Each week, the Record (using a script in R) randomly selects a student at the College for our One in Two Thousand feature, excluding current Record board members. This week, Matt Kandel ’24.5 discussed the upcoming tennis season, his success with intramural sports, and his love for Word Hunt. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lena Kerest (LK): I know you’re on the tennis team. Are you heading into your spring season?
Matt Kandel (MK): Yes, our first matches are in a week.
LK: Very exciting. You’re captain this year. How are you feeling about your senior season?
MK: There are two other captains. They’re both juniors: Shawn Berdia [’25] and Andrew Chong [’25]. It’s still up for debate whether or not this is my senior season. [Laughs.] But yeah, I’m excited. We’re a really small group this year — we just have seven guys. We’re super close. Everybody’s pretty locked in to the goal of trying to win the NESCAC Tournament and then hopefully the NCAA Tournament. I’m excited for what’s to come next.
LK: Do you have any leadership philosophies?
MK: I’d say this year we’re trying to keep a good balance of working hard but also having fun. I think last year, we tried to work hard, but we lost a little bit of the fun. This year we’re doing a better job of, at practice, incorporating something fun to make sure everybody’s always enjoying it and mixing it up, but at the same time, trying to stay on top of it.
LK: How are you going to decide if this is your senior season or not?
MK: It might depend on how well we do. If we win it all, I might go out on top and just finish [courses] up next fall. If I still feel like there’s more to be done, maybe I’ll come back and try and compete one more time next spring and take the fall off.
LK: What has been your favorite thing about Williams so far?
MK: My favorite thing about Williams has probably been being part of a varsity team. I’ve been super lucky to be part of a couple really good teams with really good guys. It’s made my time here very enjoyable.
LK: I’ve also heard that you are a prolific intramural player. In fact, I’m pretty sure EphSports on Instagram said that you were the key to both the successes of the basketball and volleyball intramural teams this winter. Do you have insight on that?
MK: I definitely wasn’t the key. I was just lucky enough to be on two good teams. It was fun, especially basketball. I played in high school, and I don’t get to play that much anymore. It was fun getting to compete in basketball, play against other good athletes, and have a good time.
LK: Who did you pay to have them write the special paragraph about you?
MK: You can write that I paid [Assistant Director for Intramural Sports] Kris Hoey a $100 bribe.
LK: You study Chinese and math. What’s been your inspiration for that?
MK: Math, I don’t really know. I took my first class my first semester here and then ended up taking another course. And then I was like, “Well, I guess I’ll just finish the major.” But Chinese definitely has been my favorite class pretty much every semester here. I think the Chinese department here is amazing. The professors are all really good and genuinely care about their students. Taking Chinese here has definitely been, besides the tennis team, the best part of my college experience.
LK: Are you fluent in Chinese?
MK: I definitely would not say that I’m fluent. Hopefully one day. I’d say I have a solid foundation now, thanks to the Chinese department here. I went to Taiwan last summer, which was a really, really great experience along with a couple friends.
LK: How do you hope to continue with that after college?
MK: I’m hoping that I get to use it in some professional sense after college or live abroad somewhere.
LK: Do you have any ideas of what kind of jobs it would be most helpful to speak Chinese for?
MK: My plan right now is to join the United States military, try to finish studying Chinese until I get fluent, and then use it in some sort of military intelligence capacity. I think that would be fun for me and a cool job. And then, any sort of international business, maybe after that, but I don’t really know much about it yet. Hopefully I’ll learn about something where I can live abroad and work in Asian markets.
LK: What is your favorite hobby or activity outside of school and tennis?
MK: I really like to play Word Hunt with [men’s tennis co-captain] Andrew Chong ’25. We have a great rivalry. Make sure you say that I’m up in the rivalry. I’d say one of my hobbies is beating Andrew Chong in Word Hunt.
LK: Would he agree that you’re up in the rivalry, or should I reach out to him for comment?
MK: For him to disagree with me would just be blasphemous, but you never know what he’s going to say.
LK: What is your favorite establishment on Spring Street?
MK: I would definitely say The Log is my favorite.
LK: Have you gone to Crust yet?
MK: I have not been to Crust. I’ve heard that Crust is good, but expensive, and that the pizza isn’t that much food. As someone who doesn’t like to spend a lot of money and likes to eat a good amount of food, it doesn’t sound like the place for me.
LK: What’s your go-to order at The Log?
MK: Buffalo chicken pizza, for sure.
