But at the time, it didn’t just bring him down, it brought everybody down,” Jones says. “To go through something like that and then his rehab at the same time — he was in there grinding every time, he was in there all the time, on time — all that.”

Dianne Peck, Aaron’s mom says even though he was hurt, he pushed past the pain to get back on the field.

“I noticed in him that he fought harder to get back to where he is and continuing to fight to reach his goals whatever they may be,” Dianne says.

Peck says when he got hurt, it was one of the most defining moments in his life.

“Adversity builds character — and uhh that’s exactly what that was, it was a real…a building moment if that makes sense,” Pecks says.

Peck says it’s his parent’s support that has gotten him this far.

Dianne says she instilled religious beliefs in her son.

“You have to have the faith and you have to have God in your life in order to achieve anything. I don’t want him to forget that without God none of this would be possible,” Dianne says. “Yeah we’re there to support you, but you have to believe that God is taking you this far and will continue to carry as long as you believe in him.”

The Riverside native started playing football since the age of eight but says basketball was his first love.

“I’ve always wanted to play professional sports. Of course at first I thought it was basketball, but when I really started playing football in high school I figured ‘hey you know who knows how far I could take this so’ I would say since high school I’ve known I wanted to play professional whether that’d be NBA or NFL” Peck says.

Peck grew up with his father, Warren Peck.

The main bond between Aaron and his father is sports, which is why football is so important to him.

“Sports in general is just big for us, you know that’s pretty much all we had – that’s all we did when I was young,” Peck says.

Peck says it’s bittersweet being done with football at Fresno State, but he’s excited for pro day where he hopes to make his dream of playing in the NFL — a reality.

He’ll also be obtaining his degree in business administration with a sports marketing option, so if he doesn’t make it to the pros, then he hopes to have a career working in football or basketball.

But Peck says his main objective in life is to have a family and be happy.

“I mean, growing up I didn’t really have much. It was just me and my dad living in a one/two bedroom apartment. I don’t really expect much…when you’re used to living like that, it’s not like you wake up every day saying ‘I’m poor’ — you woke up like ‘I’m going to go play basketball you were happy,” Peck says. “You didn’t know if you were poor or if you had money – it didn’t really matter. So I mean for me just moving on forward in life, money isn’t a huge determining factor on if I’m successful or not – as long as you know, like I said have my little family — you know we’re good, then I’ll be good.”