Basketball
Favorite athlete: Kobe Bryant
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Upsetting “better” teams
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: My freshman year, my teammate and I were suiting up to play one of our first varsity games. We were both excited and nervous to play. My teammate (Vinnie Case) got called by coach to check in and play. He was so nervous and jittery that he took his jersey off along with his warm-up. He ran into the locker room hoping he just forgot to put it on. He came out all upset that he didn’t have his jersey. We later found out it was in his warm-up.
Music on iPod: Anything except country
Words to live by: “If you aren’t trying to be the best at what you’re doing, why start in the first place?”
One goal before turning 30: To be successful and happy with whatever I’m doing.
One thing people don’t know about me: I will beat anyone in a 1v1 Call of Duty.
By Mary Jane Souder
Matt Alden is naturally gifted athlete who could have excelled in just about any sport he played.
The William Tennent senior chose basketball. But not before giving football and baseball a fair shot. Alden was the quarterback for his football team until he decided to call it a career after his seventh grade season.
“I just remember this one play – I went back and got drilled by some huge guy,” he said. “I was like, ‘This can’t be for me anymore,’ so I cut it down to basketball and baseball.”
Baseball was an important part of Alden’s life until after his ninth grade season, but that slower-paced sport didn’t quite cut it either, and basketball became his sport of choice.
“I really liked baseball, but anybody that knows me knows I’m really impatient,” said Alden, who played third base and shortstop. “It hit me – I couldn’t sit there for two hours and not have a ball hit to me. That’s when I was like, ‘All right, basketball it is. I can’t even blink without something happening, and it’s up and down the court.’”
Sticking with basketball is a decision Alden has never regretted. He not only has a passion for the sport, he also excels. The senior standout is averaging close to 17 points a game and is second on the team in rebounding despite often releasing to take advantage of potential transition points. He’s not afraid of physical contact and averages between 10 and 12 trips to the foul line every game.
“He just gets out there and he battles,” coach Robert Mulville said. “A lot of teams will box-and-one and face guard him. We just have to keep encouraging him to keep battling, keep battling.
“He’s a workhorse – that’s his main quality. He puts in an awful lot of work both on and off the court, and he really enjoys the game a lot. That’s part of his success.”
Alden has been involved in the highly competitive AAU circuit, most recently with the Perkasie Knights
Another key piece of Alden’s success is his fiercely competitive nature. With the game on the line, he’s not afraid to take the big shot. In his team’s recent two-point win over Council Rock South, Alden buried a three-pointer to knot the score, and after a turnover gave the ball back to the Panthers with 40 seconds remaining in regulation, Mulville wanted the ball in his senior star’s hands. Alden did not disappoint, scoring the game winner with 3.5 seconds remaining in regulation. “There’s a ton of things running through your head in that situation because there are so many times I have missed the game-winning shot, and the team has been counting on me for it,” Alden said. “When I got the ball, I tried to get to the lane to get an easy layup, but it was completely clogged up.
“The shot was like an in-the-lane floating fadeaway. I never make it when I practice it, and it just somehow went in.”
A four-year varsity player, Alden saw limited action as a freshman but was in the starting lineup the last three years. He has been an ironman for the Panthers.
“I don’t think he’s missed a game in three years,” Mulville said. “He’s really competitive, and he wants to go out and give everything he has every day and every practice.”
It looked as though Alden’s streak of never missing a game might come to an end when he was diagnosed with mononucleosis this past fall on Oct. 31.
“I called coach up, and I was almost going to cry because everyone is saying that you’re done once you have mono,” Alden said. “I parked myself in bed and did everything I was supposed to do.
“Dec. 1 came along, and that was the date I could start shooting again. I was noticeably weaker, and I was slower. I couldn’t do everything, but I got through that.”
Right about the time he was starting to feel like his old self, Alden suffered a high ankle sprain in his team’s early season game against Rock South.
“He left the court on crutches, and he was back and ready for the next game,” Mulville said. “He was playing hurt for a good four or five-game stretch. He sprained his ankle his sophomore year, and he was right back on the court.
“He just has a lot of determination to get out on the court. He will try everything he can to be ready and prepared for competition.”
Those traits serve Alden well as the lone captain of this year’s squad.
“He’s not a real vocal guy,” Mulville said. “A lot of his leadership is through example, but he is very supportive of his teammates and he appreciates them.
“He knows they work hard to try and get him open and have him do what he does best. He’s the first one to pat a guy on the back when they do something right. He’s just very supportive in a very unassuming way, but as a coach, you notice it.”
Alden grew up in a family with two siblings – twin sister Nikki and older sister Ashley - who both went on to earn scholarships to play Division One softball at St. Joseph’s University.
“I have always said I was the scrub athlete of my family,” Alden said with a laugh. “Ashley and Nikki – they just work. They don’t stop.
“During the summer, I would look out my window and Nikki would be hitting into a net just hours upon hours. I have never seen two girls want it the way they do, and they totally deserve going to St. Joe’s. They’re going to be successful simply because they work harder than anyone, and I’m happy for them.”
Both siblings have been nothing but supportive as Alden looks to continue his basketball career at the collegiate level. With strong ball handling skills for a player listed at 6-3, Alden boasts a strong inside-outside game.
“When I was young, I was the little guy, and I got my ball handling down then,” he said. “I had a size 14 shoe in seventh grade, so I finally grew into that.”
Numerous schools are in the mix to acquire his talents, and he has narrowed his list down to a final two.
“I’m just trying to figure out the one that’s right for me,” Alden said. “Something my coach has always told me is that I’m a student-athlete, not an athlete-student.
“Being a student comes first, so basically for me, I’m going to go to a school with very high academics and a good basketball program. I want to be able to get out of college, get a good job and go on with life from there.”
Alden plans to major in business with a possible interest in pursuing a career in accounting.
He won’t leave William Tennent with any championships, and the possibility of finishing .500 this season in a very tough SOL National Conference will be the team’s best league finish in his three years as a starter. Wins and losses aside, Alden will leave with tons of good memories of his high school playing days, especially of his final high school season.
“This is probably my favorite group of guys because they’re always into the game,” Alden said. “Even the guys who really don’t get to play much – they’re always into the game. They’re at practice, and they’re focused and they’re just great teammates.
“Personally, for me, I would want to be around that in college, and even in the job site, I would want people who support everything that we’re doing. It’s been rough sometimes, but I’ve enjoyed my high school career a lot.”
