Hailing roughly six hours away from Waynesburg University in New Jersey, Matthew Shinkle did not know anyone when he first game to school.

As a senior sports broadcasting/sports information major with a minor in journalism, his position on the cross country team soon pulled him to the family atmosphere.

“The first night at college can be rough for some people,” said Shinkle. “The first night… I went back to my room and I just sat there for a little bit by myself… I had five or six upperclassmen on the team come up to my room and called me saying ‘hey we are outside, you want to come out with us we will go to Sheetz and hang out for the night.’ Immediately I just felt welcomed I guess.”

Shinkle then decided to do the same for his teammates. One time he had to help his current roommate, who was not his roommate at the time, with a very scary emergency. One of Shinkle’s teammates drank two 5 Hour Energies and coffee in a short timeframe. The teammate then tried to call Shinkle and some of his teammates for help, but they couldn’t understand him.

“We told him ‘we can’t understand you,’” said Shinkle. “‘If you need help don’t say anything’ and he stopped talking and we were like ‘wow that’s really scary.’ So, we ran up to his room and he was passed out on the floor and we had to rush him to the hospital and he ended up being fine.”

Shinkle and head coach Chris Hardie have had a great relationship with each other too. The first time they met was during one of Shinkle’s high school meets back home in New Jersey that Hardie came to watch.

“He personally visited me while I was in high school,” said Shinkle. “The only race that I won in my high school career was the one that he came to and it was a meet against three other teams in my conference. He came and I ended up winning the meet and I ran a great [personal record] that day and it just felt great.”

According to Shinkle, his freshman and sophomore years were his best for cross country. During his junior year he had a knee injury and only got to run one race that year. Then, for his senior year, he came back to run, but said it wasn’t the same.

“I felt like that taught me a lot because despite the fact that I could not run, I was still there with the team, which showed that I still care about the team and I got to see them from a different perspective because I am not out there running,” Shinkle said. “So, especially during practices and meets, I could see the paces everyone was running and I can follow along with the team from a broader perspective because I kind of got to help Hardie with both strategy and also just general things with the team as well. So, I got to learn a lot even though I was not running.”

For Shinkle, the love he had for the family atmosphere of the team is going to be something that he will miss and for Hardie, the leadership role that Shinkle played is going to be a role that will have to be filled.

“We are really going to miss him next year in his leadership role,” said Hardie. “I will always remember how much he always reached out to the coaching staff, including myself, about an issue or something with training. His legacy will be his leadership,”

After graduation, Shinkle plans on finding a job back home or here in western Pennsylvania as a journalist or a reporter.

“I would just like to thank coach Hardie immensely for everything that he has done for me,” said Shinkle. “His recruiting style is really unique in that he hands writes all of his recruits. From then on out me and him have built a really solid relationship and I can’t thank him enough for everything that he has done for me on and off the course.”