sports spotlight: colton penrod

By Mike Tupa

Bartlesville Area Sports Report

COLTON PENROD

When Colton Penrod was a sixth-grader in 2009, Bartlesville High School’s football team put together arguably the best season in team history — 9-3, including an inconceivable playoff win at Owasso.

Following that superlative 2009 odyssey, Bartlesville would tally just two winning seasons the following five years.

But in 2015 — Penrod’s senior adventure — the evocative Bruins exuded explosive excitement every time they took the field. They burst to a 10-2 record — including a team-record 9-1 regular season mark — and came within a win of playing for the state 6A-II title.

Penrod spearheaded the offense as the third-year starting quarterback. As a junior (2014), the left-handed flinger had guided the Bruins to their first playoff appearance in five seasons. Penrod and his fellow seniors turned 2015 into their personal romp.

They would have finished 10-0 in the regular season if not for a 17-14 loss at Tulsa Washington, in which a Bruin red zone fumble in the final three minutes led to a Washington field goal.

In Penrod's three varsity seasons Bartlesville won 20 games — most-ever by any starting Bruin QB. He averaged more than 3,000 yards of total offense per year — approximately 10,000 for his career.

Penrod guided a seismic-shattering regular season 50-33 upset of Bixby — at Bixby — and a quarterfinal playoff route of Midwest City, 35-15.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound blond warrior — with Kung Fu-quick footwork, a Jedi blaster-like passing style and a comet-like burst of speed on scrambles —  had a great cast around him.

They included: Future NFL starting cornerback A.J. Parker, future Oral Roberts University baseball star A.J. Archambo, future college basketball standout Barron Tanner, future college football players Tristan Crowder, Seth Hinnergardt and Isaac Barham and future college baseball player Easton Hammonds.

Penrod provided the rare flair and the air flares to help make 2015 a football affair to remember.

Colton Penrod, right, with former Bartlesville High School football teammate A.J. Parker.

Photo provided

Former Bartlesville High School standout quarterback Colton Penrod runs the ball during his 2015 season.