Matukewicz speaks to basketball coaches at seeding meeting for basketball tournament

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz always jumps at the opportunity to talk to other coaches.

His answer, he said, when he was asked to speak to a room full of coaches, officials and tournament organizers at the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament seeding meeting was, "Hell yes."

Matukewicz, who introduced his daughter, Georgia, to the crowd at the beginning of his speech, repeatedly mentioned that it was a coach who changed his life when he was an underachieving high school student.

"You have to start with accountability," Matukewicz said. "I truly believe this: Everything you do, everything you have or everything you'll become is because of the decisions you make. You've got to own where you're at in life."

Matukewicz said he used to "wish" a lot but found work and accountability to be more effective.

"In the classroom are you a hard worker? On the field are you a hard worker? Because it's the same," Matukewicz said while addressing player accountability. "We set the highest team GPA in 110 years. That's 'all in.' You ask them to do these things on the football field, that's no problem. But you ask them to do this stuff off the field, and sometimes that's a little harder."

The coach, who just completed his first season at Southeast, said he is an avid fan of financial guru and author Dave Ramsey and shared a message of his.

"You will be the same five years from today except for the books you read and the people you meet," Matukewicz said. "You will be the same coach five years from today except for the books you read and the people you meet. That's the truth. You don't come out of the womb knowing how to be successful. You have to search it out."

He also outlined his team's disciplinary system, which includes punishments for the teammates of players that break rules in some cases.

"Your decisions affect everyone around you," Matukewicz said. "We are a family. When you choose not to do the right things, you do affect your family. That's the whole point of our discipline program."

He said going to work for him is like "going fishing every day."

"Enthusiasm is critical in our line of work because it makes work fun," he said. "It makes work fun. You forget about what you're doing when you have enthusiasm. That's really the energy, the gas that drives the work for that day. You've got to have a teachable spirit."