GALVESTON — Ball High School graduate Poppie Simmons is a freshman business major at Prairie View A&M, with college costs paid and a back-story that merges Taco Bell, an NBA player and the Johnny Mitchell Boys and Girls Club in Galveston.
Simmons, son of Precious Simmons of Galveston, competed for and won the 2013 Youth of the Year honors at Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston. The club and community work prompting the award also put him in line for scholarships from the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens as part of the annual Taco Bell Skills Challenge at NBA All-Star 2013 in Houston last February.
Simmons was paired with NBA guard Damian Lillard, who won the obstacle course and delivered a $25,000 scholarship to Simmons.
“It’s exciting to win for someone as deserving as Poppie,” Lillard in a foundation news release said. “He is the real all-star for demonstrating the commitment to graduating from high school and continuing on to college.”
But rewind 10 years of Poppie’s story, and that outcome seems unlikely. He was 8 years old, growing up in Sandpiper Cove when he sought a safe haven in the Johnny Mitchell Boys & Girls Club, 4420 Ave. P, in Galveston.
“At night, I sleep in fear; shootings are the norm,” he wrote in a self-penned profile.
His mother had grown up in Boys and Girls Club herself, and knew the program would be good for her outgoing son as he weathered life in the projects.
“His personality is awesome,” said Cheryl Chatman, longtime club director who well recalled Poppie as a child. “You’ll fall in love with him the minute you meet him; the minute he opens his mouth and starts talking, he’s got you hooked. That’s just his character.”
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