HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — Matthew Powell, a senior at Hanover High School, has mastered the art of time management while excelling in multiple disciplines ranging from music to athletics to competitive chess.
Powell has earned all-county honors as a trumpet player in the school band, competes in multiple track events with state-level potential, and ranks among the world's best chess players on chess.com.
"When I want to do something, I'll spend a lot of time like working towards it, so it's not really natural, but it's more like just putting an effort to it," Powell said.
His band director, Vince Guzman, explains that becoming an all-county musician requires significant preparation.
"It takes about 2 to 3 months of prep before the audition itself," Guzman said. "And then they get the audition materials about 2 months out. So before that you have to learn all your scales, have your articulation down, chromatic scales and things like that, and then just be a good player with good tone to make it in."
Powell began playing trumpet just before middle school.
"I started like the summer before middle school started," Powell said. "That's where I picked up my technique and stuff like that."
Powell's track coach, Richard Firth, emphasizes the importance of personal achievement in his program.
"We make a big deal about personal bests," Firth said. "Now we have a very competitive program. We try to compete for championships every year, but I get just as excited about my last runner as my first one. If they if they've worked hard and they get a personal best, I get just as excited as a kid to qualify for states."
Firth believes Powell is on track to qualify for state competition in discus.
"I fully expect within the next meet or two he'll hit the automatic qualifying state mark. Probably he's right now I think 4th all-time at Hanover in the discus. I expect to move up that list fairly rapidly. He's made tremendous improvements," Firth said.
In addition to discus, Powell competes in hurdles and the 100m relay for the track team.
"Track is just more hard work and track is like other sports punishments. You run to be punished for like basketball and other stuff like that," Powell said.
His chess mentor, Larry Small, who has taught chess for 45 years, has witnessed Powell's dedication to improvement.
"With some instructions from me, went to different websites and, and books and just practice over and over, practice, practice, practice, -- and I think he's the type that won't give up," Small said.
Powell's secret to managing his many activities is organization and genuine interest.
"If you have tasks that you wanna do, you have to like them because otherwise you're spending time wasting time because you don't like what you're doing. That's the main thing," Powell said.
He relies on his Google calendar, to-do lists, and daily reminders to keep track of his commitments.
"He diligent, versatile, and sort of a master of all trades at this point," Guzman said.
Firth sees Powell's character as his greatest strength.
"I think Matthew's ability as a person and the quality of person transcends his athletic ability. He's the type of young man we all want our, our son to be in life," Firth said.
Powell is considering North Carolina A&T, the University of Maryland, or Virginia Tech for college, where he plans to study engineering. He recently competed in the Bloomberg Engineering Competition at Virginia Tech, where his team finished third out of 16 despite having one fewer team member.
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