Matthew Mike

Sitting on the edge of a stadium seat, eyes wide and soaking in the action of his brother's hockey game, a young Matthew Mike fell in love with the sport. Today, he has his own inline hockey experiences under the belt and is striving towards playing ice hockey in the near future. A member of the 3 Rivers Inline Hockey team, Matthew has competed against in-league teams fall through winter. He hopes to be a part of the Valley school developmental ice hockey team and to one-day play for the varsity team.

Family has always been important to the Mike family and Matthew's two older brothers, Kevin and David, have always been an example to him. He watched his brothers play sports as a young boy and followed their cleat prints into his own sporting experiences. He started in T-ball through the little league when he was five years old and worked his way through the baseball teams. He has also played soccer on the school team since he was seven years old.

School has always been something enjoyable for Matthew, and he's approaching his 8th grade year in the New Kensington/Arnold School District. He is an excellent student that is well liked by both his teachers and his peers. His peaceful and cheerful personality and conscientiousness in school has enabled him to excel in the academic world. Matthew was a straight A student this year and in the past has never seen less than a B. Matthew is a member of the Student Council and participated in a workshop where students learned how to work together as a team. During the school year he helps clean up the garbage outside the school and decorates lockers during the sports seasons.

After school and during the summers, Matthew also has a job to keep him busy. After strapping on a pair of roller blades, he hits the pavement to deliver papers. Like his brothers before him, Matthew has held a paper route for about two years. Matthew is also very active in the youth group at St. Margaret Mary's in Lower Burrell and will be going to Sandcastle this year with the group. He has also helped out with the summer Bible School as a classroom aide and helped with the church's spaghetti dinner.

Matthew enjoys going to Pirate games with his family and friends as well as going to car shows with his dad. His dad used to have a car that he showed but now they just go to see the other cars. He is also looking forward to this year's family vacation, which is completely about family. Matthew will be going to North Carolina this year along with twenty-one of his closest family members. They will be renting a large house and staying together.

Judging from the positive imprint that Matthew left in the lives of those that he touched this year in school and the investment that he's made in each of the things he's picked up and put his hands to, the upcoming year should bring him even more success. Matthew lives in New Kensington with his parents, Patricia and Stephen, and his two brothers.