Boston College basketball team manager, Matt Malley, refuses to let anything

CHESTNUT HILL – Matt Malley is a senior at Boston College, where he is also the head manager of the men’s basketball team.

Matt has a disability. Shortly after his birth, Matt suffered a stroke, which gave him limited use of his right hand.

“Stroke I’ve realized is kind of a big word for people. People are often very surprised, I think the reason behind it is it’s that you don’t hear about it a lot in young people,” Matt said.

The college senior from Norwood also understands that some people may be uncomfortable with his disability.

“There’s this theory out there that you form an opinion about somebody within seven seconds of meeting them, just a psychological theory. You meet the person, how you doing? Now, for me, think of a stereotypical icebreaker. ‘Hey, how you doing? You shake hands. Well, it’s my right hand is the side that’s affected, so immediately it can be, it’s not always, but it can be kind of an awkward exchange,” Matt explained.

“What I try to really do with meeting other people and then people with me is, try to learn more about the person, like who are they? What’s important to the person? Try to get to know them on a more personal level because we’re more than seven seconds, everyone’s story, every story that you encounter, their story is longer than 7 seconds,” Matt said.

Matt grew up as a die-hard Boston sports fan. He loved watching sports, but more importantly, he loved playing them. His mom, Lucy, and Dad, Kevin, said that he never let his disability deter him from doing what he loves.

“Baseball was probably my favorite sport from a young age. I kinda threw like Jim Abbott. So if anyone’s ever seen Jim Abbott, you catch the ball with one hand, you put the ball in the glove in your arm, lift the ball, and throw it back,” Matt said.

“I stopped playing baseball when I was 13 or 14. That was hard. That was like the first time in my life that I had to come to grips with ‘I can’t do something,'” Matt told WBZ.

But it certainly did not stop him from finding a way to be involved in sports. During his time at Xaverian Brother High School in Westford, he fell in love with being the basketball team manager. 

“It was like, well, I just did it there for four years, why not do it here? Why not come to BC and try to get involved in a similar capacity.”

Boston College has been a great fit for Matt and has allowed him to thrive as…