Last season at McArthur Court, Matt Leunen, a Portland State tight end, often wore the colors of the Oregon Ducks – his opponent Saturday – even when the Vikings were in town.
Now Matt, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound redshirt freshman and brother of Oregon basketball’s starting forward Maarty Leunen, wants the favor returned when his Vikings take on 25th-ranked Oregon at Autzen Stadium Saturday.
“He better root for us,” Matt said.
Joking aside, Matt knows he has many Oregon fans in Maarty and the rest of his family. Whatever the score ends up being, there is one certainty for Saturday: Their parents, Maarten and Marjie, along with younger brothers Michael and Montie, will be in Eugene cheering as usual.
But on Saturday, it just happens to be for Matt.
“We have never missed any of their (home) games,” Marjie said. “We are on the road two to three times a week, even last year when (Matt) didn’t play. Maarty’s senior year, we will probably even go to all the road games.”
The Redmond, Ore., natives have gone as far as changing their lifestyles, and occupations, to be there for their children. Maarty said his father Maarten, a fifth-generation dairy farmer, sold the dairy farm his freshman year of high school so that he and Matt could focus on sports, and Marteen and Marjie could have time to watch them grow.
“If sports didn’t play a factor, I probably would have been a dairy farmer,” Maarty said. “Being a dairy farmer is a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week job. That really shows the commitment my parents had towards us since my dad has been doing that his whole life and gave it up for his kid.”
The Leunen family certainly isn’t short of height or athleticism. Maarten is 6-foot-5, Maarty is 6-foot-9 and 215 pounds and his second-youngest brother, Michael, is 6-foot-5. Oh, and he’s only 15.
Montie, age 12, rounds out the family.
As Marjie put it, the oldest Leunen sons just can’t stay apart.
Maarty and Matt, separated by only 18 months, have worked together, snuck off to play hoops during breaks at the old dairy farms together and competed on a few of the same school teams together.
The two won a 4A State Basketball Championship at Redmond High School during the 2002-03 season, when Maarty was a junior and Matt was a sophomore.
“In high school, we knew their eye motion and body language,” Marjie said. “You could see when they wanted to say, ‘Matthew, step it up,’ or ‘Why didn’t you pass me the ball?’”
The first in his family to go to college, Maarty was also there to help Matt make his decision to play at Portland State.
“He just wanted me to know that I should go somewhere where I would fit in and do whatever would make me stay there for the rest of my years,” Matt said.
Maarty said: “I’ve tried to be a good role model for them, showing if you work hard, especially for us being from a small town, that you don’t have to be from a big area to do other things.”
So count on it that Marjie and Maarten will be up and down the state to watch their two oldest sons and the newest generation of Leunen athletes as they continue with their athletic and academic success. For now, she said her only concern regarding the boys is trying to figure out whose side to take Saturday.
“I would love to see PSU do well, but, in the back of my mind, Oregon has been real good to us,” she said. “May the best team win.”
Maarty got specific: “42-30. I want it kind of close, but Oregon should still win. But since my brother’s on the team, it’s gotta be close.”