A CLASSIC GAME AND A TRULY CLASSY GUY.........

A most remarkable thing happened on Saturday at Hornet Field on the Sacramento State campus. The annual Causeway Classic between the UC Davis Aggies and the CSU Sacramento Hornets, was a fantastic football game, with a terrific conclusion, resulting in a 31-28 Sac State victory in the final twenty seconds of the game. It means the Hornets have bested the Aggies two years in a row, in this 56th annual match-up between the two teams. Congratulations and Kudos to Coach Marshall Sperbeck, players Brandyn Reed and McLeod Bethel-Thompson, and the entire Hornets Team !!!!!!!!! As a proud CSUS alumnus and someone who has known and worked with Coach Bob Mattos, during my years as an undergraduate on the Sac State campus and maintained an ongoing friendship with his family since then, it was also very commendable of the Hornets team players to wear the Mattos name on the back of their jerseys Saturday,being inspired by Coach Mattos' well known pass phrase to his players, "It's time to strap it on". The Hornet players of Team 2009, wore the Mattos name on Saturday in recognition of the immense contribution Bob Mattos has made to the Sac State Football as both an outstanding player himself and as one of the Football team's great coaches in all its history.
Coach Bob Mattos is now fighting the battle of his life with brain cancer. I ask you to keep him and his family in your prayers that God will continue to grace him and them during this challenging time. In 1978 & '79, as I attended Sac State football games on campus with the Hornets being coached by Bob Mattos, I did so as a member of both the Associated Students Inc., student government and Lambda Chi Alpha social fraternity, leading me to closer contact with the Coach and the Mattos Family. In ASI, I was pleased to be in a band of student leaders like Joe Gibson, Brian Welch, Kevin Stevens, Robin Blair, among others, who were fully supportive of the exceptional work Coach Mattos was doing with our Football Team. During the year and a half I was in the Student Senate, I proudly cast my votes to help fund and support the Hornet footballers. As a founding member of Lambda Chi Alpha, little did I realize that Coach Mattos' ten/eleven year son at the time, Bruce, would a decade later join Lambda Chi at Sac State, and become my fraternity brother and personal friend. I am privileged as a priest to have officiated at Bruce's wedding to his wife, Julie. And as Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Oroville, I presided at the funerals of two of Bob Mattos' aunts, who lived in the Oroville area. That I feel so positively and strongly about Coach Mattos and his Family and my experiences with them over more than thirty years, is why my prayerful reflection led me to make Coach BOB MATTOS, today's blog focus. Thank You COACH, for, "strapping it on", productively game after game, year after year, during your five decades of playing and coaching high school and college football. The significant contribution he has made to countless players, their schools and communities, will be remembered always. I will be seeing you soon, Coach. Love + Prayers in Jesus the Lord, Fr. Troy