Two years ago, Duke Carpenter was not even sure that football was his focus sport. He also played basketball and was a national-level shot put and discus thrower in track and field.
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His decision to throw his attention into football after transferring to the tiny Geneva School from Winter Park last year has paid huge dividends. Carpenter, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound defensive end committed to Stanford on Thursday, following official visits to his final two schools, Stanford and Wake Forest. Kansas, Rutgers and Princeton were also in the mix.
“It feels great. It feels like a weight off my chest. It was a hard decision, but in the end I was super confident about it and I’m super excited to be part of (the Stanford) program,” Carpenter said. “The biggest thing for me was the academics at Stanford and also the fit for me. That’s what kind of stood out.
“It is really far away, and that was one of the negatives, but in the end the other things kind of won out over that.”
Carpenter started playing football in eighth grade, but he never really focused on one sport. He transferred to Geneva in 2023 and coach Dave Langdon saw a superstar in the talented youngster.
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“Coming to Geneva, football was not the priority so we weren’t really expecting much out of that,” Carpenter said. “But then I did a lot of camps and got some attention and it kind of went on from there.”
Getting attention at the Geneva School, enrollment 739 students, K-12, isn’t easy. But when an athlete stands out like Carpenter, the attention will come.
Carpenter, who would have graduated this year had he stayed in the public school system, reclassified for his freshman year so that he would not be behind in the Geneva academic process. He started getting heavy attention this past school year as a three-sport star. In football, he had 69 tackles, 25.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks and became one of the top rush ends in Central Florida, ranked No. 22 in the Sentinel’s 2027 Central Florida Super60.
In basketball, he averaged 15 points and 11 rebounds and 2 blocked shots per game. In track and field, he was the Class 1A state champion in the discus (190-feet, 8-inches) and silver medalist in the shot put (51-7). Simply, Carpenter is a stellar athlete.
“I pretty much did all the sports in the kids leagues … I just did everything,” Carpenter said. “Honestly, I was kind of looking back on it the other day, and two years ago I was like, maybe football is possible for college. We didn’t really know if we should pursue it or not, but seeing where we are now, it’s like pretty crazy to see how far I’ve come.
“It’s pretty cool. A couple of years ago, you never would have thought about this. But now it’s real. This is what we’re doing. I just feel super grateful for my family and friends. My family had been a huge part of it, not pushing me one way or another.”
The crazy thing about Carpenter is that he’s only in the early stages of his football development.
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“Yeah, I haven’t really had like, comparatively, a ton of time to craft my game and work on my game,” Carpenter said. “So I’m excited to get more opportunity this year and then at the college level there will be development there. That’s one of the reasons why Stanford stood out for me. Their coaching staff and the development process they told me about, I’m really excited.”
His main recruiters at Stanford were defensive line coach Jamey Mosley, recruiting coordinator Albert Garcia and general manager Andrew Luck.
“I don’t know what I was expecting going in,” Carpenter said of his official visit, “but getting to see that place and getting to talk with the staff and see what they’re about was great. The campus is beautiful.
“It just felt like the right fit, but I still wanted to take the Wake Forest visit after that. But after the Wake Forest visit, I thought, ‘Yeah, Stanford is the way to go.’ ”
Geneva football’s Duke Carpenter wins state discus championship | Varsity Report
It hasn’t necessarily sunk in for Carpenter, the idea that he will be playing in the ACC.
“It’s hard to imagine myself living in California in a year, but this is only the first day, so I’m sure I can get used to it pretty fast,” he said. “There were a lot of calls, a lot of conversations, but I finally did it.”
And Carpenter knows, as does the Stanford coaching staff, that his up-side is pretty high.
“I think I can be so much better,” he said. “I’m not even close to where I can be. I can put so much more into it, and the college program is the perfect spot for me. … getting into a program where I can get a lot more individual and a higher-level of training, I think the ceiling is way high right now.”
And watching everything unfold and waiting in the wings is Duke’s younger brother, Braddock Carpenter, a 6-3, 198-pound defensive end. Braddock had 56 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and 6 sacks as a freshman this past season.
“I think he’s getting a good insight as to what the football world is all about and it helps him out,” Duke said. “He’s already been around recruiting people and they know me, so at least they can look into him even if he’s not this or that. That’s better than not being known at all, so I think that’s good for him.”
With Geneva’s academic process, graduating early and heading to Stanford in January will be difficult for Carpenter, but he’s working with the school to see what he will be able to accomplish.
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Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.