BARRIO – Toronto Maple Leafs’ Austin Matthews was born in San Ramon, California, and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is half-Mexican.

He said he and his sisters would always enjoy traveling to Hermosilla, the hometown of his mother, which is six hours south of Phoenix, and spend time with their grandparents.

“We always enjoyed it, my sisters and I going down there and just spending time with them,” he said. Matthews also shared that his family had a ranch about two hours away from their house in Hermosillo, where there were lots of animals, and different stuff to do than in Phoenix.

The superstar hockey player spoke of how hockey is a predominantly white sport, and how he would like to serve as an example encouraging kids in other cultures and communities to try it out. He wants to “be somebody that kids can look up to from Mexico,” and believe they could make it as well.

He also spoke of how supportive his mother is, with him and his sisters, and how she continues to have a huge influence on all of them.

Matthews, who grew up speaking some Spanish in his household and rooting for the Arizona Coyotes, said he thinks it’s easy to sell the game so more kids from Mexico can get into it.

“I think it would be an amazing idea to maybe do a preseason game down there once a year with obviously teams on the West Coast, like [the Coyotes] and [the Los Angeles Kings] or something like that. I think that could obviously bring a lot of attention to the sport and kind of help grow the game in different ways down there when you can kind of see it firsthand.”

Catch the Leafs tonight for Game 2 of the NHL Playoffs.

(Posted April 20, 2023)