Spencer Stuart discovered the ideal outlet for his athleticism.

The 2023 graduate of Penn Manor High School grew up with aspirations of starring on the Comets' football team.

After injuries derailed that dream, Spencer found a home on the rugby pitch while attending West Virginia University.

"My favorite thing about rugby is how it has filled a large void in my heart that football left," Spencer said. "Football meant everything to me as a kid and leading into high school, and my body just never let me be the player I was supposed to be."

Spencer will be a senior at West Virginia University this fall and is on track to graduate after the spring 2027 semester. He is pursuing degrees in history and philosophy and plans to begin working in the field of public history, where he is interested in architectural preservation and advocacy.

Spencer is hoping to conclude his collegiate rugby career with a successful senior season. He will serve as backs captain alongside forwards captain Noah Kelleher and team captain Patrick Cooney. "They are both juniors, which is indicative of us being a younger team, but we have high hopes to win some more games this fall than we have previously," Spencer said.

Although Spencer has earned individual acclaim for his rugby exploits, his fondest memories revolve around others' accomplishments. "The highlight of my career has been my teammates," he said. "Rugby has such a strong culture of camaraderie, and I have noticed that from my very first practices. I love celebrating my teammates' achievements at games, and there is almost no comparably fulfilling feeling as to having my teammates cheering and celebrating me after making a good play."

Spencer, a winger, never envisioned making good plays in rugby until the second semester of his sophomore year. "Three different people, none of which were affiliated with the club team at all, had asked me if I played rugby," he said. "I said no and asked why, and they all just said I looked like someone who would play rugby. After the third time this had happened, I thought maybe this was a sign that I should play the sport."

He was given a moniker before ever playing a game. "I got the nickname 'Rambo' at my first practice before I ever touched a ball because I showed up wearing a bandana and I have long curly hair," Spencer said. "I never really told anyone my real name because it stuck so quickly, and I think it took almost two seasons for some of the guys to learn my name was actually Spencer. That first semester I also earned the nickname. Being my first ever season, my passing skills were abysmal, so I fully committed to being an extremely aggressive defender. With a nickname like Rambo, it feels like there is a lot of pressure to live up to (in order to) embody what that means on the field."

At WVU, Spencer rooms with fellow Penn Manor graduate Bradley Frey. Spencer, Bradley, and another roommate, Logan Myers, are active in CRU/Campus Crusade for Christ. Spencer and Bradley both attend Central Manor Church. After two summers of employment at Crossgates Golf Club in Millersville, Spencer is currently employed at the exclusive and highly rated Pikewood National Golf Club outside of Morgantown, W.Va.

Spencer plans to continue playing rugby after college. "I had never really been exposed to rugby until I started playing, but there are youth and men's leagues all around," he said. "I wish I had been encouraged to play in high school so I could have been playing for longer and because the tackling skills I have learned in rugby would have translated a lot over to football."

Spencer's freshman and sophomore football seasons at Penn Manor were curtailed by an ACL tear. He was later beset by ACL sprains, ankle sprains, and a separated AC joint, maladies that didn't keep him out of games but didn't allow him to perform at his best, Spencer said.

"I was so focused on getting myself healthy all the time I never got to enjoy the games or forge relationships with my teammates like I should have," he said. "Unexpectedly, rugby has allowed me to experience these things I thought I had lost a chance of having. It is an extremely physically demanding contact sport, but I do not have that same pressure that I had put on myself at football. I have been able to enjoy every minute of the games, and I have made a ton of great friends with my teammates. Running, tackling, bleeding, and bruising alongside my friends who are equally ready to put their bodily comfort on the line for me makes me feel alive in ways nothing else can, and I am so thankful after my disappointments in football I could also find (these good experiences) in rugby."