Steve: Matt, tell us a little bit about where you’re from and about your family.
Matt: I am from Binghamton, New York, right by Syracuse. I have a brother and a sister. My dad is a periodontist and my mom works with him. I was at college last year, and I was at prep school before that. I’m not home too much.
Steve: So you’ve been away from your hometown for quite awhile then?
Matt: Yeah, since I was 14.
Steve: Tell me a little bit about your background in playing hockey. Did you play hockey in Binghamton?
Matt: Yeah, I played for the Syracuse Stars, AAA. When I was a freshman in high school, I went to prep school in New Jersey. I left there and my junior year I went to prep school in Connecticut. Then I went to Ohio State last year.
Steve: Tell me a little bit about the prep school. I know for a lot of the fans here in the Midwest we don’t know much about the prep school system. What is a prep school and why do you go there?
Matt: My dad wanted me to have both a good education and good hockey. A prep school is the best education in the country. You pay a lot for it but it’s worth it to get a degree from a good school and the hockey is really good too. They’ve had a lot of good players like Marty Reasnor, Jeremy Rhonick, Brian Leach, and just the list goes on.
Steve: So you pay to go to the prep school. You don’t get scholarships for hockey.
Matt: You can get financial aid but they don’t offer scholarships.
Steve: Do they play other prep schools or who do they play?
Matt: Yeah, it’s one big league; they play each other.
Steve: What is it like being away from home so much?
Matt: I have gotten used to it. I tend to be really independent. I don’t know; I don’t mind being away from home a lot. Go live with your friends and stuff; there is stuff to do.
Steve: So you did you get started in hockey then?
Matt: Actually, Mike who plays for the National Predators. He like helped me skate when I was younger; he taught me how to skate. Then I just picked it up. We just decided to try it out, and I liked it a lot.
Steve: So are you the first one in your family to play hockey then?
Matt: Yeah.
Steve: Was it from a young age when you started?
Matt: Yeah, I started at like three. I’ve been playing for a long time.
Steve: On the teams that you’ve played for, were they winning teams? Did you have a good record? How was your experience with those teams?
Matt: Yeah, there were some good and bad teams. When I played for Syracuse, we had some really good teams. One guy is in the NHL right now, Tim Connelly, who plays for the Islanders. There were about five or six guys that were drafted into the NHL off one of our teams, so that team was really good.
Steve: How old were you when you played with those guys?
Matt: Well, I played with them all my life. But that particular team I was probably 13 or 14.
Steve: Are there any special memories you have of playing with those teams or great moments that you can recall in all your hockey career, I guess?
Matt: Well, I guess we finished like eighth in Quebec City, which is like the biggest pee wee tournament in the world. We finished eighth out of like 108 teams, so that was a big accomplishment. We always competed really well in another big tournament in Toronto. We always did well in Canada and that has been like the big thing to beat the Canadians. It’s a big rivalry.
Steve: Well, shifting a little bit to other things besides hockey. What do you do for fun when you’re not playing hockey? Do you go back home? What do you do?
Matt: I worked this summer in New York City and stuff. I hang out with my friends a lot and just have a good time. I go to concerts, pretty much anything and everything.
Steve: Do you have any hobbies outside of hockey?
Matt: I play a lot of golf. Otherwise, no.
Steve: What do you see yourself doing in the future with hockey and also your personal life?
Matt: Well, I would like to go to college for hockey, but I don’t know what’s happening right now. I don’t know. I would like to major in business, something in business.
Steve: You said you went to Ohio State for awhile. So you actually were playing college hockey for awhile then?
Matt: Yeah, it was a long story. I was ineligible the first half of the season and I couldn’t skate with the team. Things just kind of went downhill from there, and it just wasn’t a good situation. The coaches and myself agreed that it would be better just to maybe, you know, to even start over somewhere else.
Steve: How many years do you have left with the Bucs then?
Matt: This is my last year; I am 20 years old.
Steve: Do you have any idea what you would like to do then? Play college hockey, right?
Matt: Yeah. I don’t know where. I mean, I have talked to like Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Boston University, and schools like that. I don’t know right now what I’m doing as far as that is concerned.
Steve: In all the things you’ve done in hockey, there must have been some real high moments, I kind of asked a little bit about that before, or maybe even some embarrassing moments. Do you have anything that has ever happened that was really embarrassing in hockey?
Matt: This year like my pants fell down. I don’t know if anybody really picked up on it. I’ve never really had anything embarrassing where I fell or done anything like that.
Steve: Well, the pants coming down is probably pretty embarrassing.
Matt: That is pretty embarrassing.
Steve: Was it at a home game?
Matt: Yeah.
Steve: What happened?
Matt: The guy just like stuck me with a hook right in the right spot and the pants came down. I couldn’t take off my gloves and put them on because I was skating around. It was in our zone so I couldn’t get off the ice. So I was just skating around trying to hold them up. I wasn’t really doing much of anything.
Steve: That is pretty funny.
Matt: Yeah.
Steve: Now how did you find out about the Bucs then? So you were up in prep school and then you went to Ohio. How did you find out about the Bucs?
Matt: Well, I played in a summer tournament last year in June and Nick Krueger was out there. He mentioned there was a rule that said I could go to junior hockey and I go to school, which I am doing now, then I can go back to college and it is like my sit out year. Otherwise, I would have to go to college and sit out there and I couldn’t play for the whole year. So this way, at least I am playing and then I can go back to college next year.
Steve: Had you heard of the Bucs before then?
Matt: Well, I have heard of them. I didn’t really know much about the league or anything like that. I always got a lot of information from Des Moines, Green Bay, Omaha. I didn’t really look at it because, I mean, it wasn’t where I wanted to go originally and I didn’t know much about the league.
Steve: Now that you are here, what do you think?
Matt: I think it is a really good league. I probably wish I would have came here earlier because it gets a lot of scouting and stuff and it’s really competitive. I like the league a lot.
Steve: Of all the teams that are out there that we play, what are a couple of the teams that you enjoy playing the most?
Matt: Well, I like playing Lincoln, Omaha, the big games. I get motivated for those the most. When playing last place teams, you’re kind of going through the motions. I like playing at other buildings actually. I just thing it’s fun to hear how their fans react and stuff.
