BUTLERTWP— He played only one year, scored only two points and started only one game.

Yet Matt Shockey has left a lasting impression on the Butler varsity boys basketball program.

A 2005 Butler graduate, Shockey never tried out for the Golden Tornado until his senior year. His family moved here from Champaign, Ill., when he was a sophomore.

"He played basketball at the Y when we were in Champaign and he began playing at the Y when we moved here,"his father, Greg Shockey, said. "All of the buddies he hung out with down there were on the basketball team and they convinced him to try out.

"Matt was frustrated he didn't play more once he made the team, but I explained to him that he joined the program late. Besides, we don't raise quitters."

Indeed not. The Shockeys raised a soldier.

Shockey enlisted in the Marine Corps the month after he graduated from high school. His unit was deployed to Iraq in July 2006 and Shockey has been on the front lines in Baghdad the past seven months.

He returns to the states this week and is scheduled to return to Iraq in September if the war is continuing.

"Matt has been right in the middle of it,"Butler coach Joe Lewandowski said. "He rides atop a Humvee through the streets of Baghdad, helping our country secure new territory.

"He's making the ultimate sacrifice for his country, just like he did for our basketball team."

Butler senior Sean Lowry, a sophomore who saw time off the bench during Shockey's senior year, still remembers his teammate's attitude.

"He was so unselfish. He knew he wasn't going to play much, but he did everything he could in practice to make us better," Lowry said. "Now he's unselfish in defending his country."

Gone for weeks at a time in combat, Shockey is able to call home when he returns to camp. His father said he usually hears from him twice a month.

Two friends Shockey has met in the military, including one he went through basic training with, have been killed in Iraq.

"It's tough on him. ... When I talk to him, I try to say something to keep his spirits up," Greg Shockey said. "I remind him how cold it is over here, and that without him we wouldn't have what we have in this country.

"Our freedom is because of what people like him are doing for us. I tell him that every chance I get."

Despite the limited telephone time he gets, Shockey called the Tornado basketball team before its Christmas tournament to wish the team well. He corresponds with Lewandowski via e-mail often.

"You always have to have something to play for,"Lowry said. "Our first game at Upper St. Clair, we played for Shockey. Our Christmas tournament, we played for Shockey.

"When I think of him on that Humvee, shooting a gun, knowing the risks, yet knowing his duty and that he's there to do a job, ... it makes you want to do the job for him on the basketball court."

Lowry recalled Shockey's one start on Senior Night. He collected three offensive rebounds in the game's first two minutes and got Butler off to a positive start.

"He's still impacting our program,"Lewandowski said. "Talk about a role model. Here's a kid putting himself in harm's way all the time, a true hero, and he's still keeping up with our basketball team and trying to inspire the guys."

Jade Burka was the Tornado's starting center when Shockey was with the team.

"He always knew he was going to join the military,"Burka said. "It's what he wanted to do. He's an awesome kid. He knows the game (of basketball) and he knows the team. He cares a lot about both."

Shockey's father said the friendships formed through basketball are what kept his son a viable part of the team.

"Those guys were always so tight,"he said. "They hung out together, they sat together at school functions, they supported each other.

"When Matt comes home, I know he's going to look a lot of those guys up. And they'll hang out together again."

Lewandowski can't help but smile when visualizing Shockey in basketball practice — and aboard a Humvee in Iraq.

"Kids like Shockey — that's why you coach," he said.