Times Observer File Photo by Steve Younger In this file photo from last season, Eisenhower’s Caleb Penley makes a tackle for a loss during the Districct 10 semifinal game.

Another Eisenhower football player has been named to the Pennsylvania squad for this summer’s 50th annual Big 30 game.

Caleb Penley, a District 10 Region 2 all-star, will be joining his teammates Michael Vanatta and Garret Jensen in the game pitting Pennsylvania all-stars against New York all-stars.

Caleb was a three-year starter for the Knights and was a member of two region championship teams.

“I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to play alongside the rest of the all-star players from this area, and to be able to play with my teammates is almost poetic,” he said. “To be playing my last game with the same guys I started with when we were all little kids in grade school is going to be great.”

The son of Jim and Debbie, Caleb lives in Sugar Grove. His father will have dual responsibilities for the game, as Jim is the head coach of the Pennsylvania squad. The longtime knight head coach has high praise for his son, the football player.

“Caleb has one of the highest football IQs of any player that I’ve ever coached,” he said. “It shouldn’t surprise me, because he’s been around the game almost as long as I’ve been coaching. He is probably one of the best pulling guards to ever play for the Knights.”

The statistics back up the coach’s thoughts as his son was part of an offensive line that powered an offense that averaged 297 rushing yards per game and nearly 400 yards of total offense, paving the way for Benji Bauer, the first 2,000-yard rusher in Warren County history.

For Caleb, the admiration he has for his father comes out easily.

“Having the opportunity to play for someone I look up to and have so much respect for and to be inside the craft that he has dedicated so much of his life has been an amazing experience,” he said. “I just have so much respect for him. I never wanted to let him down.”

“We are very close and have a great relationship, so that has made it an enjoyable experience,” Jim said. “It has been very special, just to watch him grow and mature. To see first-hand how he’s dealt with being the coach’s kid I know hasn’t always been easy, but I’m proud of how he’s dealt with it.”

As for coaching Caleb in the Big 30 game, Jim said, “I’ll be keeping an eye on him, of course, but I am a coach and he’s a player. We both want to win the game and, quite honestly, that’s exactly how he’d want it, too.”

Like father like son.

Caleb will be heading to Penn State in the fall and will major in computer science.