Ema Matthews remembers her childhood as idyllic.
She grew up one of eight siblings – six girls and two boys – on a large ranch outside Hermosillo in the Sonora region in northwest Mexico. Her father, Rafael, spent long hours with the cattle and horses, earning enough to put all of them through school in the nearby city. Her mother, Alicia, was at the market every day, gathering items for dinner and preparing meals for the family of 10.
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Rafael is now 83, she explains, but he still runs the ranch. Alicia, 76, remains a welcoming host, as always, especially when their many grandchildren come by.
One thing that has changed? At night, when the livestock are asleep, her parents watch hockey. They flip through the channels to find their grandson, named Auston, playing a game that only recently came into their life in a country they’ve never seen.
“My dad is into sports,” Ema Matthews explained. “He loves boxing. Loves baseball and basketball. But hockey honestly he was very – we don’t have hockey in Mexico.
“But he started watching. They can see (Maple Leafs games) in Mexico. I would buy it (on satellite) for them, and they can see it. He kind of understands the game better than my mom. Mom only wants to go to see where Auston is. She’s always asking ‘Where is Auston!’ She just wants to see her grandson, not the sport.”
Ema Matthews says a common misconception about Mexico is that most people live in widespread poverty. They were a comfortable family, she explained, and she eventually attended college.
But her true passion was airplanes. She dreamed of becoming a pilot, something that was difficult 30 years ago in Mexico. For one, it was expensive to receive the training. And it wasn’t “popular,” she says, for a woman to pursue the career.
Instead, at 19 years old, she left school to become a flight attendant with Aero California, a now-defunct Mexican airline that made regular trips into Los Angeles. That was where she met Auston’s father, Brian, who was working his way through college as a technician at the airport.
It was the very beginning of a new life for both of them – one that was soon to become intertwined with hockey, a game they knew nothing about.
“Now my whole family is addicted to hockey,” Ema Matthews said earlier this week, chuckling. “It’s kind of cool to see.”
For the first time ever, the Maple Leafs are having a moms trip this season, replacing their annual week-long fathers ride along. The Leafs moms flew in from around the world to gather in Toronto on Tuesday night to have a glass of wine and watch the boys beat the Hurricanes on television, then boarded a private plane bound for Tampa on Wednesday morning.
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There they will share fancy dinners and upscale hotels with their NHLer sons, attending games against the Lightning and Panthers on Thursday and Saturday. It’s a unique way for the players to give back to their mothers, after a lifetime of sacrifices like early practices, travel for tournaments and the prohibitive costs of playing the sport.
Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said it was an organizational decision to involve the moms instead of the dads this year.
A long overdue one, according to some.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for you to say thanks to your mom,” coach Mike Babcock said. “My mom’s not alive. Hasn’t been alive for a long time. But I still pray to her every day. For these guys to have an opportunity to say thank you on this trip and spend some time with them is a special thing. I’ve been in the league a long time, had a lot of dads trips. This is the first moms trip. I think it’ll be great.”
“It’s awesome,” Auston Matthews said of having Ema with him this week. “For most of us, our dads played a big role in our careers, but my mom was right there with him, supporting me in whatever I did. It’s going to be really cool for them to come along.”
For Ema Matthews, the trip will be the celebration of an emotional 15-year journey, including many recent seasons where Auston has lived far from home. He first left Arizona at 15 to join the U.S. national team development program five years ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he landed on the radar of many NHL scouts leading into the 2016 draft.
But Auston had been telling his mother he wanted to play in the NHL since he was a small child, beginning when he received a Coyotes jersey as an early birthday present. She remembers how he quickly ran to the garage, to play with his sticks and pucks, wearing the new jersey.
Picking up on his excitement, Ema Matthews suggested hockey would be a good way to go to college. Her then 6-year-old was aghast.
“I don’t want to play in college,” he said. “I want to be in the NHL!”
Ema Matthews jokes she was the first person to reply to the email when the Leafs invited the moms on the trip earlier this year. More than anything, she wants to know what really happens when the team goes on the road and to see her son live out his dream from up close.
She is also looking forward to spending time with Connor Brown’s mother, Anne, and Jake Gardiner’s mother, Jill, who have become friends over the past three seasons.
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“I’m very excited,” Ema Matthews said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what Auston actually does. Because usually when you ask Auston – everything is cool, it’s fun. But he doesn’t tell you details. Guys don’t explain to moms what they do. I’m looking forward to seeing what goes behind all the work the team does before the game. And to spend some time with the team, with the moms, and of course with my boy.”
Because she emigrated from Mexico without completing her education, Ema Matthews ended up working multiple service jobs to support Auston’s hockey career as he progressed. She was a waitress at a high-end restaurant and a barista at Starbucks at one point, something that helped her son play year-round, attending camps and getting specialized training throughout North America.
The family also began missing their regular trips to Mexico because of all the travel involved with hockey, another sacrifice that was difficult for Ema to make. Rafael and Alicia, Matthews’ grandparents, were surprised their grandson wasn’t around as often because of the strange game with “the stick and puck.”
Awesome reaction from Auston Matthews’ mom after his 3rd goal pic.twitter.com/c0zI823zzi
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 13, 2016
Ema Matthews was initially reluctant when asked to do this interview because she isn’t 100 per cent confident with her language skills. But she did want to tell Toronto fans about her son and what this opportunity with the Maple Leafs means to him.
She wanted them to know he loves the city and the team and is committed to doing everything he can to help them win.
“He sacrificed a lot as a kid,” she explained. “He used to see all his friends leave in summer for the beach, for the lake – and he didn’t. He had to work. He had to go and do camps. That’s part of it. Now I told him, those friends, what are they doing? They’re working. They’re in a job they don’t enjoy. Now he’s the one doing what he always dreamed of. Playing in the NHL. In the best league. What else can you ask for?
“Sometimes I watch him and I’m like ‘Wow, he just did that?’ I mean, to me, it’s like he’s my son? It’s fun to see him work and want to do it and love it. For me, as a mom, I want to go see what he does because he’s having so much fun. It’s, wow, this is really his job.”
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Those who know the family well credit Ema Matthews as the source of Auston Matthews’ quiet, grounded nature. She explains that is something that her family has always valued, going back to those days on the Sonora ranch, when there was a feeling of community between her large family and neighbours alike.
As much success as her son has had on the ice, she believes he will remain who he is – kind, hardworking and genuine.
She is sure of it.
“I admire Auston so much,” Ema Matthews said. “You’re going to make me cry because it’s hard for me to talk about Auston. He knew what he wanted since he was little. He always knew. Even myself, now looking back, all the things he used to tell me – he knew what he wanted. And to get in this market (in Toronto), who would have thought, right?
“We’ve always asked our kids to be humble. It doesn’t matter if you have money or if you don’t. You always be humble. Don’t get things into your head. We always loved people like that. We wanted to raise our kids like that. We always saw kids that were spoiled, and they didn’t appreciate what they had. We didn’t want that for our kids. Auston, we tell him just to enjoy what you have. Be grateful.
“You would have to ask him, but I think sometimes he doesn’t believe it (is all real). He just wants to play hockey. Honestly, that’s all he wants to do. Obviously he wants to be the best because he’s competitive and he works for it, but … he wants to play hockey. Being in Toronto, he has to realize that, yeah, he is a star here. Everywhere we go – even us – we get recognized. It’s just like ‘OK. Breathe and just don’t let all those things (in).’ They recognize you and they treat you so well, but don’t forget where you’re coming from. Always, I always remind him.
“All the success that he’s having and all the people that call him ‘a star,’ it’s amazing to see him so humble and down to earth. He will keep playing hockey, and be competitive, and if he becomes a bigger star: ‘Oh well.’ He just wants to play. Auston is something else, I will say.”
With a report from Jonas Siegel in Tampa
(Top photo: Auston Matthew hugs his mother, Ema, after being selected first overall by the Maple Leafs in the 2016 NHL Draft. Credit: Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)
