Feature on Bess from the SF Chronicle

About the 7-on-7 games he played in while he was incarcerated, Bess said:
"It was a chance to get out in public." (SFC)

SFC Note: "He did not know that Keith Bhonapha was there filming Bess' game activity. A graduate assistant coach at Hawaii who was on vacation back home in the Bay Area, Bhonapha had agreed to help Bess at the request of John Beam, who had coached Bess and Bhonapha at Oakland's Skyline High. Bhonapha respected Beam because he had suspended Bhonapha for his entire junior football season when he got into some trouble. Bhonapha calls the suspension the best thing that could have happened to him. Beam and Bhonapha gave Bess a chance. Three years later, Bess is a third-team Associated Press All-America receiver for an undefeated, No. 10-ranked Hawaii team that will play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday.

Bhonapha was convinced Bess was basically a good kid, who had had no previous brushes with the law before being arrested for possession of stolen weapons on July 9, 2003, just days after his graduation from Skyline. According to Bess, a few friends called him up asking for a ride, so he borrowed a friend's car, drove to Lafayette and picked them up, knowing nothing of their intentions until they loaded some stolen goods into the car. When they were stopped by police soon thereafter and the stolen goods were found, Bess was hit hardest because he was driving. Just 17 at the time, Bess spent about a month in jail before being sentenced to 15 months at the juvenile detention center officially known as the Orin Allen Rehabilitation Facility and commonly known as the Byron Boys Ranch, an unassuming-looking building that has chickens, horses and goats outside and is near virtually nothing."

About how he had to change his himself and his life after his arrest, Bess said:
"I was put in a situation where I had to man up." (SFC)

SFC Note: "Chinell Carpenter, Bess' mother and a single parent, provided the support system to get Bess through the ordeal. She made the 90-minute trip from East Oakland to Byron every week for the one-hour visiting allotment, then immediately hit the road for the 90-minute drive back home."

About driving to visit Bess each week, his Mom Chinell Carpenter said:
"I've been in five car accidents and none of that was worse than going there." (SFC)

About how he thought he'd have to go to a JC and then hope for a scholarship after a few years, Bess said:
"But God blessed me and I was lucky enough to take a shortcut." (SFC)

SFC Note: "The shortcut began that day at Pittsburg High, but it was initiated before that by Beam, who had ignored Bess' early letters for assistance, waiting for him to take responsibility for his actions. When Bess finally did that, Beam immersed himself in helping Bess. That led him to Bhonapha, who knew his boss, Hawaii coach June Jones, had given other kids a second chance, including quarterback Colt Brennan, who had been arrested on assault charges while he was a freshman at Colorado.

The problem was, there was no film of Bess. He had been a wide receiver as a junior at Skyline, but he was switched to quarterback as a senior, helping the team go undefeated in 2002. He did not play football in 2003 while housed in Byron, leaving Jones with nothing to go on. So Bhonapha packed up his camcorder and recorded Bess at that 7-on-7 game in Pittsburg. The video was grainy, but Bess displayed so much athletic skill, that it, along with some hard selling by Bhonapha and Beam, convinced Jones to take on Bess. Bess was released on Sept. 1, 2004 - two months early for good behavior but not soon enough to start school in the fall - and departed for Hawaii to enroll in the winter term."

About how it was good for Bess to get away from the Bay Area, Bhohapha said:
"I think it was the best thing for him, getting so far away from the Bay Area. The first year he didn't even go home." (SFC)

SFC Note: "Now Bess and Brennan hold the Division I record for most touchdown passes by a quarterback-receiver combination (39), and Bess' 41 touchdown receptions overall are just nine short of the NCAA record. Bess has 286 catches, the most in Division I history over a three-year period, and he's a shoo-in to break the career record of 316 if he returns for his senior season. That's a big if, because he might turn pro instead. Bess probably would be drafted from the second to fourth rounds and could move up considerably with good workouts for the pro scouts."

About how Hawaii has been the perfect place for Bess, Beam (now AD and assistant football coach at Laney College) said:
"Hawaii has been the perfect place for him. The island has accepted him, and he has accepted the island." (SFC)

About how Bess isn't sure when he'll get to go back to Oakland, especially when his Christmas plans were cancelled for the Sugar Bowl, Carpenter said:
"I'm more comfortable knowing he's there." (SFC)

SFC Note: "She has been to Hawaii for three of Bess' games, loves it there, and she is traveling to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. No one is more excited than Carpenter, who has been there for Bess every step of the way and has trouble believing what has transpired."

Knowing what Bess and she went through, Carpenter said:
"You never see the light at the end of the tunnel until you're there at the end. While you're in the tunnel, it's depressing." (SFC)

About how Bess has been a great role model, Beam said:
"We were supposed to go out to dinner after the Washington game, but he said he had to speak to a Pop Warner group. I said, 'Go do it.' " (SFC)

About how he's spoken to kids at detention homes in Hawaii on several occasions, Bess said:
"That's one of the things I vowed to myself I would do. I am a living example of what redemption is." (SFC)