Basketball
Favorite athlete: Russell Westbrook
Favorite team: Chicago Bulls
Favorite memory competing in sports: Upsetting the number one seed in the district playoffs last year, which clinched a berth in the state playoffs.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I forgot my basketball shoes for a travel game in Philadelphia, so I had to go with my coach to a local Payless Shoe Store and buy $20 shoes to play in that night.
Music on iPod: Rap/R&B
Future plans: To have a career somewhere in business and/or sports
Words to live by: “Never End the Fight”
One goal before turning 30: To have a steady good-paying job that I’m passionate about.
One thing people don’t now about me: I’m an extremely picky eater.
By GORDON GLANTZ
When now-senior Matt Pattyson was a freshman at Central Bucks East, he was one of three in his class to distinguish himself on the basketball court and earn significant playing time on the junior varsity team.
But as summer approached, he seemed to be a bit off the radar screen of the coaching staff. Not completely, but just enough that it wasn’t yet clear if the somewhat gangly incoming sophomore would be a varsity contributor.
That became crystal clear during summer tournament in Haverford, and what followed remains one of head coach Erik Henrysen’s favorite stories about his third-year starting point guard, who hit the weight room and filled out while growing to 6-2.
“JV and varsity were scheduled at the same time,” he said. “Since Matt hadn’t yet defined a role with the varsity, we had him report to the JV game. He was furious with me. My JV coach told me he was relentless in the game. He ended up hitting 6 or 7 threes and had a ton of steals.”
Reflected Pattyson: “I almost forgot about that, but now I remember. It was both a JV and a varsity tournament. I was already warming up with the varsity. The JV team played a half-hour later. They told me to leave to go to the JV game. I’ll go anywhere to coach tells me to go, but I was angry. I think I made my first five shots, and we got up like 20-2 or something.”
If he was only a blip on the radar screen going in, he wasn’t going out.
“It’s just a quick snapshot of who Matt is,” said Henrysen. “When things don’t go his way, he still sees opportunity. Matt hasn’t stopped convincing me to believe in him even though he knows he has the keys to program.”
Said Pattyson: “I was one of the freshmen who had gotten minutes with JV. By the time the summer came, I knew there was an opportunity for minutes. I knew I could help the team, so I worked hard in the offseason. The summer is when it started to click.”
Pattyson, the Univest Male Featured Athlete of the Week, went on to make himself so invaluable that he was named a co-captain midway through what was a transition year for a young and oft-injured team during his sophomore season.
“That team had two seniors and something like six or seven juniors, but we were inexperienced,” recalled Pattyson, now a third-year captain as a senior. “We had six seniors graduate. It was a rough year, and we were trying to find ourselves. We needed someone to step up and fill that role.”
Breakthrough Season
A season later, Pattyson and the Patriots underwent a reversal of fortunes from that 6-16 campaign of the year before.
But not before a wake-up call.
The Patriots were playing at home against an inferior opponent, one Pattyson would rather not name, building a double-digit lead before finding a way to beat themselves.
After the game, Pattyson and co-captain Tommy Strasburger sat in the locker room. They were stunned and dissected the loss for an extended period of time.
“We just sat there for about 25 minutes,” said Pattyson. “It was unacceptable. It was good having another guy there. The two of us realized that the team just needed to turn it around. We brought focus and energy to every practice, and it continued into the playoffs. We had focus, energy and drive like never before.”
The Patriots went on make the state playoffs for the first time since the 1980s.
“We went into districts as the No. 17 seed and beat the No. 1 seed in the second round,” he said. “We made it to the quarterfinals of districts, and ended up ninth in the district with the play-in games. We lost in the first round of states, but we were the first team from CB East in something like 30-35 years to make it to states.
“We all knew we were that good, and we knew that we could play together.”
And it all went back to that tough setback early.
“It was a reality check,” he said. “Since that moment, we started believing.”
Feeling the Passion
Pattyson’s leadership role extends beyond the court, as he feels a strong commitment to the standard set by his school in its Coaches vs. Cancer program.
This year, along with Abby Charlton of the girls’ team, he is a co-chair and looks to continue the school’s tradition of being the best in the nation at raising money for the cause.
“It’s something I take great pride in,” said Pattyson, who is also involved in the Athletes Helping Athletes program. “We are the top high school in the nation, and I want us to top last year’s total and be the example for all high schools. I also want to set a standard for the younger kids to follow, so I take great pride in it.”
Made up mostly – but not exclusively – of basketball players from the boys’ and girls’ squads, there is a committee that Pattyson sat on last year and learned the ropes and aspired to being a co-chair with Charlton.
“This cause is something we both feel strongly about,” he said. “We want to make a difference.”
Pattyson also feels strongly about his schoolwork and has long since found the balance of being as successful in the classroom as he is on the court.
This year, he is taking three AP classes and one honors class. An aspiring business major – who is looking at focusing on accounting, marketing or finance -- he boasts a 4.3 weighted grade-point average.
“It can get a little tough with basketball,” he said, referring the difficult curriculum. “At some points, it can get a little stressful. I remember last year, when had a playoff game at Coatesville, I came home after the game to two hours of homework -- plus a test the next day. It’s never easy.
“But, I’ve always had this drive. It’s just something that has been driven into me. I just have to stay up later when I have a lot of homework, but I’m able to handle it with basketball.”
Praise and Approval
The son of Dawn and Chris Pattyson considered tempting fate and scratching his annual “itch” to get back onto the football field for one last hurrah as a senior, after not playing for keeps since middle school.
The sport is in his blood, as both his grandfathers played college football and his brother, Connor, was a standout at CB East before deciding against playing at the Division I-AA level and is currently a sophomore at Dayton.
Then he thought about friends, like Strasburger, who played both sports and were never 100 percent physically for basketball season.
“I have a good amount of friends on the team,” said Pattyson, whose aunt, former East standout Meghan (Pattyson) Culmo, played college basketball under Geno Auriemma at UConn and remains involved in broadcasting. “As much as I love football and get some sort of itch every year when the season starts, I decided it wasn’t worth risking this year.”
And with a season to go, the praise from his coach already sits at historic proportions.
“Matt has been our heart and soul since his sophomore year,” Henrysen said. “He’s been the captain of our program since 10th grade and has really served as an extension of the coaching staff. Matt’s the whole package. He’s the type of kid that puts forth the same level of effort and commitment on and off the court. He’s special and I don’t know that I’ve coach a better person in my 17 years of coaching.
“Matt is the face of our program. He is the exact example of the type of student athlete that we want representing East basketball.”
Pattyson, who is undecided whether to consider some tempting Division III-level offers and continue playing basketball or just attend a larger university and be a regular student, is beyond flattered to be described in such terms.
“It’s a real honor,” he said. “All my teammates are great. The coach does a good job of keeping us all on task with academics. There are a lot of good guys on this team. To get that kind of praise and approval, it means a lot.”
