Peebles senior signs with Capital –
By Mark Carpenter –
The basketball career of Peebles standout Tanner Arey will continue next season as the third-leading scorer in Indian history signed his letter of intent on May 10 to join the hoops squad of the Division III Capital Crusaders.. The ceremony was held in the Peebles High School gymnasium.
Arey is coming off an outstanding senior campaign at PHS, helping to lead the Indians to the regional finals while averaging 22.6 points and 3.5 assists per contest. Beside trailing two fellows named Justice on the Peebles all-time scoring list, he ranks as the school’s all-time leading three-point field goal percentage shooter (42.8%), and perhaps the most impressive statistic, in his four-year varsity career, the Indians won 77 games, making Arey number one on the school’s all-time list of “winners”.
His senior season also saw him named as an All-Conference player, First Team All-District, the District 14 Division IV Player of the Year, First Team All-Southeast District by the writers, as well as Second Team All-State. After all those career accolades, Arey was considering not even playing college basketball.’
“Initially I wasn’t going to play, I was going to go to a bigger school that would be cheaper and that just all didn’t seem right to me,” Arey told The Defender. “I knew that I just had to keep playing if I had the opportunity to. I had talked to a couple of other Division III schools and Capital was just the best choice for me financially and athletically.”
“We took a visit and I really liked their campus and their facilities and the coaching staff was very welcoming and I just liked it a lot.”
The Crusaders are coached by former University of Dayton player Damon Goodwin, who also had a head coaching stint at Wittenberg University.
Arey will also have fond memories of his time with the Indians.
“Just having that Peebles jersey on and playing in front of all those fans will always be special to me,” Arey says. “Playing for my Dad was just priceless.”
Tanner did have the unique experience of being coached for four years by his father, Josh Arey, who recognizes the accomplishments of his youngest son.
“Tanner’s career at Peebles will go down as one of the best in school history,” says the proud father. “Individually he amassed some impressive statistics in the school record book and his dedication to his teams was the most impressive aspect of his career. His selfless, team-oriented approach, and unbelievable work ethic is a standard for our future players. He said at the beginning of last season that he wanted to go farther than any team in Peebles history and we equaled the 1974 team by getting to the regional finals.”
“Any time a player from our program goes on to play college basketball it is a testament to their love of the game and the hard work they have put in throughout the years. We have been fortunate the past few years to have several go on and play at the next level and it is always exciting for our coaches and fans to continue supporting and watching these young men.”
Above and beyond what happened on the sidelines, Josh is still the proud father.
“Tanner going on is a sense of pride for my wife Misty and myself as well as our entire family. It will be nice next season to just be a parent and watch him play, then talk to him about his game.”
While at Capital for three years, Tanner plans to study Chemistry and then hopes to eventually transfer to a partner school and study Chemical Engineering or Biomedical Engineering.