My name is Matt Hill…I grew up in St. Louis, MO, into an extremely competitive family and I am no exception to that trend. I played essentially all sports growing up but loved basketball and baseball more than anything else. I played in the Missouri All-Star basketball game my senior year in high school and played American Legion or select baseball for a number of years. Since then, though, my life drastically changed. When I was 18, I joined the Marine Corps as a Military Policeman (MP). Shortly after enlisting I heard of an opening with the Marine Band, so I auditioned on trombone and was accepted. For 3 1/2 years I played with the Marine Band for President Clinton, President Bush and many other Generals, celebrities and a plethora of other highly-regarded people. I played next to ground zero after September 11th, was put up in 5-star hotels for night after night, played for two million people live in the 2nd largest St. Patrick’s day parade in the world and got to play for the troops as they got off of the planes when coming back from Iraq to see their families for the first time in over a year. I did essentially every gig that a musisican would ever hope to do…brass band, brass quintet, jazz band, jazz combos, concert band, parades, change of command ceremonies, tattoos and other ensembles. I enjoyed my time in the Marines, but I am also quite glad that I am now out.

Perhaps the best thing that happened to me while I was in the military,though, was that I met my beautiful, sweet, lovely (she’s looking over my shoulder) wife…it’s a long story that maybe I’ll get into a little later. We got married in July 2004 and I don’t regret a day of being with her.

After getting out of the Marines in February, 2004 and getting married in July, I came to Lee U. and am now expected to graduate in December ‘07. I can’t wait. I currently work as an MMA journalist covering organizations such as the UFC, Pride, IFL, etc. I have been fortunate enough to get the chance to meet some of the stars in MMA such as Randy Couture, Mike Swick, Gina Carano, Matt Lindland, Frank Mir and Renzo Gracie among hoards of others. I hope to do something in this line of work after I graduate as well.