USF Athletics

Autistic Team Manager Matthews an Inspiration to the Bulls

February 14, 2019

NCAA Autism Awareness and Acceptance Weekend Game
EVENT: USF men's basketball vs. Temple
DAY/TIME: Saturday, 6 p.m.
LOCATION: Yuengling Center, Tampa
TICKETS: USFBullsTix.com
 

By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer

TAMPA, FEB. 14, 2019 – USF men's basketball will bring attention to an important cause during Saturday's home game against Temple that takes place on NCAA Autism Awareness and Acceptance Weekend.

Autism is a developmental disorder the Bulls are well aware of because it affects numerous people who are near and dear to the program, including team manager Brandon Matthews.

"Everybody is valuable," head coach Brian Gregory said. "If you give them an opportunity to show that value, they can make a positive impact and Brandon has done that."

Matthews, 20, has been bringing high energy and infectious positivity to the ever-improving program since fall 2017, when his family took a leap of faith and moved to Tampa from Pittsburgh. Fast-forward to today and the Matthews family feels right at home in a place that gives Brandon all the resources he needs to be successful in life.

"The USF piece has been the link that's made all of it come true," said Brandon's stepmother, Jules.

Jules credits her husband, Jason, for making it all possible and it was his connection to the Bulls that made things come to fruition. A former standout guard at Pitt from 1987-91, Jason first learned about the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities at USF back in 2014, when he got a call from good friend and former Bulls head coach Orlando Antigua.

"My wife started doing research that day and couldn't believe what she found online with the resources and things of that nature," Jason said.

By June 2014, the Matthews family toured the USF campus and Brandon, a ninth grader at the time, started making plans to take up Antigua on his offer of becoming the Bulls' new team manager. For the next few years, Brandon kept improving in life and sports, earning honor roll accolades as a student and stealing the show late in games as a basketball sharpshooter for Obama Academy, his high school in Pittsburgh which had a huge impact on his development.

 "They'd call him, 'The Machine,'" said Jules of Brandon, who would put up about 35,000 shots in the offseason to perfect his craft.

Despite a staff change at USF, Brandon's team manager job was still there for him after Gregory became USF's new head coach in 2017.

Gregory and Jason, both coached in college by Paul Evans at Navy and Pitt, already knew each other at the time and also had a connection in new USF assistant Tom Herrion, who worked for the Pitt program from 2007-10. Herrion, the co-creator of Autism Speaks Coaches Powering Forward, has an autistic son named Robert and told Jason that Gregory would gladly honor Antigua's offer to Brandon.

"He loves our team and we love him," Gregory said.

Nearly two seasons later, Gregory says Brandon is "one of us" and he's continuing to grow in his expanding role with the Bulls. What started with running the clock at practice and helping out in team huddles at games has turned into tech-savvy Brandon becoming team video coordinator Spencer Smith's right-hand man.

"It's definitely noticeable when Brandon is not around," said Smith. "He's always smiling. He's always in a good mood and you can tell he's happy to be here."

Fortunately for the Bulls, Brandon is with them most of each week and student-athletes always look forward to seeing the inspirational young man they affectionately call, "Bran."

"I love having Brandon around. We've been climbing the ladder since last year and he's been with us every step of the way," sophomore guard/forward Justin Brown said. "He's pretty much a guy on the team with us. He's here for the journey and we're just happy to have him. I hope he's here the rest of my college career."

All of this is a welcomed sight for the Matthews family that includes Brandon's younger sisters, Taylor, 15, and Marina, 5, who enjoy seeing their big brother is his basketball element on the USF campus.

"We go down Fowler, we make the left on Collins and he just lights up like a Christmas tree. We pull into the Muma Center parking lot and he doesn't even wait for me to put the car in park," Jason said. "He's out of the car, grabs his backpack and goes into the facility like, 'Dad, get of here. I'm on my own. Bye, see you later.' He feels the love in that environment."

'We're USF, USF, USF'
The Matthews family loves living in Tampa, where Brandon is benefitting from resources his parents searched for since he was 14.

"We knew we would have to leave Pennsylvania for his continued success," Jules said.

Success really ramped up in 2015, when doctors identified rising dopamine levels in Brandon's brain as sparks for his speech patterns. Since then, Brandon has been undergoing brain development therapy sessions to make him less reliable on dopamine levels. 

Brain training started with family trips from Pittsburgh all the way down to South Florida for "boot camps."
 

"Jason and grandma flew to South Florida, stayed for two weeks and took him twice a day for therapy," Jules said. "In the middle, he'd go somewhere and shoot basketball."

This went on for two years while the Matthews family was helped by love ones' contributions of money and timeshares that assisted with what insurance wouldn't cover. Through the years, help has come in a lot of different ways from a little different people.

"When you have an autistic child, it's everybody that gets involved," Jules said. "It's beyond family and extended family. It's the friends, it's the teachers, classmates, teammates, coaches, bus drivers. Even the haters have been a part because they tell us, 'No,' and we go, 'Watch Brandon go through you, over you, around you and show you how wrong you are.'"

Once the Matthews family moved to Tampa in 2017, the brain training process continued with Jason taking Brandon to South Florida every Monday for two therapy sessions before they drove right back so Brandon could be in school on Tuesdays.

"He's making phenomenal progress," Jason said. "The data shows it and we see it on a daily basis. He talks to his sisters and he talks to us."

In an effort to become consistently verbal, Brandon has had more than 140 therapy sessions since July 2015. The Matthews family is thankful Brandon now gets to complete them in Tampa thanks to an office opening up in Westchase. In addition to the therapy, Brandon's progress is boosted by his strict diet – no wheat, dairy or high-fructose corn syrup – that he's been on for 11 years.

"Physicians, after-school program, therapy – anything ever pursued for him to better himself and take his next step in life has always worked out," Jason said.

 

A huge bonus for Brandon is having about six different autism assistance programs he can participate in at USF and Tampa since first enrolling in the Skills Center when the Matthews family moved to Florida. The USF Research and Robotics Center helped Brandon prepare for his USF men's basketball role thanks to virtual reality job training. Florida Vocational Rehabilitation helped set that up and its partner, The Grow Group, currently manages his day-to-day job training on campus.

Through the Grow Group, on-campus internships are possible for Brandon, who also plans to complete four different technology certifications to put himself in position for future employment. Next school year, Brandon will participate in STAGES - Successful Transition After Graduation For Exceptional Students - which a School District of Hillsborough County Transition Program located at the USF College of Education.

"Our hope and wish is that Brandon can literally spend the rest of his life on campus," Jason said. "Professionally and academically, there's opportunities and there's an opportunity for him to be a part of the basketball program."

Looking back at the journey to USF and Tampa, the Matthews family will always thank basketball for making a dream become a happy reality for Brandon.

"We pinch ourselves and go, 'Are we really living here?' Is this really where we live?" Jules said. "We look at Brandon and go, 'Thanks, B.'"

USF men's basketball certainly appreciates having Brandon uplift the program each day as a very valuable Bull.

"When I'm not having that good of a day, I always look to him," Justin Brown said. "He's always feeling the same way. He's always happy to be here and I've got to realize I have a great opportunity that I can't take for granted."

That same loving sentiment goes out to Herrion's son, Robert, and USF men's basketball staff assistant Barbara Riffe's two autistic grandsons, Hayden and Mason Finley, who cheer on the Bulls at almost every home game.

"They help us just as much as everyone else does. They come in with a great attitude. They're always looking out for us and supporting us in everything we do," Brown said. "We're really just thankful for all of them."
 
About USF Men's Basketball
The USF men's basketball team is led by head coach Brian Gregory. On March 22, 2017, Gregory was introduced as the 10^th head coach in program history. He previously led programs at Georgia Tech (2011-16) and Dayton (2003-11). Gregory spent nearly a decade as an assistant coach under Michigan State's Hall of Fame head coach Tom Izzo and helped the Spartans win the 2000 NCAA National Championship. Gregory brings nearly 250 career head coaching wins and six postseason appearances, including the 2010 NIT Championship, to Tampa. In his first season at the helm of the Bulls, Gregory led the team to its first 10-plus win season since 2013-14. 

USF has retired three numbers in its 47-year history: Chucky Atkins (12), Charlie Bradley (30) and Radenko Dobras (31). The Bulls have earned three NCAA tournament bids and appeared in the NIT eight times.

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