Inside The Huskies

Batter Up: Huskies Offer Arizona WR, Son of Former MLB Player

Trey Spivey also plays baseball besides catching passes for Hamilton High School.

Dan Raley

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The University of Washington has done well in helping mold the offspring of Major League Baseball players into college football standouts.

Dante Pettis, the son of 11-year big-league centerfielder Gary Pettis, became an elusive Husky wide receiver, NCAA punt-return record-holder, NFL draft pick and a case in point.

Now comes Ernest "Tre" Spivey.

He's another able pass-catcher who is the son of former MLB second baseman Ernest "Junior" Spivey, a one-time All-Star and World Series champion.

And, as of this week, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Spivey from Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, has a Husky scholarship offer, one of 17 overall. 

 

The difference in the next-generation athletes is Pettis wasn't a high school baseball player — he preferred track in the spring — while Spivey is all of that and considered a prospect. 

Spivey, who is four inches taller and five pounds heavier than his father in his MLB prime, is mostly a pitcher, can play shortstop and, similar to his father, can ease into second base when needed. 

He also has the benefit of having Junior Spivey guide him through his baseball pursuits, while Pettis' father became an MLB coach for five different teams shortly after he retired as a player, and is currently with the Houston Astros. 

"Ever since I was young, he's been teaching me to play up," Tre Spivey said of his dad to Knight Times. "I honestly can't ask for a better coach than him."

Yet young Spivey has probably even more prowess as a football player and rates as a 3-star recruit for the Class of 2023. Last fall as a junior, he caught 36 passes for 364 yards and 7 scores for an 11-1 team called the Huskies. 

He also holds offers from Wisconsin, UCLA Arizona State, Kanas State and Washington State, among many others. 

The schools are fairly certain they won't swing and miss in pursuing this particular recruit.

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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