Recruiting Update: Chris Penner (2019 Capital HS)
Often times two-sport athletes have a tough decision to make. If they choose to focus on one sport in college, which one do they pick? For Chris Penner, it seems like hoops will be the way he goes but the tough 6-foot-1, 195-pound guard from Capital High School is keeping all of his options. He currently holds a D-II offer and other D-III squads are after him hard as well.
Recruiting has certainly been hot and heavy for Penner this fall as in-state Division III schools Whitworth, Pacific Lutheran, and Puget Sound have all offered him a spot on their basketball team. Seattle Pacific has offered a scholarship. Penner recently returned from a visit to Whitworth and notes that Whitworth and Seattle Pacific are the “most prestigious” of the schools recruting him right now.
“At Whitworth and SPU I liked the atmosphere and the coaches were really nice and welcoming,” Pener said. “I watched practices and they were really fun to watch. My brother goes to Whitworth right now, but I don’t really know. Seattle Pacific is offering me an athletic scholarship so I’m looking at that, but we’ll see how the season goes.”
A tough defender on the hardwood, Penner seems to be leaning towards basketball in college but he notes his football coach played at Southern Utah and has gotten in touch with some Big Sky schools on Penner’s behalf. “Personally for me it’s gone well, but we just got knocked out of the playoffs,” Penner said. “It was a fun senior year but it didn’t quite end the way we expected it to.”
With football done and the recruitment in that sport a bit on the back burner, Penner’s attention moves on to basketball where he’s hoping for big things. “We should have a really, realy good season. We’re senior-heavy and we are returning a lot of guys, so it should be a fun year. I want to go back to the Tacoma Dome – that’s my big goal.”