Dunbar Senior Takes Tennis Game to Notre Dame
KU Scholar Athlete of the Month: Matt Halpin
School: Dunbar High
Grade: 12
Sports: Tennis
Academics: Matt has a 4.6 weighted GPA, took nine A.P. classes and scored 31 on his ACT
Parents: Hilary & Dermot
In Halpin family tradition, each child accompanies dad on a trip after high school graduation. Ben, the oldest, chose China. Rosie picked Paris. This year, Matt, the youngest, graduated from Dunbar High and not surprisingly selected London.
The capital of England has Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, but to Matt, the two-time Kentucky state tennis champion, London in July means only one thing – Wimbledon.
He realized a lifelong dream when his father, Dermot, landed two Centre Court tickets for a full day of tennis in the round of 16 that featured Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
“It was everything I thought it would be,” Matt said. “The patrons in suits and ties. Ivy on the walls. Strawberries and cream and when you enter there was a string quartet playing.”
Not to mention the players themselves.
“Seeing the pros live was great. Tennis looks slower on TV. Everything was faster and louder in person,” he said.
Matt grew up in a tennis family, grabbing a racquet at 3 and playing in his first tournament at 6 – against players twice his age.
At Dunbar, he won the State title as a sophomore and a senior, and advanced to the quarterfinals as a freshman and the semifinals as a junior. This year the 6-foot-3, 180-pound 18-year-old was named Mr. Kentucky Tennis.
In U.S. Tennis Association play, Matt competed coast to coast, from California to Florida and 20 other states.
He’s the No. 1 ranked player in Kentucky and has reached No. 4 in the Southern Region.
He was a 5-star recruit who accepted a scholarship to play at Notre Dame, where he will study business.
For his first two years at Dunbar, Matt was a member of the academically demanding Math Science Technology Center program.
He left the program after his sophomore year because his busy tennis schedule caused him to miss a few days of school every month.
Still, he graduated with 4.6 weighted GPA, took nine A.P. classes and scored 31 on his ACT.
A National Honor Society and National Spanish Honor Society member, he also was named a high school tennis All-American as a junior and senior.
“Matt is a very organized and hard-working,” his mother Hilary said. “Many nights he worked past midnight to get all his work done.”
He chose Notre Dame for its well regarded business school and its top 20 tennis program.
“The campus is beautiful and I really liked the guys on the tennis team.”