Ready to move on, Carpenter reflects on Panthers
By Wayne Harrison
Acorn Sports Writer

Rudy Carpenter

Rudy Carpenter was watching the tape he watches often, the highlight film of the 1993 Newbury Park Panthers High School football team that went 14-0 and won a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship, the film he got from former Newbury Park star quarterback Keith Smith.

"I was just watching his highlight film, the 1993 championship team," Carpenter said. "I have that tape sitting right here and I watch that film a lot. I love that film."

Carpenter transferred from Newbury Park to Westlake where he’ll play his senior year of football now that he’s been declared eligible by the CIF. He played JV baseball at Westlake this spring because he wasn’t eligible to play varsity baseball.

"Actually I haven’t talked with him, he’s been in Canada," Carpenter said when asked how Smith reacted to the news of Carpenter’s transfer to Westlake. "I hope when he finds out he’ll understand because he’s someone that I looked up to a lot when I was growing up and he helped me out a lot.

"He’s a big reason why I’m in the situation that I’m in, with the national exposure and all the scholarship offers," Carpenter added.

Carpenter and his father, Scott, have said that the reason Carpenter transferred to Westlake was because they didn’t feel Newbury Park baseball coach Mike Lee was going to give Rudy Carpenter a fair shake at playing varsity baseball for the Panthers after having played JV as a sophomore.

Lee denied that.

After playing JV baseball for the Warriors, the emphasis—predictably—is back on football. Carpenter passed for 3,129 yards and 24 touchdowns as a junior at Newbury Park last season and earned the Marmonte League’s Most Valuable Player award.

Carpenter sounds ready to play quarterback for Westlake, a team that made it to the CIF finals last fall before losing vs. St. Bonaventure. The Warriors ended 11-3. Newbury Park was 3-7 for the third straight year last season and didn’t make the playoffs.

"Sometimes I feel bad that a lot of this really had to happen," Carpenter said of the controversy that ensued after he decided to switch schools. "I honestly didn’t think it was going to be like this. I’m just kind of starting to get over it, to just be done with it."

The onslaught of attention, much of it negative, has been tough for Carpenter, now 17, to deal with.

"There’s been a lot of newspaper guys and a lot of magazine people calling me, and I basically told a lot of them that I don’t want to talk to them or answer their questions," said Carpenter.

In some ways, it’s as if a part of Carpenter’s heart is still in Newbury Park.

"To be honest with you, if we do win a championship this year at Westlake, it’s going to be great," Carpenter said. "It’s going to be fun, and I’m going to love that. But it’s not going to be the same as if I was at Newbury Park—it won’t be the same.

"Putting on a Westlake jersey is great, and I love it because I’m starting fresh," Carpenter added. "In my opinion, I’m getting better coaching, but it’s not the same as putting on a Newbury Park jersey."

Carpenter, a three-sport athlete, was playing varsity basketball under Steve Johnson and the season was still underway when he transferred during the winter. Carpenter could be seen at Newbury Park’s boys’ basketball games a few times, but he said he wasn’t welcomed there.

He said the Newbury Park-Westlake football game next fall will have a lot of hype.

"It definitely won’t be just another game for me," Carpenter said, looking ahead. "Because there were a lot of things that were said, there were a lot of things that were done."

Specifically about the Newbury Park basketball games, he said, "I came back because all my friends were on the basketball team and they wanted me to come—they were still cool. But when I walked into the gym, people would throw stuff at me and they’d say stuff to me.

"Parents would tell me to go back to Westlake or shouldn’t I be in Westlake," Carpenter added. "It bothers me because I had a lot of pride playing for Newbury Park. That’s where I came from, that’s where I played, and I didn’t want to play for anyone else."