Doug Peoples was a 3 sport athlete (basketball, football and track), a former Norwalk High student, class of 1971, and ever since graduating he’s been Norwalk’s biggest supporter. After finishing college, he went back to Norwalk and officiated with the girls basketball team. He would always see all the kids talent on the team, and it would all just go to a waste, but there was one specific person who he knew was going to be special: Rita Williams. Rita was averaging 27 points, 6 assists, and 7 rebounds, all while leading her team to their first ever Class L Championship, receiving MVP honors. She ended up becoming the all the leader for Brien McMahon with 1,965 points and Mr. Peoples did everything he can to get her into college. He would stay with her until she finished everything in her college application, and he would go out and get her more scholarships, even though she was getting a lot of offers. She attended Mitchell College for a year and then she took her talent to UCONN. All of her talent would end up getting her selected in the WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics, 13th overall. After Mr. Peoples seeing he helped Rita get into college and the WNBA, he knew he could be able to help many other people get into college.
Over the last decade he’s helped tons of athletes from each sports (including McMahon) to earn scholarships and to let them bring all their talent to college and eventually the pros. During the 2020 seniors Jackie Cota and Michelle Lazzaro just came off of great seasons in Field Hockey and were both looking forward to playing in college until the pandemic made a huge impact on the both of them. It was going to be even harder getting into college, but Mr. Peoples was able to help both of them online and found both of them scholarships. He would take time out of his day to make sure they both get scholarships and attend college, and after a few months, they both got their scholarships and got accepted to colleges to play Field Hockey. The game was all the way at Western Connecticut in Danbury, and Mr. Peoples still went to watch the person he helped get into a college and be one of the biggest support there.
For the last 40 years, Mr. Peoples made karate one of the most activities to do in Norwalk. While he was at Central Connecticut playing football, Mr. Peoples joined the karate team to keep his body in shape in the off-season and that would make him make one of the biggest decisions of his life. He came back to Norwalk, and he brought the idea to the former director of Carver, Richard Fuller, to hold a karate tournament every year for their YDP kids as a way to earn scholarships. After doing this for many years, he opened up his own karate place, Norwalk Tang Soo Do to teach kids martial arts and self defense. He’s been coaching almost everyone’s parent in Norwalk to their kid and they’ve all seen the impact Mr. People’s impact to the city of Norwalk despite for asking nothing in return.
Mr. Peoples was inducted as an honoree for Norwalk’s Old Timers Athletic Association, honored by Brien McMahon for helping their basketball players get into college, and has been known as one of the Norwalk’s most famous person ever. To this day he is still helping kids earn scholarships to go to college and still going to every Norwalk High/Brien McMahon game, and it’s looking like he will keep this going forever to show his love for the city of Norwalk.
