Eastern Washington University Athletics

Shantay Legans on Polanco: “We are excited to be adding Richard to our EWU family. He is a tremendous young man, mentally and physically mature beyond his age. Richard is a 6-8 player who can handle the ball, shoot, post up, and pass well. With his extreme versatility -- along with the ability to play any position on the floor -- he will fit in nicely with our style of play and with the great guys we already have.”
 
HS: Graduated from the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2017. The first signee for Shantay Legans as a head coach, Polanco comes to Eastern with impressive scoring and rebounding production that resembles that of former Eagle Jacob Wiley. Polanco, a native of the Dominican Republic, played in 115 games in his career at Army and Navy, averaging 17.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. He had career totals of 1,966 points and 947 rebounds, with 203 assists, 70 steals and 25 blocked shots. Rated a 3-star, top 20 high school basketball player in the talent-rich state of California (ESPN, 247, Scout), he made 65 percent of his field goals in his career. He averaged 26.6 points and 16.0 rebounds as a senior to earn All-California Interscholastic Federation second team honors. He was also a CIF All-Academic selection and a first team All-Coastal League selection. As a junior, he averaged 14.1 points and 6.0 boards while sinking 77 percent of his shots from the field. He averaged 13.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists as a sophomore, and 14.5 points as a freshman. In the 2016-17 season for EWU, 6-7 senior Jacob Wiley averaged 20.4 points and 9.1 rebounds on his way to earning honorable mention All-America honors.
 
Personal: Undecided on a possible major at Eastern. Born Aug. 12, 1997, in the Dominican Republic. His mother is Ynocencia Geronima Lantigua Montan, and his father is Richard Esteban Polanco. He has an older sister, Yovanka Mercedes Polanco Lantigua; a younger sister, Lia Carolina Nuñez Lantigua; and a brother, Joan Esteban Polanco Garcia.
Polanco’s hometown is Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. He played club basketball for Club Domingo Paulino. One of his teammates in that club since he was 5-years-old was life-long friend, J.C. Canahuate, who eventually joined him at Army-Navy.