The CMS-ence of Matthew May
CLAREMONT, Calif. - Politicians in Washington, D.C. often talk about the need to have a good "ground game" during election season. If that's the case, Matthew May (CMC '20) may have a heck of a future in his chosen line of work.
May, a government and legal studies major who has spent the last two summers interning on Capitol Hill is one of the 11 members of the CMS Football senior class, which will be honored at 12:40 p.m. prior to Saturday's annual Sixth Street Rivalry game with Pomona-Pitzer at 1 p.m. He will be unable to play, since he has been out of action since the first week after suffering an injury in the season opener at Puget Sound, but he will graduate with a lasting impact on the program. His contributions on the offensive line were critical to last year's SCIAC Championship, the program's first since 1987, as well as its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth.
May and the offensive line helped pave the way for Garrett Cheadle to rush for 1,305 yards last year, the second-highest total in program history, including a school-record 274 yards in a win over Whittier. Cheadle had a strong chance at the single-season record of 1,486 (set by Chris Dabrow in 1987) before a late-season rib injury resulted in him only carrying the ball seven times in the last two games.
"Being a part of the team last year was just amazing," said May. "Being able to win the SCIAC Championship after 31 years, and also being able to block for Garrett Cheadle, opening up those holes and breaking some school records in rushing, and also being able to do it with my closest friends on the line was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
In addition to Cheadle's numbers, the work of the offensive line helped CMS dominate in time of possession, ranking second nationally with over 36 minutes per game. The offensive line helped secure a 17-10 win over Cal Lutheran by killing the final 9:29 of game clock on the final drive, a 20-10 win over Redlands with a fourth-quarter touchdown drive of over 10 minutes, and a 16-9 win over Chapman by maintaining over 43 minutes of time of possession (with 64 running plays out of 74).
May has bolstered his resume outside of football as well during his college career, utilizing the Sponsored Internship and Experiences Program at Claremont McKenna to spend the last two summers in Washington, D.C. He spent this past summer as a legislative intern in the US Senate for Senator Steve Daines of Montana, and spent the previous summer interning for Congressman Steve Knight (CA-25) in his Washington, D.C. office. May has also built summer experience as a field director in Michigan for Clean MI Government.
While in Claremont, May has served with the student senate and as a SAAC Representative, while being a community representative in the student conduct review process board. He has also made the most of his courseload, listing the "US Congress" class he took with Professor John Pitney as his favorite.
"The culmination of that class is a congressional simulation," May said. "It was an interesting course, but it also helped me get ready for when I was in Washington, D.C. seeing the real thing done."
May's Senior Day will naturally have mixed emotions, as he won't be able to end his collegiate career on the field like every athlete hopes. But he wouldn't trade anything else about the experience he has had over the last four years.
"Being a Stag has meant everything to me," he said. "It's given me the opportunity to play football for another four years at a very high level, but also get a world class education. On top of that I have 60-plus brothers now, people I consider family, and being able to compete with them and win a SCIAC championship like we did last year has really been an amazing experience."
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