MATTHEW "MATTY" BAKER

Matthey Allen Baker | Founder of Air Sponging

greg baker

Matthew Allan Baker was born at Anaheim General Hospital October 6th 1982. Matthew instantly became Matty which turned into Matty Meatball by the age of two.

Matty was also a water sport athlete like his two older brothers but was a little bored with the normal way of doing things and so there he was at age 4, the only Baker to actually fall asleep while water skiing!

Matty was introduced to soccer a few years later and fell in love with the sport. The first team he played for was the Golden Eagles at age six where he became the leading goal scorer on his team. He had a nose for the goal and would bury shots with his sweet left footed toe punches.

The next year he was drafted on to the Outlaws, a team he would finish his AYSO career with. While on the Outlaws Matty set a single season record for region 67 scoring 82 goals, who would ever guess he was only a few years away from becoming a full time goalkeeper.

In 1993 Matty joined the Clairmont Stars club where he continued his scoring ways and earned the nickname "Bear hair" because of his afro/mullet that would shake as he went to goal.

Not long after playing for the Stars Matty's interest was leaning towards defending the goal. He started messing around playing some back up keeper on his Legacy FC team and was coerced into trying out for a team called Breakaway from Pasadena. So Matty went on a trial as a goalkeeper and made the team.

Breakaway was coached by Cherif Zein and he knew how to put the pressure on immediately by signing the team up for the innagural Nike Premier Cup qualifying tournament held at Cal St. Fullerton. Breakaway made the finals and were in a penalty shootout when they called on Matty to make a save. Matty ended up making 3 saves during the shootout and putting his team into the U.S. finals tournament held at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Breakaway qualified as one of two teams in Oregon to represent t he USA in South Africa at the World Championships. Overall at the age of 14, Matty and Breakaway finished #7 out of 2,200 teams worldwide. Breakaway also won National Cup that year and forfeited their trip to the Regional tournament to go to South Africa instead. Overall Breakaway won 6 National Cups (4 in a row), 2 Regional titles, several Surf Cup and Nomads titles, League/League Cup championships, and one national final.

Matty also played on Breakaway with MLS players Ty Maurin, Brian Roberts, Mike Einsfield, and Jack Stewart. Nomar Garciaparra's brother Michael was also on the Breakaway with Matty.

While winning all of these titles Matty was apparently never good enough though to make his high school varsity team and the coach did not even know what club team he played for. So Matty did other things during his free time like play golf.

Officially known as the worst golfer to ever get a hole in one, Matty decided to make two more, totaling 3 holes in one in a span of 3 years. Matty ended up with more holes in one than birdies during the golfing faze of his life.

When his senior year in high school came Matty finally made the varsity soccer team where he helped them to one of the school's only league titles.

Once high school was over Matty avoided going to college and instead moved to Hawaii with his brother Josh where they surfed and played in a band. The band named No Bare Feet gained instant success and was on the radio in Hawaii on Star 101.9 for quite some time. No Bare Feet also recorded an album with producer Cameron Webb which helped them book shows with KROQ, Hoobastank, Sum 41, Three Doors Down, Hawthorne Heights, Pepper, Unwritten Law, and Wolfmother. However No Bare Feet broke up when Matty and his manager at the time Greg Baker decided to create So Cal Training, LLC

Another interesting fact about Matty is that he was a semi pro field goal kicker where he hit a game winning 50yd field goal and a 65yd field goal in training. Matty also made up a new water sport known as air sponging.