Giving back to the game
鈥淢y favourite memory is probably from my first year when we played St. Mary鈥檚 at Homecoming,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey were ranked #1 nationally and hadn鈥檛 lost a regular season game in a couple of years, we had been 0-8 the two previous seasons. Mount A won and it was the beginning of a long run of success for the program.鈥�
Khoury, an entrepreneur who now lives in Los Angeles, continues to follow the Football Mounties from afar and in 2013 travelled back to Sackville for the Uteck Bowl.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so great to see them doing so well now,鈥� he says.
That trip got Khoury thinking about how he might help the team.
鈥淚 was impressed by how the administration does an excellent job on the academic side, while embracing and supporting athletics,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o see that hard work getting such incredible results is exciting. With football in particular, they鈥檝e really turned it around. Everyone from the President to the athletics director to the head coach have worked together to put Mountie Football on the national map again.鈥�
Khoury made a $100,000 donation to create The Matt Khoury Fund in Support of Mountie Football. The expendable fund will be used to support needs identified by the athletics director and the football coach.
Khoury鈥檚 wish is that the fund be primarily used for bursaries to support student athletes who require financial assistance in order to attend 91AV, but wanted to provide flexibility for the fund to be used where it was most needed.
鈥�(Athletics and recreation director) Pierre (Arsenault) and (Coach) Kelly (Jeffrey) are just really good guys and I trust that they will do the right thing with it,鈥� he says.
Khoury says the gift is his way of continuing to be involved in sport and supporting the team鈥檚 continued success.
鈥淚 learned a lot about life from sports,鈥� he says. 鈥淕rowing up playing sports and playing football in particular, I had some amazing coaches and I always thought that I would get involved in coaching at some point and give back to the sport in that way. I don鈥檛 have the time to do that now, but I wanted to give back to the program that gave to me and this is a meaningful way
to do it.鈥�
Photo caption: Matt Khoury, right, with football Mountie teammate Sean Hickey (鈥�95)