PlayUltimate Contributors - Matt McCabe

Name: Matt McCabe
High School Team: St. Joe's Prep (Philadelphia)
College: University of Pittsburgh
Currently Living in: Pitt / Philly
Years Playing: 5
First Heard of Ultimate: 9th Grade
Ultimate Accomplishments: Started high school team at SJP, selected as PHUEL All-Star twice, received PHUEL Spirit of the Game award 2005, Prep reached the PA State quarterfinals and PHUEL semifinals in 2005
Favorite Tournament: playing in PA State champs was pretty awesome, and watching Mid-Atlantic Club Regionals was also pretty cool.
Accomplishments in Regards to Journalism: I currently work as an editor for the Pitt News (daily collegiate newspaper), received a Catholic Standard&Times award for an article i wrote in high school, yada yada
Mentors/Role Models: Mike Panna, Rosser, all the OLD SAG guys, and the current Pitt team


I was first introduced to ultimate on my first day of school freshman year. We had orientation activities to get to know fellow students and one of the activities happened to be playing ultimate on the front lawn of the school (a patch of grass maybe 15 by 25 yards - surrounded by concrete and the rest of North Philadelphia). I had never experienced anything quite like it, but i picked it up easily enough, and occasionally from that point on would play in the front yard with friends. One of whom was Mike Panna, a freshman like me who loved the game. However, he was unlike me in the fact that he had a flick, hammer, scoober, knew how to cut, knew what a force was, knew what zone was, etc. His older brother, Chris had played for Scranton and went on to play for Philly's open club team, which was then Rage.

So over the years Mike and I continued to play, or rather he played and taught me a hell of alot of what i know, and we decided to start a formal team at the beginning of our junior year. In the fall of 2003, we played in our first tournament, and i played in my first game of organized high school ultimate. It was sweet. We got creamed for the most part, but our team was athletic and by the time our class graduated we had a team of 30+ athletes and the Prep had become a perennial contender within PHUEL.

After I graduated i attended the Philadelphia Ultimate Camp, where i was taught that what i thought i knew, was in reality virtually nothing about the game. After that week though i left with some significantly more solid fundamentals. In August i began school at the University of Pittsburgh, where i tried out for and made the A team. Since then i have participated in 5 tournaments in 4 different states, including the Classic City Classic in Georgia. Recently I was elected President of the team, so yay for beaurocracy.

Hopefully that provides you with a significant enough background into my ultimate career. I hope you enjoy the site, and come back often, we are always looking to add contributors (if you are interested email us at playultimateblog@gmail.com), and eventually hope to have extensive coverage of high school ultimate from all over the country.

To view information about the professional Matthew McCabe, feel free to check out this site.