Santa Ana College Men's Football

Johnnie Peeples Jr. has been named the head coach of the Santa Ana College Track & Field program. Peeples Jr. brings a wealth of experience in strength and conditioning with stops as an assistant football coach at Brethren Christian High School, Huntington Beach High School, Liberty Christian High School and Ft. Pierce Westwood High School (FL). He was also a graduate assistant at the University of Montana.  Peeples Jr. was a three sport standout, lettering in football, basketball and track & field at Ft. Pierce High School (FL).  Following high school, he attended Indian River College   in Florida where he lettered in basketball. Peeples Jr. later moved west and joined the Orange Coast College Football program where he was an All-Mission Conference player.  Peeples then transferred to play at the University of Montana where he was part of a D1AA national championship team, earning All-Big Sky Conference honors.  He later was inducted with the rest of the football team into the University of Montana Athletic Hall of Fame. Peeples also played a season with the Bismark Roughriders of the National Indoor Football League in 2003. In addition, Coach Peeples is a Marine Corps Veteran, Owner of Peeples Coaching and the Defensive Backs/Sports Conditioning Coordinator for Santa Ana Football. He earned his Bachelors degree in Applied Business Management and obtained his MBA in Leadership from Grand Canyon University. Peeples is also a CATC-I CAADE Cerified Addictions Counselor, an INBA/PNBA Pro Bodybuilder and a member of Crosspoint Church in Huntington Beach. Coach Peeples has two children, Jonathan and Brooklyn, and is married to Carla M. Peeples

Jones took over the helm of the Dons coaching staff in 2002, after spending six seasons as an assistant coach. In his career, the Dons have appeared in four bowl games with three victories. The Dons bowl victories came in the 2012 Southern California Bowl, the 2010 Beach Bowl and the 2008 Orange County Bowl. The Dons also appeared in the 2006 Western State Bowl, rounding out Jones' trips to bowl games. Along with Jones success on the field, he has also aided several of his players off the field. During Jones tenure, 129 players have received a scholarship to continue their athletic and academic careers at a four-year university. In the spring of 2009, David Buehler, who played for Jones in 2005 before transferring to the University of Southern California, was drafted in the fifth round of the National Football League Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. He was the first football player from Santa Ana College to be selected in the NFL Draft since 1977. Prior to the 2004 season, the Santa Ana-alum served as the head football coach on a contract basis in 2002 and 2003 before being hired as a full-time faculty member and head football coach in April 2004. The former Don, who is the 15th head coach in Santa Ana College football history, is not unfamiliar with Santa Ana College having spent six years as an assistant coach under Dave Ogas. Jones served as the wide receivers and tight ends coach before taking over as the offensive coordinator in 2001. In his first year of running the offense (2001), Santa Ana racked up 342 yards-per-game on offense and had four different players earn all-Mission Conference honors. As the teams wide receivers and tight ends coach (2000), the Dons broke eight different school records--including individual receiving yardage (Derrick Barnes, 1,128), receptions (Barnes, 66) and individual receiving touchdowns (Barnes, 15). After a stellar career at El Dorado High School, Jones came to Santa Ana College and was a two-year starter at tight end for Dons. As a sophomore he garnered second team All-Mission Conference, Central Division honors after catching 16 passes for 258 yards and three touchdowns. Following his career at Santa Ana College, Jones transferred to Chapman University where he played two seasons for head coach Ken Visser and helped the Panthers to a 15-3-1 overall record. He was a member of the 1995 team that finished 8-1 overall and ranked in the nations Top 25. He earned his bachelors degree in movement/exercise science with an emphasis in athletic training at Chapman before completing his masters degree in physical education at Azusa Pacific University. Jones currently resides in Fullerton with his wife, Sarah, his daughter, Ashley, and son, Mitchell.