[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 45 (Thursday, March 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4161-S4162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      UVM CENTER MATT SHEFTIC CENTERS HIS PRIORITIES ON HIS FAMILY

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to a young 
Vermonter whose priorities are in the right place. Matt Sheftic is the 
center for the University of Vermont basketball team, the first 
Catamounts team to reach the NCAA tournament.
  Before choosing to play basketball for Coach Tom Brennan, Matt was a 
standout for the Essex Junction Hornets, leading them to the 1998 
Vermont State Championship. He was a first team all-state selection 
twice, and in 1999 was named Vermont's Mr. Basketball by the Burlington 
Free Press, and was Vermont's Gatorade Player of the Year. At UVM, he 
also serves his country as a member of the U.S. Army ROTC program.
  Aside from his successes on the basketball court, in the classroom, 
and in the ROTC program, Matt is first and foremost dedicated to his 
family. When his sister Lauren battled an unexpected serious illness, 
Matt left the basketball team to help care for her. His priorities 
speak volumes about him as an outstanding young man, about the 
closeness of the Sheftic family, and about the wonderful job his 
parents have done raising him.
  Matt Sheftic's story is told in an article by Joe Burris in the March 
20 edition of the Boston Globe. Today, in honor of Matt Sheftic and his 
family, and in memory of Lauren Sheftic, I ask that the article ``For 
Vermont's Sheftic, family came first'' be printed into the Record.
  The article follows:

[[Page S4162]]

  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Boston Globe, Mar. 20, 2003]

       Comeback player; for Vermont's Sheftic, Family Came First

                            (By Joe Burris)

       Burlington, VT.--Big men get nervous, too. Vermont center 
     Matt Sheftic--a 22-year-old junior with Jack Sikma's shooting 
     touch and Paul Bunyan's body--stood on the sideline moments 
     before the Catamounts' America East final against Boston 
     University, pondering how he would play in the biggest game 
     of his career. Worry set in; Sheftic's melon-sized calves 
     trembled.
       But he knew it wasn't too late to dial heaven. As he often 
     does during the national anthem, Sheftic called upon his 
     sister Lauren--who died in 2001 at age 18 from a brain 
     aneurysm after a courageous struggle that lasted nearly a 
     year--and asked if she would loan him ``the strength she 
     showed'' for the next two hours.
       Sheftic missed his first shot, with 18:04 left. With 17:25 
     left, he turned the ball over. In fact, he didn't score until 
     the 11:01 mark of the first half, on his second shot of the 
     game. By then Vermont had raced out to a double-digit lead 
     and Sheftic began to settle; legs that once trembled became 
     sturdy enough to help carry his team.
       With 8:33 left, he scored on an up-and-under post move. BU 
     left him open at the top of the key with 5:43 left and he 
     capitalized with a basket. He scored two more soft-stroke 
     baskets to finish the first half with 10 points on 5-for-10 
     shooting.
       Over the last 9:41, when BU rallied and subsequently forged 
     ahead, Sheftic was the Catamounts' go-to guy, scoring 8 
     points. His poise helped keep Vermont close in a contest at a 
     time when the partisan BU crowd was loudest.
       ``After I hit a couple shots, I really settled down and I 
     started to get my confidence, and all of my nervousness in my 
     legs just left,'' said Sheftic.
       Vermont's David Hehn won it for the Catamounts with a 
     fadeaway baseline basket with 5.6 seconds left, but Sheftic 
     was named most outstanding player, scoring 23 points on 10-
     for-17 shooting and adding 6 boards to lead UVM to its first 
     NCAA Tournament bid. The Catamounts are the 16th seed in the 
     West and will meet top-seeded Arizona in Salt Lake City 
     today.
       ``I was just thinking that she was with me at the [high 
     school] state championship game, and just how awesome it 
     would have been for her to be there for [last Saturday's] 
     game,'' said Sheftic about Lauren, who was three years 
     younger. ``But I knew she was watching anyway, and I really 
     felt like she was there with me.''
       For Sheftic, his involvement with Vermont basketball this 
     season is a far cry from last season. He enters today's 
     Arizona game as the team's second-leading scorer (10.8 points 
     per game) and rebounder (6.4 rebounds) and is third with 54 
     assists. The Essex Junction, Vt., resident who chose to stay 
     home rather than accept lures from big-name programs such as 
     Providence and Southern California has led UVM in scoring in 
     five games and in rebounding in six. Moreover, the 6-foot-8-
     inch, 260-pound widebody has been a team leader. He has 
     helped to alleviate pressure from other players--including 
     sophomore Taylor Coppenrath, the America East Player of the 
     Year.
       ``We had a situation where when somebody said something 
     about Taylor, that he wasn't that good, Sheftic became his 
     big brother and his protector,'' said coach Tom Brennan. ``It 
     was really a neat thing to watch.''
       ``I don't know if I've consciously taken it upon myself to 
     be a leader,'' said Sheftic. ``I try to help out the team 
     wherever I can.''
       Last season, Sheftic didn't play at all.
       Lauren took ill during winter 2000. Sheftic, the oldest of 
     five children and the only male, endured the 2000-01 season, 
     but during the fall of last year, weeks before the start of 
     the season, he decided to take a redshirt to spend more time 
     with his ailing sister.
       ``It was really an unbelievable time for me,'' said 
     Sheftic. ``Thinking back on it now, it was like a dream, a 
     nightmare. My sister ended up with a brain aneurysm and was 
     really sick, and we had a really tough season the previous 
     year, when we finished 12-17. I'm a business major, and my 
     classes are really tough.
       ``Making a decision to leave the team, it just became too 
     much for me. I just felt totally overloaded. I felt like I 
     was drowning, like I couldn't get up to the surface to 
     breathe with my school work, going back and forth to the 
     hospital, trying to help my family out, trying to be there 
     for my parents.
       ``You just didn't know what was going to happen. Phone 
     calls from my mother would range from, `Lauren's making great 
     progress today,' to `We took 10 steps back today, she's sick 
     again.' It was an emotional roller coaster I was on, as well 
     as the season, just trying to get up for games, when I felt 
     like all my emotions were with my sister.''
       Sheftic went to Brennan's office and relayed his desire to 
     sit out the season. ``He was looking across at me and saying, 
     `T.B., I just can't do it,' '' said Brennan. ``They were 
     very, very close, and it really ripped his heart out. He told 
     me, `I really need to spend time with her. Basketball doesn't 
     mean as much to me.' ''
       During his sister's battle, he battled his own sense of 
     grief while helping his three youngest sisters cope. Then, he 
     said, his sister suffered her biggest setback.
       ``She went in to get a routine shunt in her head, which is 
     a procedure where they drain pressure in her head,'' Sheftic 
     said. ``And when they went to drill into her head, they hit 
     her brain with the drill, and it caused another brain 
     aneurysm. So almost a year later, we were in the exact same 
     spot.
       ``We had to make a decision. My mom had spent every single 
     day of her recovery with Lauren. And one day [before the 
     surgery], Lauren told her that if anything like this happened 
     again she didn't want to do it again, because it was so 
     painful for her and such a long road.'' Sheftic was at his 
     sister's bedside when she died shortly after the surgery.
       ``I think my family has become so much more important to 
     me,'' said Sheftic. ``Family is always important, but I don't 
     know: You sometimes start to take your family for granted. 
     They'd be at my basketball games and I loved the support, but 
     I guess you don't realize how good it is to go home until 
     you've gone through some kind of adversity with your 
     family.''
       Sheftic returned this season and picked up where he left 
     off as a sophomore, when he averaged 10 points per game. In 
     his first game back, he recorded a double-double: 20 points 
     and 10 boards against Eastern Michigan. That was followed by 
     a 22-point, six-assist contest against Albany, where he went 
     10 for 10 from the floor.
       ``Sheftic as a recruit was a star. When we got Sheftic, it 
     was like, `Wow, this is a tremendous recruit,' '' said 
     Brennan. ``And yet he has never said, `I need the ball more. 
     You're not running plays for me.' He has fit in really well 
     since he's been back.''
       Said Sheftic: ``Feeling as much pain as I did that year, 
     I'm so much more thankful and appreciative of having good 
     times and friends and family, and these games mean everything 
     to me.''

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