Boys basketball: Four-sport star Noah Penton brings calm to court for Vermilion

Finding a four-sport athlete is nearly as rare as spotting a four-leaf clover. Vermilion got lucky. His name is Noah Penton. Penton, a 5-foot-9 junior guard, leads the Sailors in steals and is second in assists as Vermilion heads into Saturday's Stillman Cup rivalry game against Firelands. The game will be streamed on weol.com and The Chronicle-Telegram YouTube Channel. When Penton's not on the basketball court, he can be found wearing his Vermilion uniform on the golf course, soccer field and baseball diamond. As rare as it is to have the talent to play four sports, a young man who can balance the time commitment, maintain good grades and excel at the level Penton has is even more uncommon. "I don't know myself, I just kinda make it work," Penton said when asked how he balances it all. "I'm tired a lot but I always show up when I need to." Penton does more than just show up. He's a key piece of the rotation for a Sailors basketball team that won five of its first six games. After starting the season with a hole-in-one at the Comet Invitational, Penton went on to earn medalist honors at the Division II sectional golf tournament, leading Vermilion to a second consecutive sectional championship. Penton was a starting midfielder on the soccer team. He was a double-digit goal scorer and a first-team selection on the All-Sandusky Bay Conference and All-Lorain County teams. "Being a multisport athlete is nothing new to Noah," Vermilion soccer coach and assistant basketball coach Kurt Innes said. "He's found a way to be able to manage all of the duties he needs to do. That's a credit to the type of kid and type of athlete that he is." Penton comes from a soccer family. He has three siblings — Livia, Kayleigh and Logan — who played or are playing Division I college soccer. But Noah has found his passion not just in soccer but in every sport he's ever played. "My siblings tried different sports but they just mostly stuck with soccer," Penton said. "My parents just kinda threw me into different sports to try them and I liked them all and stuck with them. Playing all the different sports has kinda strengthened me. I am always doing something, I'm not just lazing around." Sailors basketball coach Kurt Habermehl has gotten to know Penton. In addition to coaching him on the hardwood, he works with Penton in the spring as an assistant baseball coach and they often golf together during the summer. "If you know Noah, he's not a very high-stress kid," Habermehl said. "He's able to process everything and stay calm. He's also an excellent student, which says a lot about him with all of the activities he does. His calm demeanor really helps him in basketball and golf." Just like in soccer and golf, Penton plays an oversized role in the Sailors' success on the basketball court. "He's a fearless competitor for his size," Habermhel said. "Sometimes he just thinks he's bigger and stronger than everybody on the court and plays that way. The other day we put him on a 6-foot-3 kid, the other team's best player, and he just dominated him." When asked to name his favorite sport, Penton, who is a three-year letterwinner in golf and soccer, two-year letterwinner in basketball and earned his first letter in baseball last spring, took his time before indicating it might be golf. "I find it kinda peaceful and not as physically demanding. Golf is very demanding mentally but I really enjoy it," Penton said. "That and there's no running." Innes said the calm Penton finds on the golf course carries over to soccer and basketball. "Coming from golf when you have to have the next-swing mentality has really helped Noah," Innes said. "Golf is such a mental sport and baseball is also a mental sport. When you get on the soccer field, yes, it's more demanding from a physical standpoint but mentally you have to be able to overcome some issue over the course of a game and the course of a season and develop that next-play mentality." That calm also helps Penton at the free throw line, where he is a 71 percent career shooter. "I'm sure it helps him a lot in different ways even I don't know about," Habermehl said. "When you're successful in one sport you tend to carry that success over to another sport. He's been really successful in golf and soccer and he brings that dawg demeanor with him that he's gonna get things done and he carries that over to the basketball court." As if four sports aren't enough, Penton said he tried football when he was younger and liked it but realized he didn't have time to commit. However, he does have one more sport on his radar. "I feel like tennis would be fun," Penton said. Between practices and games, two of Penton's biggest challenges are getting school work done and staying healthy enough to be in constant motion. "It's very important to get proper food and rest so I'm not tired, but when I am I just have to push through it," Penton said. "Sometimes I have to stay up late or find those little bits of time any time I can to get my homework done. I've had to get good at time management and things like that." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.