(Editor’s note: Throughout the school year we’ll be bringing you feature stories about high school athletes who maybe aren’t the most vocal, but lead by example and have gained the respect of coaches, teammates and opponents by grinding it out year after year. We’re proud to partner with Leeds Builders of Margate to bring you these stories of outstanding young men and women throughout South Jersey.)
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Matt Abbott didn’t step onto a football field until he was about to enter eighth grade. The second day he put on the helmet and shoulder pads, he went out and broke a kid’s collar bone.
He thought, ‘well, I could get into this.’ Not that he wanted to hurt anybody, he just felt being able to actually get out there, be physical and hit people — and take hits — was way cooler than playing sandlot football.
As a freshmen entering Holy Spirit High four years ago, Abbott was better than 6-feet tall but weighed just 140 pounds. Spartans head coach Andrew DiPasquale didn’t know what the heck to do with him. Was he a receiver? A tight end? A tall cornerback? So the Spartans’ staff just tried him out everywhere.
And he was athletic enough to play just about every position. He was a safety, but also a blocking tight end at the edge of the offensive line. He was Spirit’s Swiss Army knife.
“We didn’t really know what position Matt played when he came in, he was just a tall, skinny kid, and you put a tall, skinny kid at receiver because that’s just where tall, skinny kids go. But he’s a kid who will do anything to get on the field,” DiPasquale said. “He’s played wide receiver for us, tight end, safety. He went from the tall, skinny kid to an extension of the offensive line on a team that likes to run the ball. He’s been vital for us and he became a captain for us this year because he worked his ass off in the offseason. This summer we were talking about playing him at defensive end because he’s about 6-foot-4, and he didn’t even hesitate. He ultimately ended up going back to safety, but I think we tried him in almost every position just because he was a kid who you had to have on the field.”
“I didn’t start playing until eighth grade. I came in late in the summer — I think the first scrimmage was my second day ever playing football, and I actually broke someone’s collar bone. I came in not knowing myself what I was going to do. I tried playing receiver and that ended up working out a little bit, but defensively I was kind of just moving around everywhere. This year, I was moving everywhere from linebacker to corner. I was on the D-line as well, which is nuts,” Abbott said. “I was always big into football, I knew everything about it, just never played. But then in eighth grade I did, and it was great for me. (Coming into high school) I expected just to be on the team, hopefully play. My mindset was to play, but freshman year I was probably 140 pounds. I was a very skinny kid who was tall. I had a little bit of potential, and it panned out to where I started playing sophomore year, then junior and senior year I played full time.”
He’s no longer 140 pounds. The current senior is now 6-foot-4, 210 pounds and he helped lead Holy Spirit to a 10-2 record this fall. He finished with 12 catches for 237 yards and three touchdowns as a receiver, and on defense he really showed his versatility. He had 40 tackles, an interception, a fumble recover and 8.5 tackles-for-loss, including a pair of sacks. He could rush the passer from the edge or drop back into deep coverage on a wide receiver. He’ll graduate having put together a nice little high school football career for a kid who didn’t have any idea what the next four years would bring when he entered Holy Spirit four years ago.
“From eighth grade I was like, ‘this is pretty cool.’ I got the trust of the coaches and became the starting safety. From that point, I just always used my smarts to be able to make plays,” said Abbott, a Ventnor resident. “I was able to read everything, and I feel like that got me knowing that I could do it. It came very quickly and that’s why I was getting opportunities. In high school, I would get in there and know exactly what I’m doing. I wouldn’t do it as well as other guys, but I was able to do what I needed to do.”
What really separated Abbott from a lot of other guys was his willingness to do whatever it took to help the team — even if it meant taking himself out of the lineup.
DiPasquale said even he couldn’t believe when that happened earlier this season.
Abbott read something in the defense, but knew he wasn’t fast enough to make that particular play a big gainer. He knew somebody who was, though. Fellow receiver Emanuel Gerena.
“I understand that I’m not the fastest kid. I read something in the defense from my side of the field and I was like, ‘listen, put Emanuel in.’ He’s the fastest receiver on our team and I was like, ‘just run a hitch-and-go, that corner is bailing, chasing the inside vertical. Run it to Emanuel and he’ll score on that.’ And that’s what happened,” Abbott explained. “It’s always the team first. You obviously want to have good stats and look like the best player out there, but I was just like, ‘let’s get our best player out there to go make that play.’ Coach was like, ‘all right, let’s do it.’ And he did it, but he did seem a little shocked.”
“I found out what kind of kid he was. I forget what game it was, but he was out at receiver and he came over to the sideline and he told me I needed to get somebody faster than him at receiver on a certain route, because it could work every time. He said, ‘it won’t work if I do it because I’m not fast enough, but if we put (Gerena) in, it will work.’ I did it, and he was 100 percent right and we scored a touchdown. (Abbott) is entirely selfless and just wants to see the team succeed. I don’t know many kids who tell the coach to put someone else in because they can score. That moment told me everything I needed to know about Matt Abbott,” DiPasquale said. “That’s leading by example. I’d be lying if I said I ever had a kid come off the field and say, ‘hey, put someone else in for me.’ I guarantee the kids knew he did that because there was no other play he was off the field for. That kind of stuff is contagious, and it’s not something that even needs to be talked about, it’s just the standard here. It’s what we expect, and that’s what makes us so successful, kids like Matt.”
Another thing that separates Abbott from the average high school football player? He’s also a businessman.
“He works his tail off in the weight room. He had a great offseason (coming into this year). He’s very similar to Nick Medina, he’s just a great kid to be around. Other kids gravitate toward him, he’s an awesome kid in the school. He started a powerwashing business in the offseason,” DiPasquale said. “He’s just a hard worker, comes from a great family. He has a younger brother, Ryan, who plays for us and his older sister, Maddie, was one of the best lacrosse players Holy Spirit has ever had. I’m excited to see what he chooses to do after high school. He’s one of those kids we’re really going to miss.”
Kids like Abbott have been the backbone of Holy Spirit football for decades — those kinds of players who may initially get overlooked because of their size (or lack thereof) but just get better and work harder each year until they are standouts on the varsity level.
“It starts in the weight room. We were in there last December just building that mentality that we’re going to go out there and play whoever we’re going to play every week, and we’re going to beat them. We’re going to be more physical than them from start to finish,” Abbott explained. “The coaches preach that every single year when you walk into the weight room, they just talk about how we’re going to be the more physical team even if we don’t have the best players. We’re going to play harder than them, and that’s the biggest aspect of the game.”
“Football is more mental than anything else. We want to play the best teams, because we want to be the best. We believe we can win those games. It has nothing to do with size,” DiPasquale said. “I don’t know the last time we went into a game where we were bigger up front or had more skill on the outside, but there’s never been a time when we came off the field and I didn’t think we played our butts off and gave them everything we had. That’s just the mentality we have — it doesn’t matter who lines up against us, we’re going to give you everything we’ve got and you can either stop us or you can’t. And when your captains have that mentality, good things are going to happen.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
