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Northeast Suburbcm' Life All
Like father, like son for Sylvester By James Weber Contributor
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Matt Sylvester is a junior on the Moeller High School varsity basketball team. When he scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half to keep the Crusaders in the game during a 65-56 home loss to archbishop-rival Elder on Dec. 17, he inspired memories of Moeller's three all-time basketball All-Americans. Byron Larkin and Bobby Brannen, who went on to star at crosstown rivals Xavier and the University of Cincinnati, respectively, are two of th em. . . The first, though .• was Mtk~ Sylvester, who earned the AII-A~ertcan honor m. 1970 and went on to play p~ofess10nal ~ask~tball tn lt~ly. . In that time, the Mtami Town_shtp restde~t fath~red Matt, who has developed mto. Moeller .s 17admg scorer a?d best player tn w~at. ·~ a trans!· tlon ye.ar fol.lowmg the Crusaders Dtvtston I state ch~~ptonshtp l~st March.. , , .. !"fY father Is. every!hmg to ",'le, M~tt s~td. He s been the btggest tnfluence tn my hfe. I ve learned everything I know from him. He's my role model." The younger Sylvester played, but was not a key part of last year's senior-loaded team. Now on a team with just one senior, he has stepped up to carry the load for the Crusaders. who have struggled to a 1·4 ~!tart entering a trip to Hilton Head, S.C. for a tournament this week.
"I like that a lot," he said. "I want to step up. We need to learn how to finish games. We get fluste_red at the end an~ we ~on't ~ak~ the plays." ~.. ke S_ylvester smd h1s son 1s m a perfect po~~t!O~ t~1s year. . . , . Th1~ Is.. a ~ood developmg year for h1m, Mtke satd. He ~ ~~en forc,ed to. step ~p and_ take a lot of respo~sibthty. ~e s domg thmgs differ· ently than he dtd before. . Sylvester a~erages ~ore than 20 pmnts a ~arne and gets. them tn a vanety of ways. ~e can hit the t~r~e-potnter and attack the basket With equal preCISIOn. "My favorite thing would have to be scoring," he said. "I like the competitive edge and the competitive feeling. My offense is going real well. I'm pretty happy with how my game is going." Matt Sylvester plays like someone who has been learning the game all his life. It should be no surprise to discover that is exactly how things have developed. The Sylvester story starts with Mike's tour of duty in the pro ranks. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and in baseball by the Chicago Cubs as well. He chose to go to Italy and stayed there for 17 years. Mike played with Joe Bryant, whose son Kobe is with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, as well as legend Walt Szczerbiak, whose son Wally starred at Miami on Oxford and is now a rookie with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Mike was granted Italian citizenship and repre·
sented the country in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, where he became the only American to win a medal since the rest fell under the President Carter-led boycott. Matt spent much of his childhood overseas. "I think he's more well-rounded because of that," Mike said. "We would stay there lO months a year and he was bilingual for a while. It was a neat lifestyle. I would work two hours a day and spend the rest of the time with my kids." All of Matt's childhood was spent with a bas~ ketball in his hands, us he picked up the sport and has loved it ever since. "Since I was born I had the ball put in my hands," Matt said. "(My dad) goes to every game and every practice. He gives me a critique after every practice." Mike said his son, at 6-foot· 7, was taller than he was at that age, but Mike was 20 pounds heavier. "I wasn't as talented at·that age," Mike said. "I was introverted, yet meaner. He's an extrovert and a nice kid. I'd like for him to be nastier out there." Matt would also like to apply the lessons he learned from last year's state champs, especially those from star Mike Monserez, who is now play· ing ball at Notre Dame. "The biggest thing I learned was teamwork," Mark D. Motz/8taff Matt said. "Mike taught me a lot, he was a real Moeller Hllh School Junior Mitt lylveater (40) It followlnl In the hoopa good influence on me. Hopefully I can pass some footatepa of hit flther Mike, 1 one-time Crutldtr AII-Amerlc1n 1nd member of the Clermont County lporta Hill of F1me. of those things on to the younger guys."