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Draft:Mike Giovando

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Mike Giovando
Giovando in 2026
OccupationsAmerican football coach, private quarterback trainer
Known forPrivate quarterback coach of NFL quarterback Spencer Rattler; founder of Elev8QBAcademy

Mike Giovando is an American football coach and private quarterback trainer based in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. He is the founder of Elev8QBAcademy, a quarterback training academy in Arizona, and is best known as the longtime personal quarterback coach of NFL quarterback Spencer Rattler.[1][2]

Early life and playing career

[edit]

Giovando played quarterback at Saguaro High School, throwing for 900 yards as a junior; he was a three-year varsity starter.[3] After injuring himself during his senior year, he played junior college football as a two-year starter at Phoenix College. He tore his rotator cuff and later suffered another major injury in training, which ended his playing career; he had been expected to continue at Arizona State University but never played there.[4]

Between the ages of 18 and 23, Giovando pursued a career as a musician and signed a record deal. He later returned to football at age 25, playing junior college football for his father, who was then a head coach. After another injury at age 26, he decided to go into coaching.[4]

Coaching career

[edit]

Giovando's father was Ken Giovando, a longtime Arizona football coach who played defensive line for the Arizona Wildcats in the 1960s and later served as offensive coordinator and then head coach (2001-2005) at Scottsdale Community College.[5] Mike Giovando later served as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Scottsdale Community College from 2006 to 2009, and as quarterbacks coach at Ventura College in California.[6] He also coached in the Elite Football League of India as one of nine American coaches who traveled to India for the new league.[6] From 2012 to 2015, he traveled to India to train quarterbacks, an effort he has described as bringing American football to India.[4][7]

Giovando served as a high school head coach, including at Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, where he was named the Arizona Cardinals High School Coach of the Week in 2010 after guiding the Matadors to a 48-47 double-overtime win over Prescott High School.[8]

Private quarterback training

[edit]

Giovando has worked as a private quarterback trainer in Arizona for more than two decades, specializing in throwing mechanics, footwork, and consistency.[1][4] By 2015 he was described as a 20-year coaching veteran who trained 50 to 60 quarterbacks per week, holding group sessions on Sundays at multiple locations across Arizona.[4] He has said that about 40 of the quarterbacks he has trained went on to play college football.[1]

His trainees have included NFL quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick, who worked with Giovando as part of a 12-week Arizona offseason program with Kurt Warner in 2015, Tyrod Taylor, Clayton Tune, Jack Plummer, Sean Renfree, Brian Lewerke, Brogan Roback, Jeff Sims, Max Hall, Ryan Lindley, and Tim Tebow.[9][4][10][11] Other quarterbacks he has trained include Brett Hundley, Kyle Allen, Taylor Kelly, Brandon Harris, Blake Barnett, and Deondre Francois.[4][2][1] He has also worked with college quarterbacks including Devon Dampier, Demond Williams Jr., Nico Marchiol, Parker Navarro, E.J. Warner, Enoch Watson, Will Rogers, and Malik Zaire.[1][10]

Giovando has worked with former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner in his training work.[4] He has also run pro day workouts for college quarterback prospects preparing for the NFL.[11]

Spencer Rattler

[edit]

Giovando is best known as the personal quarterback coach of Spencer Rattler, who trained with Giovando beginning in elementary school - variously reported as the fifth grade or age 11 - before starring at Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, where Rattler set an Arizona state record with 11,083 career passing yards.[1][2][12] Giovando helped publicize Rattler to college recruiters, sending game film to college coaches beginning when Rattler was in ninth grade; Rattler later credited Giovando with getting his recruiting started, saying "He's the one that put me on the map."[2]

Rattler went on to play college football at Oklahoma and South Carolina before being selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft.[1] He has continued to train with Giovando each offseason, including before the 2021 college season, when their workouts focused on throwing on the move and pocket awareness.[13] Giovando discussed Rattler's development in interviews with 247Sports in 2022 and 2023 and appeared on the University of South Carolina athletics podcast Gamecock Talk in April 2023.[14][15][16]

ESPN has profiled the Giovando-Rattler relationship twice. In 2018, ESPN quoted Giovando extensively on Rattler as Oklahoma's next quarterback following Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.[17] In April 2024, ESPN reporter Hallie Grossman embedded at a Giovando-run training session ahead of the NFL draft, describing Giovando as Rattler's "longtime personal coach and the man at the helm of today's training."[18]

Elev8QBAcademy

[edit]

Around 2017, Giovando partnered with Dwayne Miller to create "Mike Giovando's QB Academy," his brand for quarterback training, now known as Elev8QBAcademy.[2] The academy, now known as Elev8QBAcademy, operates in the Phoenix area; as of 2026, Giovando ran offseason workouts on a Scottsdale field adjacent to the Banner Sports Medicine facility, training groups that included NFL players alongside high school quarterbacks.[1] The academy holds youth camps and training sessions for quarterbacks from elementary school through college.[2][1]

Pro days

[edit]

Giovando has conducted pro day workouts for college quarterback prospects entering the NFL, including sessions for Brogan Roback (Eastern Michigan), Malik Zaire (Notre Dame), Taylor Kelly (Arizona State), Colby Kirkegaard (Wyoming), Jordan Gehrke (Colorado), Spencer Rattler (South Carolina), Jack Plummer (Louisville), and Will Rogers (Washington).[11]

Camps

[edit]

Giovando runs annual quarterback camps in Arizona under the Elev8QBAcademy banner, including the Winter Camp each January, the TOP EIGHT quarterback competition each July, the Youth Future Camp each June, the TOP GIRL camp each December, and a camp in Tucson.[11][19] In January 2020, 247Sports covered an Elev8QBAcademy camp at which Rattler appeared as an alumnus instructor, identifying Giovando as the academy's director.[20]

Giovando also coaches annually at the Swiss Alpine Skill Camps in Magglingen, Switzerland, held in association with Robin Haas of the Haas Football Academy; the August 2024 edition was billed as the camp's seventh year.[21][22] Haas has in turn served as a position coach at multiple Elev8QBAcademy quarterback camps in Arizona.[23]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Obert, Richard (April 7, 2026). "New Orleans Saints QB Spencer Rattler back in Arizona to train". The Arizona Republic. azcentral.com. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Quarterbacks coach Mike Giovando's coaching and relationships helping Arizona QBs blossom". AZPreps365. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  3. ↑ "1984 Phoenix Metro Football Magazine" (PDF). Internet Archive. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "QB Guru Mike Giovando Signs on to Coach at Arizona Combine". Football Hotbed. April 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Arizona Wildcats Defensive Tackle Ken Giovando, Who Achieved Rare Interception Feat in 1964, Passes Away". AllSportsTucson.com. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Mike Giovando - Ventura College Pirate Athletics". Ventura College Athletics. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Mike Giovando on X: "Training QBs in INDIA from 2012-2015..."". October 1, 2026. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Shadow Mountain H.S. Mike Giovando Named High School Coach-of-the-Week". Arizona Cardinals. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Kaepernick to work with Kurt Warner, other QB coaches". Sports Illustrated. Associated Press. January 7, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Mike Giovando (@Elev8QBacademy) on X". Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Phoenix Arizona's Top Quarterback Training and Academy". MikeGiovando.com. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Former Arizona high school stars now top college quarterbacks". Notre Dame Insider. August 29, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  13. ↑ "After a Tumultuous 2020, Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler Had a Huge Offseason". Sports Illustrated. 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  14. ↑ "WATCH: Rattler working out with private QB coach". 247Sports. May 17, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Getting to know Rattler off the field". 247Sports. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Gamecock Talk: How Spencer Rattler Can Be Even Better in 2023 (with QB Trainer Mike Giovando)". University of South Carolina Athletics. April 11, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  17. ↑ "Meet the next running quarterback following Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray at Oklahoma". ESPN. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  18. ↑ Grossman, Hallie (April 19, 2024). "Inside Spencer Rattler's tumultuous journey to the NFL draft". ESPN. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  19. ↑ "TOP EIGHT QB Competition". Elev8QBAcademy. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  20. ↑ "Spencer Rattler throws no-look jump pass at quarterback camp". 247Sports. January 6, 2020. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  21. ↑ "Swiss Skills Camp 7 Magglingen 17-18 August 2024". Haas Football Academy. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  22. ↑ "Swiss Alpine Skill Camp 2026". Haas Football Academy. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  23. ↑ "About". Haas Football Academy. Retrieved October 3, 2026.

Category:American football coaches Category:High school football coaches in the United States Category:Sportspeople from Phoenix, Arizona Category:Living people

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