‘I’m going to take it.’ Why Columbus football star Tre Peterson is going Ivy League
Balancing a high workload with physical demands of a college sport is something many Division I athletes face. Majoring in a complex field like biomedical engineering is even more difficult at a place like Yale, an elite Ivy League school where the academic prowess often overshadows the athletic teams the university fields.
But don’t tell Columbus High’s Tre Peterson.
It takes the senior one question to mention how excited he is at the mention of his future school, Yale, which he’ll sign for on Feb. 10. Peterson also had an offer from Navy and visited Harvard.
That’s elite academic company to be in, but Peterson knows he’s prepared for the rigorous courseload at Yale. He’s also prepared to balance it with the responsibilities of playing major college football.
“I’m probably getting one of the best educations in the world,” Peterson told the Ledger-Enquirer Monday. “I’m going to take it. All of it.”
Overcoming mother’s death
Denise Walker, 38, was a single mother suffering from congestive heart failure while raising Peterson and his brother, J.P. Powell, when she died in her sleep Jan. 11, 2018, a morning that started like a regular school day.
Peterson left for school first. A neighbor who usually visited Walker around that time came to the door. When nobody answered her repeated knocking, and the door was unlocked, she became concerned and entered.
She found Walker unresponsive in bed.
Walker usually woke up Powell, who attended Richards Middle School then, but this morning he woke up to the sound of the neighbor screaming.
After he learned their mother had died, Powell went to the bathroom and punched the wall. Then he called his brother. Peterson didn’t answer at first because he was in the middle of class. Powell kept calling. Peterson finally called back when his lunch period started. The neighbor took Powell’s phone to report the horrible news.
“I broke down,” Peterson previously told the L-E.
He didn’t even bother to check out of school. He “just left,” he said.
The team rallied around them.
The Blue Devils won seven games that year, made the playoffs and enjoyed a winning season for the first time since 2015. They were the only Muscogee County school to advance past the first round of the state playoffs, and had six players make the L-E’s 2018 All-Bi-City first and second teams. Columbus coach Phil Marino was named All-Bi-City co-coach of the year.
“They always check up on me,” Peterson said in an Oct. 2018 interview with the Ledger-Enquirer. “… I’ve developed a strong relationship with pretty much everybody on this team. They’re like brothers to me. I don’t think blood would make us any closer.”
It was, objectively, one of Columbus’ best seasons in ages. The Blue Devils hadn’t won a playoff game in 44 years.
Powell played much of 2018 on defense, and was expected to start at quarterback this season before an injury forced him to the sideline for almost all of it. Peterson said he still thinks about his mother every game.
Becoming a Yale Bulldog
Peterson lights up at the mention of Yale. He originally took his official visit “just to say I did it,” he said, and had little desire to attend school in New Haven, Connecticut.
That all changed when he stepped on campus and met the coaching staff.
“Once I got there, it changed my whole mindset,” Peterson said. “Perfect environment. You get the best of both worlds (academics and athletics), of course.”
Peterson described Yale as a “family environment” among everybody, not just the football players or the athletes. He and Derrick Lett, Yale recruiting coordinator and assistant head coach (running backs) struck up a bond before the senior even committed. They’re “best buds” now, Peterson said.
When Peterson took his official visit, he made the trip alone but did not feel uncomfortable once throughout the experience. He didn’t miss home, he said, because he felt like he was at home.
“I can’t wait to get up there,” Peterson said. “Honestly.”
How Lett and the Bulldogs plan to use Peterson is relatively unknown. Peterson played quarterback for most of 2019, but his best position is a slot receiver/running back hybrid. He does his best when isolated out in space, where he can make defenders miss and accelerate up field.
That seems to be how the Bulldogs view Peterson, judging by what he and Marino said Monday: Peterson said once he gets to Yale, he’ll likely work with both the receivers and running backs in practice, switching between the two groups as needed. His coach echoed a similar message.
The Blue Devils lost three starting quarterbacks in 2019, so Peterson filled the void. He was voted to the region 1-4A all-region team as an athlete this season, a first-team athlete on the L-E’s 2019 All-Bi-City team and a class 4A All-State honorable mention.
Peterson ran for 591 yards (6.8 yards per carry) and eight touchdowns in his senior season, adding 291 yards passing and two touchdowns.
“From that running back position and that slot spot, they’re going to utilize him and get him out on a linebacker,” Marino said. “He’s such a good player. We hope to get some size on him, but once he’s up there and he’s eating all the time, he’ll be fine.”
Columbus High academics prepared Tre
Peterson is no stranger to tough academics.
To attend Columbus, eighth-graders must have grades of 82 or higher in all classes. Transfers to CHS must have an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or higher. Any student who wishes to attend CHS must complete a three-hour admissions test, consisting of a math section, English section and an essay — fairly typical for a magnet school.
At a school like Columbus, the academic rigor does not let up. Peterson, who holds a 4.3 GPA, said he had homework every night during the first week of classes in the fall. It was not uncommon for him to stay awake for hours after practice to finish work for the next day’s classes.
Peterson said it teaches discipline. For someone hoping to play college football, it’s an invaluable trait.
“The academics are probably going to be my biggest challenge,” Peterson said. “But it’s the challenge that fuels me.”
One of the challenges Peterson will face at Yale is choosing an area of emphasis. Yale’s biomedical engineering program offers four areas: biomedical imaging, biomolecular engineering, drug delivery and tissue engineering.
Peterson hasn’t quite decided which area he’ll choose, but plans to have his mind made up before arriving on campus. He researched biomedical imaging Sunday night.
Yale boasts an undergraduate enrollment of 5,964, according to the school’s Office of Institutional Research. The School of Engineering and Applied Science has fewer than 600 undergraduate students.
“Balancing the workload with football here, if it’s not worse (at Yale), it’s probably head-to-head,” Peterson said. “I feel like I’ll most definitely be prepared for that.
“And if not, then I’ll take it upon myself to adjust.”
