Bragging on MattL

[ToddL]

Ski Season 2022 is winding down. As I look back on this year, I am reminded about how lucky I am to have such a great son. Please excuse my proud dad post, but I want to brag on @MattL for a bit. He's become quite a leader in our sport.

What does an outstanding leader do? He or she enables their team to succeed, grow, and persevere! That is what Matthew Leach has done since his start with the Texas State University (TXST) Water Ski Team. Did you know that TXST Water Ski team added 20 new members in 2022, 11 of those new members competed in NCWSA tournaments for the first time this year? Did you know that at SCR Regionals 2022, TXST competitors skied 16 Personal Best Tournament performances??? One would assume that only the new skiers got PBs, but in fact, Matthew Leach skied a slalom PB that tournament. TXSU achieved all of this despite losing access to their training site for over 1 year during COVID, losing all but a couple of existing competitive-experienced skiers, losing all financial support from the university, and many other hurdles. Their team leadership nearly completely turned over in 2020/2021. The only remaining officer was Matthew Leach, Team Captain. Matthew had to negotiate a new contract with their host site, SMRR. Matthew also served as SCR Regionals Tournament Director for 2022 and 2021 Regionals (when they had to move the site from Houston to Austin the day before due to flooding!). In both SCR events, the skiers proclaimed the tournaments as huge successes both competitively and in terms of camaraderie. Matthew serves as primary coach for the team and the interface between the SMMR site and the team. He is also as NCWSA SCR Membership committee representative. Matthew is a rated official 3 event judge, 3 event scorer, rated safety official, and trained driver. Despite missing team placement by only 80 team points to qualify for Nationals hosted at their home site, Matthew showed up to help work the event anytime he wasn’t in classes. His team is constantly putting out positive posts on Instagram and social media. This team is rebuilding fast and furiously, and Matthew is the driving force. He should be recognized for his undeniable commitment to growing this sport.

Please join me in encouraging Matthew to continue to be and grow as an ambassador for competitive water skiing.

[ETskier]

Kudos Matt. We need more good stories like this. Collegiate might be a seperate sport division, but it's 3 EVENT, our bread and butter, directly connected to AWSA.

[jjackkrash]

College skiing is where it's at. A big tip of the hat to @MattL.

[lpskier]

Way to go, Matt!

[Cooper_Trelawney]

Go Bobcats! Or....as they say now....Eat em up Cats!@ToddL I would be happy to meet your son and offer to share a +/- 30 year synipoisis of the skiing Bobcats with the current team. Lots of history and traditions...

[rackhamore]

I see Matt on the lake all the time and he's a rockstar!

[customski]

Was he still skiing the 16 Radar at the Collegiate Nationals this year? I don’t know Matt but i saw one of those skis out and about..

[6balls]

Keep it up, dude, but also find and groom your replacement and make sure to have repeatable instructions/processes/procedures in place to pass down. I've seen teams flourish during great leadership like yours but then fall afterwards when the dynamic leader is no longer running the show (businesses too). Great work and @ToddL thanks for sharing

[ToddL]

@customski - yes. However, he has bumped up to a 2020 Vapor Pro since then.

[ToddL]

Please consider voting for @MattL for NCWSA Male Leader of the Year:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScown1CBUO9G8LgRusmFnmwWIosCJTSL7KpjjLgNzNuUS813A/viewform