Rick Matta
Certified Instructor, Bilingual Instructor
Rick Matta
Sixty-two years ago I, Richard (Rick) Matta, was born in Houston, Texas on Saturday, April 2nd to a small family. At the time of my birth, I had four sisters and nine brothers. My parents raised my siblings and I in a strict Christian home.
My Dad and Mom were pastors and we had to attend every church service that my dad was preaching or speaking at. When my dad was not pastoring a church, I remember him working as a security guard. I remember the uniform he wore. I remember that we would watch police shows on our one and only television.
I enjoyed our family and church gatherings with our extended family. On Easter, my brother would have an egg hunt for the grown-ups with a gold-colored egg with money inside. It was pretty funny because the adults were even worse than the kids at trying to find the golden egg.
I was eleven years old when my brother returned from the Vietnam War in 1971. In 1972 we moved to Galveston, Texas because my dad had been picked to pastor a church. In middle school, I met a kid in Spanish class who became one of my best friends. One day, he told me “if you help me with my Spanish, I will show you pictures from my dad’s work.” His dad was a police officer for Galveston. Some of the pictures were pretty gruesome, but I thought it was cool what the police saw and did.
I then attended Galveston Ball High and graduated in May of 1979. I then moved to Austin, Texas in December of 1980 to be closer to my future wife. We were married on January 19, 1980. Yes, we didn’t date very long before getting married. Our first child was Ricardo (a future Tiger Rock Instructor). We then had a daughter who would pass away at the age of 3 months old, and another son, Jeremy.
Our family attended Templo Beth Church where I assisted with youth singers, and Templo Sanai Church where I was a choir director and a leader in the Royal Rangers (Similar to Boy Scouts).
In 1985 I decided to apply for the Austin Police Department. I attended the Austin Police Academy in May of 1986. I graduated from the Police Academy in October of 1986 and was a police officer until September of 1996.
In 1990 I was working as a Police Neighborhood Officer. I worked in PAL (Police Activities League) where we would work in schools, playing sports, hiking, and as a mentor for kids. I received a Life Saving Award and many other awards.
The one thing that stood out the most to me as a police officer was when I prayed with the young man involved in a fatal collision. I was able to pray with him before he passed away. I have been in Law Enforcement and Security for 37 years.
In December 2018 my son Ricardo asked if I wanted to try Tiger Rock Taekwondo. I officially joined in January 2019. I was asked by Instructor Frank Maddox, now Master Maddox, if I would be interested in becoming an Instructor trainee. I am now a 2nd Degree Level 2 Black Belt and a Certified Instructor.
My nickname is Papa Matta, since Ricardo is Mr. Matta. He is a Certified Instructor and a 3rd-degree Level 3 Black Belt. My grandson Joshua is a Black Belt, Jackson is a Level 3 Brown Belt, and Jasper, a recently promoted Tiger Cub, is now a yellow belt. I joke that the family that fights together, stays together.
In October of 2022, I was promoted to Security Sergeant Site Lead of Dell Children’s Hospital on the day shift from a night shift Sergeant. I recently received an Excellence in Action Award for assisting in helping rescue a man outside of the hospital.
