Daily Pilot College Athlete of the Month: Jon Spencer

Amara Aguilar

Long before the big soccer boom in the last decade that featured

Mia Hamm in Gatorade commercials and the rise in popularity of Major

League Soccer, Jon Spencer played AYSO in the city of Palmdale, 60 miles

from Los Angeles.

It is very hot and dry in the high desert community where Spencer, now

22, grew up. The temperature averages in the high 90s during the summer.

It is billed on the official Web site as having “360 days of sunshine”

gracing the region.

So how is it that a boy growing up in the high desert aspires to be a

professional soccer player, especially when his parents weren’t familiar

with the sport?

“My dad grew up playing sports,” Spencer said. “So he let us play

sports and he said, ‘AYSO sounds good.’ And he got us into that.”

The decision would expose Spencer to a sport that would have a great

influence on his future goals. It would later play a part in where he

would choose to go to school and what he would select as a career.

It all started when Spencer was 5 years old. He began playing AYSO

soccer at that time, as did his younger brother and two older sisters.

“My younger brother and I are 15 months apart,” Spencer said. “Growing

up, I have been the offense and he’s the defense. We always played in the

yard. We stayed with it and the doors kept opening up so we kept with

it.”

In addition to soccer, Spencer played baseball in high school. On some

weekends he’d play soccer in the morning and then head off to a baseball

game.

He eventually received acknowledgement for his performance on the

baseball diamond. He was scouted by the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle

Mariners. The Reds even offered a tryout.

“I had the opportunity to play baseball, but I felt soccer was

something I wanted to keep doing,” Spencer said. “The greatest thing

about soccer is it’s always an active sport. You’re always running. With

baseball you spend a lot of time standing or sitting.”

The decision to stick with soccer, the seemingly less-glamorous sport,

would eventually earn Spencer recognition.

When he was a senior at Desert Christian High, Spencer played in the

Lancaster Holiday Classic soccer tournament.

Spencer scored two goals to lead his team to a 2-1 victory. Little did

he know, he was being watched.

“One of the UC Irvine guys was there watching the game,” Spencer said.

“My name wasn’t really out there ... Palmdale isn’t exactly a hotbed for

soccer.

“I remember playing AYSO at UCI. The UCI coach invited me to tour the

campus and I liked it. Plus, it’s a UC school. That’s a big thing for me

-- a good education. It looked like a good advancement for soccer.”

A cooler climate and the opportunity to play soccer for a Division I

school also contributed to Spencer’s selection of UCI. He wanted to play

in California and UC Irvine was only two hours away from his parents’

home.

So, instead of walking on at UCLA, or attending the Air Force Academy

as he had considered, Spencer headed to Orange County after high school.

So did his brother. Spencer is now a senior forward at UC Irvine and

his brother Joel, a sophomore, also plays for the Anteaters (7-3-5, 3-0-2

in the Big West Conference). The two are roommates and coach soccer at

University High.

“My brother and I think alike in a lot of different areas,” Jon

Spencer said. “It’s good to have him there to keep me focused on the task

at hand. He motivates me to train and pushes me to be better.”

This season, the Daily Pilot College Athlete of the Month leads the

Anteaters in points with 11 (five goals and one assist), tied for the

team lead, and was named Big West Conference Player of the Week twice

this month. He posted 30 points last season (12 goals and six assists),

the second-best single-season total in school history.

Spencer is in his last quarter at UCI. What is on the horizon for him

now that he is almost done with school?

“I am 22 and hope to continue playing soccer until someone says, ‘You

are done.’ I am also interested in teaching and maybe going to law school

to get my law degree and be a sports agent for soccer,” Spencer said. “It

would be fun to work with the next age of soccer players. There has been

a number of players who have come out of Palmdale who are playing at UCLA

nd Notre Dame. I am interested in players getting the opportunity to play

at the next level.”