College Commitment: Brian Warinner (2019 Bend HS)
When it came to his college recruitment, no kid in Oregon may have spent as much time on things as Brian Warinner. The steady 6-foot-7, 185-pound forward carefully investigated the possibilities at all levels, made campus visits all across the country, and when he finally sat down and weighed all the options, Warinner announced at a signing day event at Bend High School that he had committed to Whitman.
“I got very generous offers from a few other schools but with Whitman I have some family up in Walla Walla and that’s just a place where I see myself being really successful,” Warinner said. “Not that I couldn’t have done that at other places but it was just the best situation for me. The program, just the culture of it is something that is super cool to me and it’s a top-notch school. It worked out really well.”
In some senses, you could argue that Warinner came full circle with his recruitment. He lived in Walla Walla in his younger years and had hung around the program a little closer than most. So while there were options from D-I walk-on possibilities (Incarnate Word), D-II scholarship offers (Academy of Art), high-academic D-III on the East Coast (Emory), offers close to home (Northwest Christian), and more – the Blues were there at the beginning and ended up being there at the end.
“I’m pretty close with Coach (Eric) Bridgeland – I’ve known him for a long time – but I didn’t really seriously consider Whitman until a few weeks ago,” Warinner said. “My parents and I wanted to see everything else and my other options before really looking into them. Once I visited them, that’s when I got really excited about it and it went pretty quickly.”
Warinner’s visit to campus appears to be what made the difference in his recruitment. “I think just seeing where I could fit into that program – I’ve been around it as I was a ballboy when I was a little kid, so it’s a program that I’ve been exposed to but I never really imagined myself being a part of it,” Warinner said. “But going on my visit I could really picture myself going to school there – it was just a really good fit for me.”
Warinner described the fit on the basketball floor. “They want to use my versatility playing a one through four, positionless sort of thing which is really exciting to me,” Warinner said. “I just love their up-tempo play style, full court press all the time – it’s a really fun style of play. This summer I’ll be working a lot getting more consistent with my outside shooting and my ball-handling.”
Warinner participated in the Northwest Shootout last weekend and finished out his high school career with a 12-point, four-rebound performance. He currently ranks as the #5 player in the PrepHoops Oregon Class of 2019 rankings.