Luke Channer, he’s kind of a big deal

Luke Channer is one big fellow. At 6’3”, 285 pounds, he’s one of the largest students at Corvallis. He’s also one of the bigger guys on the line that plays Class A football. And, to top it off, he was one of the larger wrestlers for the school and recently took fourth at the Class A state championships.

He is also one of a very few football players who will have a ‘preferred walk-on’ at Montana State University this fall. Channer has been given one of 10 slots that carry this title. This guarantees him a spot on the roster at day one of training camp. He will still have to earn his playing time but at least he doesn’t have to try out to even go to camp. Channer was given a full ride scholarship to Montana Tech at Butte but decided to go with Montana State’s offer. But he wanted to play at a higher level. MSU is a member of the Big Sky Conference.

“I have a lot of friends at MSU. My sister goes there,” he said. “It was the toughest decision of my life.”

The decision was made even more difficult when MSU had a coaching change. Coach Rob Ash, who had recruited Channer, was fired in November. Channer and his coach, Clayton Curley, said they had to resend everything to the new coach, Jeff Choate, and his new staff.

“There were two months of silence,” said Curley. “It was really difficult.”

The unique thing about Channer, according to Curley, is that he is a relative rooky in football. Up until his sophomore year, Channer was the second string goalie on the Corvallis soccer team. He said he’d always wanted to play football and when he was approached to play, he jumped at it

“He didn’t have any bad habits,” said Curley. “Because he was a soccer player, his footwork was good.”

With intense instruction in football, combined with his work ethic, Channer was awarded second team all conference his rookie year, that is junior year. This past fall, he was named all conference offensive guard and academic all state. And he was the lead blocker for Wyatt Haldorson who was the state’s leading rusher.

Channer is the third Corvallis football player to gain attention from a Big Sky school. Last year, Jesse Sims committed to the University of Montana and Jayce Gilder walked on at Eastern Washington. Coach Curley said he would have a difficult time rooting against his players, but he did play for MSU and is glad to have one of his players wearing the Blue and Gold.

By the way, he’s also slated to be named valedictorian for Corvallis. He maintains a 4.0 GPA with AP classes such as Statistics, Anatomy, and Government. He’s looking at either medicine – his father is a doctor at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital – or engineering. MSU is waiting for his transcripts but Coach Curley doesn’t think there will be a problem for Channer academically.

In his ‘spare’ time, Channer can be found in the weight room, lifting weights, or studying. He’ll be throwing the shot put during track for Corvallis. He says he really doesn’t have much down time. However, on the day of this interview, he was sporting a little badge and a band aide; he had found time to donate blood.

Yes, Luke Channer is kind of a big deal.