From a great Viking family!!!!:
Portland State personified
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He entered fall camp as a walk-on freshman linebacker, buried on the depth chart.
He ended his first regular season as a scholarship starter, earning Big Sky defensive player of the week honors for his 12-tackle performance in Portland State’s 34-31 win at Eastern Washington on Nov. 21.
That should be plenty enough for AJ Schlatter to earn bragging rights at the family’s Thanksgiving dinner table in their Canby home, right?
“Well, my mom is in the (Portland State) Hall of Fame and my sister is going to join her in there soon,” says a smiling AJ Schlatter, who also had 3.5 tackles for loss, an interception, two sacks and a forced fumble in the Vikings’ historic win at EWU. “So I have some big expectations to live up to with my mom and sister.”
Schlatter’s mother, Terri Jo, starred on Portland State’s 1984 national championship volleyball team and later coached on three more Vikings teams that won national titles.
His older sister, Garyn, ranks in the top five in several all-time statistical categories for the Vikings volleyball team after earning first-team all-conference honors for four consecutive seasons (2010-13).
Schlatter’s strong Portland State family ties also include his father, Jim, a Vikings football assistant coach in the 1980s, and his brother-in-law, Kyle McMillin, who played for the PSU football team from 2010-11.
That history adds to Schlatter’s appreciation for his role on Portland State’s first playoff football team since 2000 and first nine-win season in their 20-year Division I history.
The 9-2 Vikings, who earned the No. 6 national seed and a first-round bye, open what Schlatter hopes is a lengthy postseason run on Saturday, Dec. 5 in a 7 p.m. game at Providence Park.
“My family is loving it,” says Schlatter, who has another older sister, Kasey, who was a standout volleyball player at Montana State from 2011-14. “My mom is angry that Portland State doesn’t get more support in all of our sports. So it’s cool that our football team has been able to bring more attention to the school.”
Schlatter has many fond memories of attending PSU sporting events through his childhood. He was motivated to play for the Vikings someday while starring at Canby High as a first-team all-Three Rivers League linebacker and tight end.
That’s why he turned down opportunities to play for Division-III teams and walk on at Portland State, where he redshirted the 2014 season. Schlatter then couldn’t wait to show Vikings coaches what he could do during practices last spring.
But during the first practice in April, something felt odd in his throat and his body weakened.
“It literally just hit me on that first day, and I went and got checked and they told me to go to the hospital because my throat was so swollen,” Schlatter says. “I didn’t come back to practice for three weeks. I was really frustrated because I had put in so much work to get where I was. It was just an extreme setback.”
The double diagnosis of mononucleosis and strep throat kept Schlatter at Oregon Health & Science University for three days. He soon lost about 25 pounds from his 6-2, 205-pound frame.
“I remember laying in that hospital bed and having it be really hard to breathe,” Schlatter says. “But those days really made me realize what I’m playing for and what I’m working for. It gave me more of a love for what I get to do because it showed me how quickly it can all be taken away.”SCHLATTER
SCHLATTER
That mature perspective pushed a rejuvenated Schlatter through his summer workouts. He quickly gained back the pounds he had lost from his sickness. By the time fall camp opened on Aug. 10, Schlatter was driven to prove to PSU first-year head coach Bruce Barnum and defensive coordinator Malik Roberson that he deserved playing time.
Roberson, a former linebacker and defensive lineman at Washington State and Central Washington, couldn’t help but pay attention to the walk-on linebacker during practices and adjusted his linebacker depth chart accordingly.
“Because he was sick during spring ball, we didn’t really know what he could do or not,” Roberson says. “And then fall camp comes and he just kept showing up and making plays. He was developing faster than all of the other guys at his position. That’s what you look for, what kind of consistency do they provide, and the execution that you want.
“All of that got him in the starting lineup versus Washington State, and he never looked back after that.”
Schlatter will never forget the emotion he felt as he took the field as a starting linebacker for Portland State’s season opener at WSU on Sept. 5. Making it even more special was that he did so while wearing a real Vikings uniform after years of donning PSU apparel as a fan.
“That moment was what I always wanted,” Schlatter says. “It was a real blessing, honestly, just to sit back and realize, ‘Wow, a few months ago, I was in the hospital, and a few weeks ago I was like fifth-string in camp, and now I’m playing against a Pac-12 opponent.’”
The surreal ride continued after Schlatter recorded 5 1/2 tackles in the Vikings’ 31-24 win at Pullman, Wash., for the program’s first victory over a Pac-12 opponent.
Schlatter had two more impressive showings as a starter before being told to report to Barnum’s office after a practice in late September.
Schlatter, fearing at first that he might be in some type of trouble, took a seat in Barnum’s spacious office with clear glass windows. The coach then delivered the news: Schlatter was being placed on scholarship.
“He was a deer in the headlights when I told him,” Barnum says. “I let him leave a little earlier than I planned because I could tell he was getting emotional. That was a cool moment. That’s what it’s all about, man.”
Schlatter’s emotion overcame him as he quickly flashed back to his numerous family memories at Portland State. He also remembered the uncertainty he felt after his final high school game, which happened to be played on the Vikings’ college field (a Canby loss to Jesuit in the 2013 semifinals).
“At that time, I didn’t know if any colleges even wanted me,” Schlatter says. “I thought that could have been my last game.”
With the uncertainty over, Schlatter thanked Barnum for the scholarship with a firm handshake before immediately returning to his blue-collar regime to get better.
“It was incredible, but then I was like, ‘Now it’s time for the real work to begin,’” says Schlatter, who has 56 tackles this season. “It was an extremely good feeling, because when you’re a walk-on, whether people say it or not, you feel a little different.
“But the cool is thing is when you’re a walk-on and you get put on scholarship, you know you’ve earned that against great athletes. It’s not something that was given, but something you truly earned.”
When Barnum looks up and down his roster, he sees several individual stories that have made up the collective turnaround tale of the 2015 Portland State football team, which is ranked fifth in the nation in both FCS polls.
Schlatter’s story is especially poignant for Barnum, who went to Columbia River High in Vancouver, Wash., and played linebacker at Eastern Washington.
“He symbolizes who we are and what Portland State is,” Barnum says. “We want the local kids. He wasn’t a five-star Rivals-type guy, but he will be by the time he’s done. He’s the type of student-athlete I love watching play. He’s got it figured out. Somebody taught him well.”
Schlatter had plenty of mentors in his Canby home growing up, with two former athletes-turned-coaches as parents and two older sisters who excelled in sports.
Schlatter also credits the tight-knit Canby community for his development as a young man. Fellow Canby High graduates Sam Bodine and Michael Doman join Schlatter on the Vikings roster.
“It’s a special place, and we all love being from there,” says Schlatter, noting that he and Bodine have been “best friends forever” as Canby youth. “Everybody back home is talking about the Vikings now. I’ll go to a store in a Portland State shirt and people will see it and come up to me and say congrats about our great season.”
But it hasn’t been a season without hurdles for Schlatter, who missed the Northern Colorado road game on Nov. 7 because of sickness and had his preparation for the Eastern Washington game interrupted by another medical scare.
Three days before the performance that would earn him Big Sky honors, Schlatter was hospitalized from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. for a procedure on his swollen throat.
“They literally stuck a giant needle in my throat,” he says, “and got some nasty stuff out of there.”
He says the pain, which had bothered him for the previous four games, “instantly went away” after the throat cleaning, and he enters Portland State’s postseason feeling more durable than he’s been all year.
“I’m so ready,” he says.
Schlatter is eager to do all he can to help the Vikings establish themselves as one of the go-to programs for talented high school football recruits. He wants other young players in the area to view Portland State as the special place he first fell in love with as a child.
“The more success we have, the more interest we’ll get,” Schlatter says. “We just have to keep putting in the work. You can’t ever be satisfied. Always have to work each day to get better, do that extra set in the weight room and push the other guys on the team to do the same.”
Schlatter also has more personal reasons for wanting to improve, which he’s reminded of every time he visits his parents’ home and views the many athletic mementos collected by his parents and sisters.
“We have a little thing going to see who was going to be the best athlete in the family,” Schlatter says. “I’ve got a ways to go to catch up to them.”
This is really really sad.
