Editor’s note: Spencer Pettit recently completed his high school career at Glacier Peak, where he earned numerous accolades as a kicker before committing to the University of Nevada. He took over The Herald’s Twitter account during the week leading up to the East-West All-Star football game and wrote this account of his week in Spokane.
Being selected to the East vs. West All-Star game was a huge honor for not only me, but the whole Glacier Peak football program. I was able to spend a week with some of the best high school football players in the state of Washington.
It was pretty exciting and quite an honor to be nominated. The only thing I’d really known about the game is that former Glacier Peak star Sean Elledge played in it. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with and knowing that I was viewed at his level got me excited.
We practiced twice a day leading up to the game on Friday, while also going to several social events. It was hot. Really hot. It was between 95 and 100 degrees throughout the week. It finally cooled down for the game Friday night. It was only 80.
Thursday night was a community dinner where players were split into groups and sent out with a family for the night. They fed us dinner and kept things exciting. Some players went out to Coeur d’Alene and some went laser tagging. I went with a big group of East and West players to a community pool and had a barbeque.
During free time, which there wasn’t a lot of, we spent time hanging out in the pool and walking over to the local restaurants for more food. I roomed with fellow Wesco honoree quarterback Andrew Zimmerman from Monroe, Dayzell Wilson from Bothell and Jojo Hillel from Mount Si.
I knew Zimmerman’s name, but had never actually talked to him before since our teams are in different leagues. He’s a really cool guy and just super relaxed.
Being able to room with these guys allowed me to hang out with and become closer with guys that I have never really gotten the chance to talk to. Getting to know guys from other schools is cool because we are able to learn different experiences and traditions each school has.
Friday was game day. We had a lunch where we were able to listen to a guest speaker: Travis Long of the Philadelphia Eagles. He played at Gonzaga Prep and Washington State. He also participated in the East-West All-Star game. He explained to us what football has meant to him and how it has affected his life. It taught us how football can have a different meaning in each person’s life.
For team dinner we went to Outback Steakhouse and had some delicious steak. It was made even sweeter a couple hours later, when I was able to kick two field goals as we beat the East squad 21-13 at Central Valley High School in Spokane.
Going into the game I wasn’t very nervous. I was thinking it’s an all-star game and should be fun. As it got closer to kickoff, there were a pretty good amount of fans and my nerves built up a little bit.
It was fun to have one more high school game before I leave for the University of Nevada on July 28. The biggest thing about the week was I noticed early on that throughout practice there were a lot higher expectations. It was like even though you’ve already proven yourself on the Glacier Peak football team, which has pretty high expectations itself, now you have to prove yourself again. I think it’s exactly what college football is going to be like.
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