Matt Huffman’s legacy given new life at MHS ballpark

Matt Huffman held the world in the pocket of his baseball glove.

He was a baseball star for the Maricopa High School Rams and a top academic achiever. As a senior, Huffman earned a full-ride presidential athletic and academic scholarship to Indiana State University to play ball there.

Matt never saw a day of that scholarship, nor did he live out his dream of playing for the ISU Sycamores in Terra Haute.

His brother, Josh, found Matt dead by the side of the road one day in January 2002.

As his father, Greg Huffman, recalls, “Matt’s heart just stopped. And that’s the only explanation.”

“He never got a chance to play an inning,” he said. “He died before he went to Indiana State.”

Matt followed his brother Josh from Casa Grande to Maricopa High School, which was a small school in the early 2000s compared to what it is today. Greg Huffman said neither son liked the size of the Casa Grande High at the time and wanted to attend a much smaller high school.

“They drove every day to MHS to attend classes and sports,” the elder Huffman said. “Maricopa was a wonderful setting for my boys.”

Today, 22 years later, Rams baseball fans still see indications of Matt’s memory around the MHS diamond so named for him, who caught fastballs behind the plate.

The latest memorial to Matt Huffman Field are bold murals in Rams colors stenciled on both dugouts, an effort accomplished by MHS Athletic Director Craig Moody, who takes school history and traditions seriously.

The Maricopa Unified School District board at the time wanted to honor Matt. So, in 2002, board members and MHS leaders dedicated a modest Matt Huffman memorial behind the home plate back stop.

“I wanted to make sure that if they did this, they truly saw something in Matt that was reason to do it,” Greg Huffman said of the original memorial marker placed in his son’s memory. “We didn’t want sympathy, but I wanted it to be something that the community saw value in.”

Greg and Matt’s mother, Laurel, were pleasantly surprised and excited about the latest honor to Matt’s MHS legacy.

“It’s unbelievable … that after 22 years, you’re still honoring Matt,” Greg Huffman told Moody yesterday in front of an InMaricopa reporter, the first time Huffman met the athletic director face to face. “I’m just blown away.”

They spoke recently by phone when Moody told the Huffmans about the new murals.

Moody reacted emotionally as well.

“I’m getting goosebumps,” Moody told Huffman.

Moody said the dugout murals were something he long pondered.

“Coming in as athletic director last year, I got told the story,” Moody said. He saw the commemorative monument and plaque at the field and talked to coaches who knew Matt, and of course, his father.

Moody said he believes in maintaining traditions.

“I was a coach for 30 years and so traditions like this and the reason for them,” Moody said. “That’s important to keep. It’s part of the culture of the school. It’s part of everything.”

Huffman responded to Moody’s words, saying his family has always been appreciative of the field named for his late son.

“For you guys at the school to still commemorate it, to still recognize it and see the value, we were just awestruck,” Greg Huffman said.

Maricopa residents Tom and Tena Dugan, who are longtime friends of the Huffman family, donated dollars that went into the mural project, Moody said. MHS athletics boosters also contributed.

“We had the Matt Huffman Field [name] on the scoreboard and a lot of people don’t see that,” Moody said at the field Thursday. “Now, here when they walk in, they can see it.”

Matt’s dad put it succinctly: “You never think that, out of tragedy, something good could happen.”