Garrett Renner the latest in long family bloodline to graduate from Kootenai High School

His father graduated from Kootenai Junior-Senior High School.

So did his grandfather and great grandfather.

The small, shrinking Harrison school has been a constant in Garrett Renner’s bloodline, pumping out graduates for decades.

Renner, one of 10 students in his senior class, will be the latest when he receives his diploma this month.

“I remember when I was a young kid when the class sizes at Kootenai were at least double what they are now,” said Renner, whose high school has roughly 40 students. “Our freshman class has six kids, so things have definitely changed.”

This allowed Renner, who will attend Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston this fall, to wear a variety of hats.

He was a solid athlete, medaling at the 1A State track and field meet in the long, triple and high jumps as a junior, and would likely have done the same this spring if sports weren’t canceled on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It threw us for a loop when it started,” Renner said of the state’s social distancing mandates that shut down on-campus school in Idaho. “Once school was actually out, we realized we weren’t going to have things, like track.”

Renner also represented Kootenai at the North Idaho All-Star basketball game and ran cross country.

He was a mathlete, too, finishing third at NIC’s 38th annual math contest last fall.

His 3.9 GPA helped him earn valedictorian honors, and he was also the school’s ASB president.

Renner helped implement a positive culture, according to social studies teacher Michael Stroh, and is a role model for his special-needs older brother, a recent Kootenai graduate.

“He always had a smile on his face and was a charmer here,” Stroh said. “He was setting up new traditions and was a rock star in class, asking questions about the important issues.

“And always being there for his brother is, I think, very inspiring.”

Renner would have preferred a normal commencement ceremony at Kootenai like several of his relatives enjoyed, but after two months of riding his bike in rural Idaho to stay active amid the quarantine, he’s ready for the next chapter of his life.

“I loved my time at Kootenai,” Renner said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go to any other school.”