Wright likes chances for playing time at EIU

Niles West senior Chris Wright headlined a group of Wolves athletes who signed national letters of intent on Wednesday.

At an early morning ceremony in a P.E. classroom, Wright, a wide receiver, inked with Eastern Illinois. Joining him were running back Leonard Panion (Erie Community College of New York), lineman John Kowalczyk and linebacker John May (both NAIA Benedictine of Kansas).

Baseball player John Nasshan, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound pitcher/infielder, was also at the ceremony. He previously had signed with Bradley.

NW quarterback Nick Gremley is expected to choose between Division III Elmhurst, Aurora and Carthage in the coming weeks.

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Wright selected Eastern over Illinois State and Northern Iowa. Northern Illinois also showed interest. He verbally committed to the Charleston school after spending a weekend on campus in mid-January.

"I got along with the guys and liked the atmosphere, and I feel like I could go down there and play (pretty early)," said Wright, who had 46 catches for 919 yards and 11 touchdowns for the 3-6 Wolves this past fall.

Eastern, the alma mater of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, plays in the Ohio Valley Conference with the likes of Tennessee State, Morehead State, Murray State and Eastern Kentucky. The Panthers will visit Penn State in 2009 and Iowa in 2010.

Curtis Tate, who recently resigned as NW varsity coach, said Wright has the talent to play at a Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division 1-A) school. But he believes Eastern (which plays in the Championship Subdivision, formally Division 1-AA) was probably the best fit because Wright will have a chance to compete for playing time as a freshman.

Tate said Wright is the full package at receiver and could be deployed in a number of ways by the Panthers.

"He has good size and is very explosive. He runs a legit 4.4 40," he said. "He has unbelievable hands and great hand/eye coordination. He looks the ball into his hands. He could be a possession receiver or a game breaker. He can be an every-down receiver because the kid can block."

In addition to his receiving exploits, which included a 10-catch, 160-yard, 4-touchdown performance against Evanston last season, Wright is also a special teams standout. He returned six kickoffs for touchdowns during his career, four of them over 90 yards. In track, he broke current Pittsburgh Steeler Rashard Mendenhall's school indoor record in the 50.

Tate said Wright's personality also will be a welcome addition to head coach Bob Spoo's Panther program.

"The kid keeps everyone loose. He understands that if he's down, the whole team is down. He knows how to pick the team up," Tate said. "Make no mistake, football is serious to him. But he looks like he's having fun. People lose sight of the fact that these are kids playing a game, and he plays the game the way it's supposed to be played. It's a fun game."

Wright said he plans to study kinesiology at Eastern.

TATE ON PANION: The former coach said he expects to see Panion suiting up for a Bowl Subdivision school after playing a few seasons at Erie, located just outside Buffalo.

"Leonard is something special, a special back," the coach said about the 6-foot, 215-pound Panion, who rushed for 1500 yards last season despite playing in a shotgun offense. "We had Rashard and Walter Mendenhall, and Leonard is right there with them. He does some things you can't teach. When he gets fine-tuned, some Division I team will come calling."

2010 CLASS: A year from now, signing day at Niles West will no doubt feature Shawn Afryl, who currently is a junior. The 6-4, 290-pound lineman recently competed at the Army All-America Combine and is being watched by teams like Michigan State, Notre Dame, Northwestern, UConn, Illinois, Indiana and Northern Illinois.

Twins Angelo Tripkos (lineman) and Dimitri Tripkos (offensive lineman/linebacker) are also members of Niles West's 2010 class who have a chance to play at the next level.