Cross Country
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating our rival Upper Dublin last year in cross country
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: Seeing a runner dive over what he thought was the finish line
Music on iPod: Nas, Common, Kanye
Future plans: Matriculate at the University of Pennsylvania
Words to live by: ‘Life is what you make of it.’
One goal before turning 30: Run a marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: I worked in Italy this summer
Tom Sexton describes Matt Warden as the consummate scholar-athlete.
The Cheltenham senior was the only senior in his team’s top 10 runners and regularly finished in the top three of his squad, but beyond his contributions on the cross country course, Warden was the perfect captain of a young Panther squad.
“He’s just a natural leader and has very high standards,” Sexton said. “If the kids aren’t doing what he knows they should be doing, he’ll point it out to them.
“As a coach, I totally trust his judgment. I know I can totally depend on it because of the kind of kid he is.”
Sexton, who shies away from the spotlight, is reluctant to talk about his resume off the cross country course, but it’s a dazzling one.
He is ranked third in his senior class and has been taking college course since the second semester of his sophomore year. This year, he is taking classes at both Arcadia and the University of Pennsylvania.
His course load is filled with AP classes, and last year, he took 10 AP tests, receiving the top mark of five on nine of those and four on the 10th.
“It’s incredible,” Sexton said. “He’s such an outstanding student, but he doesn’t like attention brought to himself.”
The Panthers’ coach acknowledged that it doesn’t hurt to have a captain who’s at the top of his class.
“When your captain is smart, first of all – he notices a lot of things that are going on,” Sexton said. “If someone is not trying hard enough or if someone’s attitude is a little off or if someone is trying to cut corners, he’s right there with it. He notices right away. He notices a lot, plus he cares about the team.”
Sexton goes on to recount when one of Warden’s teammates had a bad race and was running alone afterwards.
“Matt came over and said, ‘What’s the matter with him?’” the Panthers’ coach said. “I told him he was upset. Matt said, ‘Should I run with him? Can I go help him out?’
“He really cares about everyone on the teams, so he’s not only got a good head, he’s got a good heart.”
Warden’s concern for his teammates does not come as a surprise since he has spent considerable time coaching and teaching tennis and also tutoring. He admits he enjoyed his role of senior captain this year.
“I really appreciate what the coaches have been doing for our team,” he said. “I kind of felt it was my job to make sure everyone else had that same positive experience.
“It was challenging to have such a young team, but it felt good.”
“He didn’t have a lot of senior support,” Sexton said. “But he handled it very well.”
Cross country was not part of Warden’s original plans when he entered high school.
“I played a lot of tennis in junior high, and I wanted to get in shape, so I thought I’d go out for cross country to get in shape for tennis,” Warden said.
He admits it was rough going in the early days and weeks.
“I didn’t like it at first,” Warden said. “I wasn’t very fast.”
According to Sexton, his senior captain was not a natural runner.
“He’s a big kid physically, so he wasn’t real fast,” the Panthers’ coach said. “When he first came on board, you could hear him running before you would see him. Because of the way his feet hit the ground, he would make a lot of noise. He had to learn to run smoothly.”
He was the 15th runner on jayvee team as a freshman, but it wasn’t long before Warden – who admits he never really ran before - was hooked on running, and tennis fell by the wayside.
“The first month I didn’t really enjoy it, but once I was in shape and was able to do the stuff without killing myself, it was a lot of fun,” he said. “The coaches really helped a lot.
“They’re always positive, they’re never obnoxious or mean. You’re always appreciated. I really liked the coaches, and the team was a lot of fun too.”
Warden still plays tennis but no longer competes with the high school team.
“I had a job in the summer where I played tennis and taught people how to play, and it was no longer enjoyable,” he said. “I enjoyed tennis a lot, but once I started working with it, it wasn’t quite as much fun to play.”
By the time he was a junior, Warden was running year round. This past summer he ran six or seven miles every day and acknowledges his rigorous schedule took its toll when the fall season rolled around.
“I think I overdid it this summer,” he said. “I was doing manual labor 10 hours a day and running after that. It was a lot to do, and I think I ended up putting too much of a strain on my body.”
“He didn’t run as well as he hoped he would run,” Sexton said, “but he was very consistent, and he has excellent judgment. He can really size up the situation very accurately. I trust his judgment.”
Running will be part of Warden’s future, although he does not plan to run competitively. He has applied early decision at the University of Penn where he hopes to get into the school of arts and sciences. He has enough college credits that - if Warden attends Penn - he will complete his college education in three years. He is undecided on a major.
“Probably something with the humanities, maybe history,” Warden said.
Warden is an editor of his school newspaper, and he is a member of the National Honor Society. He credits cross country, at least in part, for his academic excellence.
“Before high school, academics weren’t as important to me,” he said. “I think being on the team and having a sense of responsibility and also having a job I did not like at all – I knew I needed to do something with my life. It kind of taught me to do better.”
Talk to Sexton, and it’s clear that Warden was one very special scholar-athlete.
“He’s a very wonderful kid,” the Panthers’ coach said. “I have a world of respect for him and think the world of him.”
