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Spencer Rattler crosses the street, walks through the gate and heads towards the Pinnacle High School gymnasium. It’s basketball gameday and the Arizona sun is drifting towards the horizon as well wishers call out hellos, good luck and ask him if he’s playing tonight.
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Spencer smiles as he answers and says thank you. He’s not bashful, neither is he cocky. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound guard with curly blonde hair exudes a quiet confidence and self-assuredness.
He’s coming back from injury, a high ankle sprain, that left him unable to play for six weeks.
“My dad will always tell me, wear ankle braces, high tops and all that and when I got hurt, I was wearing low tops,” Rattler said to Sports360AZ.com.
He’ll be wearing high tops from here on out.
It’s Senior Night but Rattler won’t be starting, he’s only a sophomore. He made the varsity basketball team last year as a freshman after playing with the team during summer ball in 7th and 8th grade.
“Injuries are going to happen; you’re going to heal you are going to come back. It’s a part of playing sports.” Spencer’s dad Michael said to Sports360AZ.com. “We flip it into something else while he is rehabbing… You’re injured, let’s take advantage of this time that you aren’t running and gain some weight for football. He’s been lifting and doing other things to get ready for spring football.”
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Football is what Rattler is known for. The four-star quarterback threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 29 touchdowns in his sophomore season. He has several Division I college offers which include Alabama, and is currently the number two-rated pro-style quarterback in the nation for the class of 2019, on Rivals.com.
His dad grew up playing football but wanted his son to play play every sport and he did. The younger Rattler played soccer, baseball, basketball and football while his dad coached, all different leagues and clubs, parks and recreation, national youth sports, boys and girls club.
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“Every season he would switch so he wouldn’t get burnt out on a particular sport.”
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As a seven-year-old his dad could tell he had something special on the football field. Rattler wanted to be a receiver but he was the one who could throw consequently, he transitioned to the quarterback and safety positions. When he was eight, he could do things other kids couldn’t.
His mom reminisces about the Boys & Girls Club playoff basketball game where he made the last shot to win against an older team and amassed eight three- pointers. Rattler was ten.
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“He’s always wanted to be the last second shot; he thrives with situations like that… we’ve always been amazed and proud,” his mom beams.
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“My dad always says BTP, Big time players step up in big time games. I guess I’m just one of those guys,” Spencer says nonchalantly. “He has taken it and ran with it,” his dad quips.
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What his mom loves is the enjoyment others get from watching him play. The excitement and exuberance of the crowd. Her second-grade students have developed a passion for the sport and will come watch Spencer play.
“It’s inspiring other children to play, and that what it’s about for me.”
Rattler is confident he can competitively throw with any college quarterback but is now working on advanced footwork and throwing motions, in-depth reads.
“Stuff that will make you elite,” Rattler says.
He sits on the school gymnasium bleachers watching the JV basketball game with his teammates. They laugh and joke, glancing at their phones while cheering on their JV friends. At halftime, he puts on his backpack and walks to the training room to get his ankle taped and then heads to the locker room to meet up with his teammates, he puts on an ankle brace and high tops.
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It’s game time.
He isn’t worried about an injury sustained in basketball potentially affecting football.
“The two sports athletes are the best athletes.”
Coaches like them, different sports strengthen different types of muscles, it’s good for injury prevention and develops different athletic skills. Above all he does both sports because he enjoys basketball, scoring, defense, passing, the whole game, and plans to play through his high school career, maybe even get some college offers he muses. He played baseball until eighth grade when three sports became too much to juggle.
This ankle sprain isn’t the first injury he has faced. Last season “goofing around” in football practice he broke his throwing hand four weeks before the start of the season. The football injury was a bigger deal because I’m a bigger need for the team, I am the quarterback, in basketball we have a lot of guys, he said, as he lists them by name.
On August 27th, 2016, ESPN High School Kick Off featured two of the nation’s young, elite quarterbacks in Rattler and Ryan Kelly of the Basha Bears.
“I played in that game with a broken hand…I wanted to play so I went to the doctor and got a brace and wore a special glove,” he said.
“Took some Advil, got the pain away.”
Kelly was regarded as the best quarterback in the state of Arizona at the time, but Spencer won MVP of the electric game that had eight lead-changes and ended with a final score of 49-41.
“I was just trying to show that I was the top guy,” Rattler explained. “I just wanted to go out there and win and that’s what we did.”
He and Kelley used to train together.
“It’s fun playing against guys you know, it makes you want to compete harder.”
Rattler was trending on twitter at the end of the ESPN game. With all the offers and athletic success comes attention. Tweets, DM’s, fans trying to get him to commit to their favorite college.
“I have to keep handling it with a level head and stay humble… keep working cause you aren’t their yet.”
His idea of success and making it, is playing in the NFL.
“My goal is to be a rookie in the NFL and then you have to restart,” he said. “You’re not the big-time guy anymore, you’re just a rookie. His family keeps him grounded. His parents have always preached school and family first and feel like he is handling the attention well.
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The Rattlers are a close family. Mother Susan is from Michigan and father Michael from Arkansas. They met and got married in Arizona in 1999. They then had Spencer and his younger sister Oliva, who is in 8th grade and as Spencer says, “is a big-time volleyball player.”
His mom is a second-grade teacher who makes him breakfast every morning. Eggs, bacon, ham, pancakes, fried eggs, toast, peanut butter and jelly, faithfully she’s up at 6AM to prepare. It’s one of the ways how she helps contribute to his success.
“He gets up so early I know he wouldn’t make it for himself,” his mom says.
They joke that the family motto is, eat, eat and the goal is for Rattler to gain 15-20 pounds a year. As parents, they are busy with both children’s athletics but they make a point to sit down for a family dinner every weeknight whether it’s at 7:00 or 9:30 p.m. and spend time with each other. The Rattler’s hope Olivia will be in Spencer’s shoes soon and fielding college volleyball offers.
After his freshman football season, Spencer receives his first two offers, from ASU and UCLA, a mere hour apart.
“That was the best day of my life,” he humbly explained.
“Getting my first two offers from big time schools like that.”
The ever-growing list of offers includes Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Kentucky, Memphis, Miami (FL), Michigan State, Oklahoma, Syracuse, Texas A &M, UCLA, Utah, Syracuse, Alabama, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Oregon State.
Michigan State is where Spencer’s predecessor, former Pinnacle High School quarterback Brian Lewerke, plays. Spencer has known Lewerke since 8th grade when the quarterbacks trained together.
“He kind of mentors me now, we train here and there, we text a little. It’s real cool to have him to look up to, as a guy who is succeeding in college right now.”
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Rattler’s friends are the same ones he has had since first grade at Wildfire Elementary in Desert Ridge. The kids he has played with in club and recreational leagues since he was in elementary school. He gets a ride with his friends and next door neighbors to school every morning.
His parents enjoy watching the kids Rattler has played with as they advance and being a part of the athletic community that surrounds them.
The crowd chants, “Spencer, Rattler, Spencer, Rattler” he gets in foul trouble early and goes to sit on the bench where he remains most of the game. He shoots and misses and mutters under his breath. By the look on his face you can tell he isn’t thrilled with his performance. He remains positive and smiles moments later.
“He’s grounded and keeps it in perspective,” his dad says.
With a dominating performance from his teammates the Pioneers win 75-55. His dad and is there after the game as parents and friends meet on the gymnasium floor.
“I suck.” Spencer says matter of factly to his teammate, the streetlight illuminate them as they walk out to into the dark parking lot, after his four-point performance.
The next game Rattler starts, he scores 33 points.
“It’s very frustrating when you’re injured, your confidence is a little lower than everybody else’s and they can see that, the coaches see it too. I got my confidence back in practice, running felt better, my coaches could tell.”
“I went off in that game, now I’m really back,” he says as he nods his head.
Rattler has set high expectations and goals for himself. His goal before the end of his high school career is to win a state championship in basketball and football. In football, he wants to be National Gatorade Player of the Year and Arizona Gatorade player of the year and wants to be the top-rated pro-style quarterback on ESPN. In basketball he plans to keep succeeding and maybe receive a couple of college offers.
“Be confident in whatever you do,” he said. “Do the best you can, be competitive.”
In college Spencer plans to major in sports management, something around the game that he enjoys. His mom is hoping that even at the next level he will still find his parents in the stands to give them a wink and a smile.
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