Fondy flourishing his senior year

"Soccer means everything to me," said Fondy, the Daily Journal's Athlete of the Week. "I can't imagine what my life would be without it."

In a 1-0 win over Menlo-Atherton last week, Fondy jumped high for a beautiful header to clinch the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division championship. The high-flying center forward has scored 13 goals and been so impressive that he's even surprised his own coach.

"Coming off what he went through last year, I did not really expect this out of him," Burlingame coach Fred Cesano said.

What Fondy endured in his junior season was nothing short of a nightmare. Shortly before the high school season started, Fondy tore his right quadriceps while playing for his club team. At the time, he didn't think much of it.

"I thought it was the typical banging of someone's knees and that I'd go off and be back in five minutes," he said. "Later on, I could barely move my leg."

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Fondy tried to play through the pain initially, but after a while, it was apparent he was only making his condition worse. No surgery or rehabilitation was required, but he had to rest for three long months.

"That was eating me up inside," he said. "I wanted to play but there was nothing I could do."

Fondy came back near the end of the season but was a shadow of his old self, lacking the conditioning and game experience to show his stuff. He played in a couple of games but was never a factor.

Fast forward to this year. Completely healthy, Fondy is wreaking havoc on opposing defenders.

With a rare combination of speed, size and instincts, Fondy is a threat to score or assist on a goal whenever he's around the ball. Fondy has such excellent footwork that you don't realize how fast he is until he's blown past another defender. Fondy said his injury helped him in one major aspect in that it forced him to practice exclusively kicking the ball with his left leg while his right was healing.

"I've gained an appreciation for being healthy," he said. "It's been pretty sweet coming back from last year and being able to play now. Whenever I'm going at someone I think I can get by them."

Said Cesano: "Matt has great speed with the ball. He's scored or assisted in nine of our last 10 games, and he can beat one, two or three players at a time. He's really come out of nowhere, and in my opinion, he's the best forward I've seen in the league."

Fondy's long journey back to prep stardom is nearly complete. Burlingame never wavered in winning the Bay Division championship, suffering its only loss in league action to San Mateo on the last day of the regular season when it had already clinched the title. If Fondy can lead Burlingame to a Central Coast Section championship, he'll go down as one of the school's latest great soccer talents.

"We're going into CCS with an attitude to win it all," he said. "I actually think the (San Mateo) loss was good for us. I think everyone was mad because they lost the undefeated (league) season, so that's going to make us work that much harder. We practiced this morning (Saturday) and worked our asses off."

Fondy said there's a good chance he'll play for UC-Santa Cruz, although there's a slight chance he might play for a Division I program. Fondy said Stanford was interested in him and asked for his transcripts. With a 3.5 GPA and 1,910 score on his SAT, Fondy's prospects looked solid. However, it wasn't enough to qualify for Stanford's rigorous academic standards.

"The (Stanford) head coach told me it was too bad for both of us," Fondy said. "I was disappointed but I'm looking toward the future, and I'll know wherever I go I'll be playing and having fun."

Fondy has come a long way. He credits his uncle, Jeff Reicher, for keeping his spirits afloat while he was injured.

"My uncle is a mentor to me," Fondy said. "When I got hurt he kept telling me that I was a great soccer player."

Now it shows.