Chaparral High School pitcher, Princeton commit Ryan Penney uses baseball to uplift others

Chaparral High School pitcher Ryan Penney certainly has them as he moves into his final high school season.

He averages around 4.5 on his GPA as we speak. In this last baseball season, he had 3 earned run which were given out after facing 117 batters. It was 5A baseball’s second-best ERA.

Consider those two facts, and it’s not shocking that he has already agreed to attend Princeton’s college and play baseball.

Still, Penney, who was exposed to club baseball for 12 years, is not only good students also hard to hit players.

Penney is one of 10 finalists for the Arizona Sports Character Counts Scholarship, presented by Parker & Sons, for his extra effort to help the less fortunate through baseball.

The right-hander is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist who has partnered with his brother Landon to establish the Home2First Foundation, an organisation that was founded in 2021.

Recently, Home2First has been able to gather over 8,000 pounds of baseball equipment for donation to less fortunate schools and youth teams. Five scholarships have been provided by the organization to enable struggling children in Arizona, four humanitarian trips to the Dominican Republic have been conducted and this month a little league clinic for the Balsz School District in Phoenix is planned.

They don’t only aim at helping in financing and providing hardware to players and teams who seem not to be supported by other organizations but they also have vision of “Assisting kids to gain confidence, teamwork and fellowship through baseball” this according to the organization’s website.

Through his work, Penney has featured in FOX 10 features and, Home2First has attracted business support from several establishments including Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers, Between The Lines and Danzeisen Dairy.

His talents are not restricted to pitching or in the classroom. Penney is the first chair cellist in Chaparral Symphonic Orchestra and earns All-State in 2022.

The boy is also the National Honor Society Member due to academics and the Tri-M Music Honor Society Member by virtue of music skills.

Check out our current Character Counts nominees for the scholarship that Parker & Sons generously provides to this year’s winner and finalists.