THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, October 2, 2015
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October 1, 2015 8:18 PM
Along with a current teammate on the North Idaho College volleyball team and another former one, Matilda Altin could be considered one lucky young lady.
Last season, after playing in an afternoon match on Saturday, Oct. 11 at home against the College of Southern Idaho, Altin traveled with current teammate Amy Booth of Post Falls and former teammate Brittany Aldridge to watch one of Booth’s friends play a men’s soccer game that Sunday at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., against Washington.
What happened on the drive back to Coeur d’Alene was a scary incident.
Altin, a 6-foot sophomore from Vallentuna, Sweden, who plays middle blocker for the Cardinals, sat on the front passenger side to the right of Booth, who drove a silver Mitsubishi Lancer and was the only person with her seat belt on.
“We went there for the night,” Altin said. “We went back that Sunday night. I remember we were driving back from the game (in Corvallis) around 7 or 8, and then we crashed around midnight. We were outside of Ritzville (Wash.). We were about two hours away from home. It was just everyone was asleep, except Amy, who was driving. And so she kind of lost control of the car, because she was tired. And then she started going to the right.
She didn’t know there was a pole, so she was going to swerve around it. Then the car just flipped, like 2 1/2 times and rolled 2 1/2 times. We landed upside down. It was pretty crazy.”
In the wreck, Altin suffered a hamstring injury near her right knee — to this day, there is still a noticeable-sized scar right above her knee and that area was black and blue as a result of the accident.
Altin knows she was fortunate, knowing the accident could have ended up worse.
“Yeah, definitely,” Altin said. “Because Amy was the only one wearing a seat belt. So I definitely learned my lesson. I learned that someone has to be awake along with the driver.
“My dad (Hakan Altin) told me that someone always has to be awake,” Matilda added. We were really lucky, because we were the only two people who got injured. Brittany injured her shoulder and got a concussion and I injured my knee really bad. I had to go to rehab for it. I missed two matches. In the first match back (a loss at home on Oct. 23 to Salt Lake Community College), I was limping a little, but I could walk.”
Altin knows she was fortunate, knowing the accident could have ended up worse.
“Yeah, definitely,” Altin said. “Because Amy was the only one wearing a seat belt. So I definitely learned my lesson. I learned that someone has to be awake along with the driver.
“My dad (Hakan Altin) told me that someone always has to be awake,” Matilda added. We were really lucky, because we were the only two people who got injured. Brittany injured her shoulder and got a concussion and I injured my knee really bad. I had to go to rehab for it. I missed two matches. In the first match back (a loss at home on Oct. 23 to Salt Lake Community College), I was limping a little, but I could walk.”
Matilda’s parents — Hakan owns his own construction firm and her mother, Anna Johnson, is an administrator of a golf company — live in Sweden, but are planning to be in Coeur d’Alene to watch her match in person against Utah State University-Eastern of Price, Utah.
“I’m very excited,” Matilda said. “They’ve watched me online. It’s always very early (in Sweden), like 3 or 5 in the morning (when NIC’s matches are webcast).”
HOW ALTIN came to NIC was a fairly interesting tale. She attended Jensen Gymnasium in Vallentuna, but high schools in Sweden do not have any sports teams. So Altin had to play in the club team circuit. Vallentuna is a city that has a population of 29,519 and is 30 minutes north of Stockholm.
“I got discovered at nationals at home,” Altin said. “This woman, Sandra Brunke from Germany, saw me play. She owns a company that helps find young athletes to go to college. She saw me there and started to contact colleges for me. Through videos, she helped me become eligible to come here. I got a few offers. I had a couple offers from four-year schools, but I was ineligible (due to academic struggles). One was from North Carolina, I don’t remember their name. One was from somewhere in Texas.”
Altin did not exactly do a ton of research in order to find her way to North Idaho. Did she literally take a map of the United States, grab a few darts, close her eyes, throw one and wherever it landed, that’s where she’d go? No, but she said it might as well have been that way.
“I just kind of chose this place randomly,” Altin said. “I had a few offers from junior colleges and I just chose this one. I didn’t even look at the school. I don’t know why, it just felt good, went with the guts.”
NIC coach Kelsey Stanley said she is not exactly surprised that’s how Altin enrolled at the school.
“That’s Matilda,” Stanley said. “She’s very chill.”
STANLEY SAID Altin has bounced back strongly after the car accident.
“She got into a car accident right before regionals,” Stanley said. “That kind of set her back. When she came back this year, she was a totally different athlete. She’s a very tough kid. She found a way to get back on that court. Last year we didn’t have the depth that we do this year, so losing three of our starters was a big adjustment. USU-Eastern was the next match and we lost to them, that was our first loss to them in a long time. We had girls playing positions they’ve never played, but it was just another bump in the road.”
Altin has come into this season with a vengeance. She is second in the Scenic West Athletic Conference in hitting percentage with a 31.5 percent clip and she has helped NIC lead the SWAC in kills per game. She is also second among Cardinals in blocks and is close to being first. Stanley said she is also drawing some interest from NAIA Lewis-Clark State College, among other schools, and has improved her grades as well.
“She came in shape this year,” Stanley said. “She’s a very good player, we’re happy to have her here. She really came in ready to play. As sophomore, she’s like a silent leader on the court. Girls look up to her. She’s a girl that when it comes to crunch time, she makes plays for us. She’ll come up with a key kill or a key block.”
One of Altin’s best matches came last Friday, when NIC beat then-top ranked College of Southern Idaho, in five games. The Cardinals (9-11, 1-1 SWAC) trailed 14-7 in one of the middle sets and came back to win.
“We were really shaky,” Altin said. “We fought back.”
ALTIN HAS come up with different ways to lead.
“I try to push them,” Altin said. “During timeouts, I always try to keep things relaxed. I tell my joke, usually it’s pretty lame. Like there’s two tomatoes on the road, one got hit. The other says ‘Ketchup.’ I have no idea what I want to do after college yet. I just know I want to stay in the States. It’s nicer than where I’m from, it’s more open. When I first got here, someone once started talking to me in line in the cafeteria. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
They’re chatting you up, Matilda, similar to how you chat up your teammates.
Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25
“I’m very excited,” Matilda said. “They’ve watched me online. It’s always very early (in Sweden), like 3 or 5 in the morning (when NIC’s matches are webcast).”
HOW ALTIN came to NIC was a fairly interesting tale. She attended Jensen Gymnasium in Vallentuna, but high schools in Sweden do not have any sports teams. So Altin had to play in the club team circuit. Vallentuna is a city that has a population of 29,519 and is 30 minutes north of Stockholm.
“I got discovered at nationals at home,” Altin said. “This woman, Sandra Brunke from Germany, saw me play. She owns a company that helps find young athletes to go to college. She saw me there and started to contact colleges for me. Through videos, she helped me become eligible to come here. I got a few offers. I had a couple offers from four-year schools, but I was ineligible (due to academic struggles). One was from North Carolina, I don’t remember their name. One was from somewhere in Texas.”
Altin did not exactly do a ton of research in order to find her way to North Idaho. Did she literally take a map of the United States, grab a few darts, close her eyes, throw one and wherever it landed, that’s where she’d go? No, but she said it might as well have been that way.
“I just kind of chose this place randomly,” Altin said. “I had a few offers from junior colleges and I just chose this one. I didn’t even look at the school. I don’t know why, it just felt good, went with the guts.”
NIC coach Kelsey Stanley said she is not exactly surprised that’s how Altin enrolled at the school.
“That’s Matilda,” Stanley said. “She’s very chill.”
STANLEY SAID Altin has bounced back strongly after the car accident.
“She got into a car accident right before regionals,” Stanley said. “That kind of set her back. When she came back this year, she was a totally different athlete. She’s a very tough kid. She found a way to get back on that court. Last year we didn’t have the depth that we do this year, so losing three of our starters was a big adjustment. USU-Eastern was the next match and we lost to them, that was our first loss to them in a long time. We had girls playing positions they’ve never played, but it was just another bump in the road.”
Altin has come into this season with a vengeance. She is second in the Scenic West Athletic Conference in hitting percentage with a 31.5 percent clip and she has helped NIC lead the SWAC in kills per game. She is also second among Cardinals in blocks and is close to being first. Stanley said she is also drawing some interest from NAIA Lewis-Clark State College, among other schools, and has improved her grades as well.
“She came in shape this year,” Stanley said. “She’s a very good player, we’re happy to have her here. She really came in ready to play. As sophomore, she’s like a silent leader on the court. Girls look up to her. She’s a girl that when it comes to crunch time, she makes plays for us. She’ll come up with a key kill or a key block.”
One of Altin’s best matches came last Friday, when NIC beat then-top ranked College of Southern Idaho, in five games. The Cardinals (9-11, 1-1 SWAC) trailed 14-7 in one of the middle sets and came back to win.
“We were really shaky,” Altin said. “We fought back.”
ALTIN HAS come up with different ways to lead.
“I try to push them,” Altin said. “During timeouts, I always try to keep things relaxed. I tell my joke, usually it’s pretty lame. Like there’s two tomatoes on the road, one got hit. The other says ‘Ketchup.’ I have no idea what I want to do after college yet. I just know I want to stay in the States. It’s nicer than where I’m from, it’s more open. When I first got here, someone once started talking to me in line in the cafeteria. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
They’re chatting you up, Matilda, similar to how you chat up your teammates.
Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25