Freedom to be who you are and do what you love are two things that a lot of people don’t get the chance to pursue during their lives. Most of us will lie and say that we achieve these or strive to be what we want but to actually become what we want and do what we say we are going to do is hard. Tonight, I will discuss a former player who I feel is doing just that. He only played two years for me but he graduated with amazing honors, a great job, and a truth about who he was and was going to be.
Recruiting visits, whether on campus or off are not my favorite thing. By nature, I am an introvert and would rather speak with no one daily. The funny thing is that most people think I am outgoing. I guess this is based on my career choice and when they see me I always have something to say to them. Comfort of surroundings can be a curse but it also relaxes those that crave it. When Matt Buck came to FSC for his tour of campus he and his sister happened to find my office and asked if they could stop in for a quick visit. Matt was not on my radar for players but hey, it’s my job and if a potential student-athlete has a chance to be on the team why not give them a chance and increase the chances that they choose FSC over someplace else. The visit was unspectacular, as most are, but Matt had a nice personality and knew what he wanted out of FSC and I liked that about him. His sister was there for support but this was Matt’s visit and let him do the talking. Matt’s dad was a college basketball coach so he understood athletics but didn’t really look like much of a tennis player. I know, you want to know what a tennis player looks like. This is not explainable but Matt was, let’s just say soft, compared to many of the athletes that come through my door. I never saw him play but he was sure he would fit in to my overall scheme, so I thought, “what the hell, let the kid have his shot.” He was also a tad bit different with his personality than most of my players but different makes my job fun.
Fast forward to the first couple of times Matt and the rest of the team trained together. He was athletic, so much for my soft thought, and he could play. Not at the top level but he could play. Imagine Venus Williams as a blonde boy, this was Matt Buck. He hit hard and harder. Serves, groundstrokes, volleys, and overheads were as hard as he could and if they fell within the boundaries he him them harder until he missed. Oh, and he missed, got frustrated, and just kept pounding balls. We started doing off court training and this is where Matt shined. The boy could jump. I cannot believe that just because his dad was a basketball coach that he had a jumping gene but he could fly. He did really well in all of our athletic events and gained a lot of respect from his teammates for his never wavering effort. His tennis, however, didn’t change. That’s not truly correct, he did get a little more consistent, and with that came the desire to hit harder. He was a great team player but there was more to Matt than his tennis.
Matt, like all the players that I have written about and will write about, was going through so much growth as he began to weave through FSC. See, Matt was what I would call an accounting genius. Not just good at accounting but astonishingly good at accounting. He went through the classes without dropping letter grades. He attempted to take as many hard classes as he could just to push his limits and to gain knowledge that would lead to his future. During this time, he also began becoming who he was instead of what he thought everyone wanted him to be. Having conversations with him were entertaining and helped me understand things that I would never have to deal with on a personal level. His growth as a human continually outpaced his growth as an athlete but it was an incredible process that I got to witness first hand. As he moved into his sophomore season he realized that playing time would not be greater so he even went harder in the classroom and in his personal journey. Oh yeah, he was also a stalwart on the team’s intramural basketball team. His post playing skills were legendary and were talked about a lot more than his tennis accomplishments. If you needed help with accounting, you went to Matt. Not only teammates but anybody who attended FSC reached out for his assistance when it came to his major. The kid who showed up in my office with his sister was transforming right in front of all of us.
At the start of his junior year Matt came to talk to me. He decided that tennis was no longer going to be part of his life at FSC as accounting was offering too many opportunities. I hated losing him as part of the team but having a player with that much maturity and assuredness about what he wanted to do was amazing. Another thing he talked about was getting out in his community more. This was fun to watch but also a little scary. He went hard and at times over did it. We would talk at lunch or at impromptu meetings about what he was doing, how it was going, and what was next. He let his hair down for awhile and I think it hit the floor a few times but he was strong enough to rein it in and get back to what he was there for in the first place. As his skills in accounting were recognized some amazing internships and job opportunities started popping up. We discussed options, the pros and cons, and then he made his decision. At this point I was merely looking through the windows that he allowed me to and the picture he was creating was turning into a masterpiece. By the time Matt was a senior his opportunities were what any graduate would wish for upon receiving their degree. Options, choices, good, bad, and where to begin were all thoughts that had to be thought through. His life was his now and he had done what you are supposed to do when you go to college, learn.
Matt is now a full-fledged accountant in Texas and from everything I can tell is doing as well as I thought he would do. He knows who he is, what he wants, and he goes after all of it with the same tenacity as he did hitting a tennis ball. He only played for me for two years but gave me four years of memories that I still hold close and think about often.
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