GAINESVILLELEGEND CRISCARPENTER

STORY BY ELLIS PITTS

If you have lived in Gainesville for any amount of time then you’ve heard stories of our local legend, Cris Carpenter. Afterall, Cris has been making headlines since he was 9 years old when he won the National Free Throw Competition and most recently making headlines on his selection to the class of 2024 State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame that will be inducted this February in Macon.

There will never be another Cris Carpenter A student athlete that excelled at three sports and had the opportunity to play professionally at two of them. Yes, you may already know he was drafted first round by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987 after a great baseball career as a relief pitcher at UGA but you may not have heard the story of the call Carpenter received from Washington Redskins General Manager Robert Beathard in 1988 while Cris was rehabbing an injury Mr Beathard needed a punter and knew just the player he wanted Beatheard had followed Carpenter’s punting career at UGA and knew he could be the guy to come in clutch in their moment of need. While Carpenter considered the opportunity he knew he had to give baseball his full attention

Carpenter was the first punter to ever receive a full athletic scholarship to the University of Georgia. “If I loved one thing in my life it was punting,” said Carpenter “I just really enjoyed it but I had only been in the big leagues for one season at that point and needed to stay focused on that.” While at UGA Carpenter had a stellar career, Carpenter was drafted in 1986 by the Toronto Blue Jays after a standout sophomore season but respectfully declined because he wanted to come back to school and play his Junior season which would become his last season before getting drafted by the St.Louis Cardinals Carpenter ended up having a great MLB career pitching for four clubs - the St. Louis Cardinals, Florida Marlins, Texas Rangers, and the Milwaukee Brewers.

When asked about his induction to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame Carpenter said, “it’s hard to accept an individual award when you are playing a team sport,” adding “when I get inducted into the Hall of Fame it just means my teams also got inducted ”

Carpenter was also inducted as part of the inaugural class to the Gainesville Athletic Club Hall of Fame. Saying he had a stellar high school career would be an understatement Carpenter was not only a punter for the Red Elephant Football team he was also the quarterback leading his team to three final four appearances and one title game. He would follow that season into basketball where as point guard he helped lead his basketball team to three State Championship title games bringing home the championship twice in 1983 and 1984. For GHS baseball, what would become his defining sport he was the starting pitcher his freshmen, junior and senior season but lost his sophomore season due to injury. This kind of resume for high school athletes is unheard of these days and is something every athlete dreams of.

“I loved every minute of it,” said Carpenter, “but I knew I always wanted to coach ” Carpenter got that opportunity in 1998 when he served as pitching coach for GHS under Wayne Vickery until 2005 Carpenter continued teaching and now, nearly 20 years later, has returned to coaching with some of his former players Jon Mark and Micah Owings and their older brother Josh Carpenter said, “If I went back to coach it would have to be with the right group of people and I would have to have my family's support ”

We look forward to this spring where we will see three former Red Elephants and former professional baseball players leading our young men and further embedding the Gainesville tradition of excellence into the program.