Track and Field Alumnus Tom Matta Believes Balance is Key

After representing Carnegie Mellon University as a thrower on the track and field team from 2002-2006, alumnus Tom Matta graduated with two school records and a master’s degree in business administration. Matta went on to become COO and co-founder of StatEasy and a competitor in Bikram yoga.

In 2005, Matta set his first school record when he tossed a 35-pound weight 17.08 meters (56’0.5”) during the indoor season. The following spring, he registered a mark of 52.70 meters (172’11”) in the hammer throw outdoors to set his second school record.

Despite all of his success as a thrower in the field, Matta doesn’t feel the need to focus on those records.

“I don’t think about the records as much as I think about the team experiences,” Matta explained.

Of the many memories that Matta has from his experiences on the track and field team, one of his favorites involves a simple t-shirt.  For the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship meet in 2005, the team decided to have a competition: if the field scored more points than the track, head coach Dario Donatelli agreed to have shirts made that read, ‘Carnegie Mellon University Field and Track.’

“I can remember that everyone on the team had an amazing meet,” Matta recalled. “And the field ended up scoring more than the track.”

Matta calls his field and track shirt “one of his prized possessions.” 

Not only does Matta hold two school records, but in the spring of 2012 he was also selected to Carnegie Mellon’s UAA 25th Anniversary men’s track and field team. 

“It was an honor to be selected to the [Carnegie Mellon] UAA 25th Anniversary team,” Matta commented.

A ceremony was held to honor and announce the anniversary teams and Matta was able to reconnect with old friends, teammates, and other alumni.

“I am so glad that I was able to attend the ceremony because it was really cool to get to see and meet some of the athletic legends from the 1980s and 1990s,” Matta said. “You hear these people’s names, but you never get to know who they are without introduction.”

Without the track and field team, Matta would not have the ties to Carnegie Mellon that he continues to hold now.

“The Carnegie Mellon athletic experience was amazing because it created emotional ties to the school that wouldn’t have been there otherwise,” Matta said.

There are many members of the staff that Matta remains in touch with as well as the friends he made during his time on the track team at Carnegie Mellon.

“You develop relationships and you want to continue to keep in touch and remain a part of the Carnegie Mellon athletic community,” Matta continued. “I love what the department is doing now with the e-mail updates and social media fan pages.”

Matta may be a fan of the newer social media aspect of Carnegie Mellon athletics because as the COO and co-founder of StatEasy, an integrated stats and video software used for sports, social media plays an important role in the company.

“Imagine if at the end of every basketball game each player received an update on Facebook with a personal highlight video automatically generated by software,” Matta explained. “That is what StatEasy offers.”

Matta became a co-founder in 2011 and the StatEasy software uses statistics to breakdown the video of sporting events. 

“StatEasy is currently focused on high school athletics because most high schools don’t have a simple and effective statistic solution that handles both stats and video together,” Matta said.

The company seems to be gearing its software to the correct audience, as attendance at high school sporting events in 2012 was approximately 500 million people, which is more than the combined amount of attendance at professional and collegiate events.

“High school sports are a huge part of American culture. How cool is it to create a platform that can capture all that content from the sporting events and then power social media with the video and statistics?” Matta asked.

Matta was a part of the integrated program at Carnegie Mellon and during his undergraduate years studied engineering and then continued to get his MBA, all while travelling with the track and field team.

His mentor at the time encouraged Matta to work for a small startup company after graduation for two years, then move on to a large company for two years, and then figure out what he really wanted to do. Matta took the advice and ran with it.

“I am learning a lot,” Matta explained of his experience at StatEasy. “There is so much to do in terms of building a business, having the right product, understanding competition, finding your place in the marketplace, marketing, and sales.”

With a rough and rigorous academic life at Carnegie Mellon and listening to his mentor’s advice in the working world, Matta is enjoying the challenge of StatEasy.

“Without Carnegie Mellon University, I would not have been able to have, or been prepared for, such amazing opportunities,” Matta reflected.

Constantly having to find balance during his time at Carnegie Mellon certainly aided in the balance he has today. 

“It is hard to find balance, especially at CMU, but being a part of sports forces you to,” Matta explained. “Although my schoolwork was extremely difficult, I don’t know that I would have made it through without CMU athletics as the center of my life.”

After graduating, Matta wanted to keep in shape and after so much endurance training; he found balance in Bikram yoga. 

“After I graduated, I wanted to do something to keep in shape because unfortunately throwing is not something that is a lifestyle sport,” Matta continued. “You can’t graduate and then just go throw some shot put in a parking lot.”

Matta decided to get into some endurance.  He did a few marathons and competed in an Iron Man competition in 2009. 

After all that, Matta was feeling a little beat up, which is when he found a Groupon for something called Bikram yoga.

“I fell in love with it, it is absolutely amazing,” Matta exclaimed. “The thing about Bikram yoga is that it isn’t what people typically think about yoga. It is a real workout.”

Bikram yoga takes place in a 104-degree room with around 90% humidity.

“Your heart just races at different areas of the workout and you really are sore afterwards,” Matta said.

In 2012, Matta competed and took fourth place in the Pennsylvania Asana Yoga Cup and is looking forward to the next time he will be able to compete.

“As a collegiate athlete, I needed something a little more intense, so Bikram was a good experience for me,” Matta noted.

It is clear that the Carnegie Mellon student-athlete experience was very helpful in helping Matta find a balance and continue that balance after graduation.

“I really miss CMU,” Matta said.

Matta still attends sporting events on campus and keeps up with the teams online, because the second he began competing for the Tartans, he knew it would always be a part of him.