Sean Matteo

I grew up in a small town in Southern New Jersey, just 25 miles from Philadelphia and on the way to the now infamous Jersey Shore.  It was a place where the children walked or rode their bikes to school and played outside until the sun went down.   The town had it’s own beaches and it’s own day camp during the summer.  From one end to the other, the street I grew up on was loaded with young families, whose parents had decided to settle in suburbs.  Everyone knew each other and grew up together.  Even though it’s been years since my family left Nahma trail, we still keep tabs on many of the families we grew up with.  Thanks to Facebook, I chat with many of them. We also had great schools which gave us a great foundation to build upon for the future.  My point is that it was a great place to grow up.  I’m grateful for that because I know that many people don’t have such fond memories to look back on.

As I moved into my teen years I became very passionate about sports, playing anything involving a ball, but focusing mainly on hockey.  Ice hockey, street hockey, roller hockey, it didn’t matter as long as it was hockey.  One of my fondest memories with my Dad, was going to Flyers games at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.  There is nothing like seeing a hockey game in person and I was lucky enough to go all the time.  Being only 45 minutes from Philly it was easy to go to Flyers, Phillies and Eagles games.  I miss that a lot.

I used to make fun of my two best friends because they would go out and play golf together.  Truthfully I was a little jealous but I never let them know that.  Then one day some other friends asked me to go play golf with them, so I did.  As is often the case with hockey players, golf came very naturally to me.  While I hit some horrible shots, I also crushed a few drives.  One in particular prompted a player in the group ahead of us to say “who’s the Greg Norman back there?”  Well, I was hooked after that.   My passion turned to golf.  I joined our local country club and played or practiced every single day.  At that point I was seventeen.  By the time I was nineteen I was asked to try out for the golf team at Rutgers University.  I was blessed to play varsity golf for four years at Rutgers.  That time produced some of my favorite memories.  Not to mention forging lifelong friendships.