Bye Plans On Career In Epidemiology

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson.

MOORHEAD ---During his first couple years at Concordia, multiple-sport athlete Matt Bye decided to change his long-term career plans to epidemiology.

Admittedly, Rob Bye, Matt's father, said he didn't know much of anything about the role of an epidemiologist, a person who studies the spread of disease.

"Everybody on the planet knows what it is now," Rob said. "Who would have known?"

The coronavirus pandemic caused an early end to Matt's athletic career with the Cobbers as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced about a month ago that all spring sports seasons were canceled.

A senior, Matt was an NCAA Division III All-American in the men's decathlon last spring. He had aspirations of earning another outdoor track All-American honor this spring.

"It's not something you think about when you are younger, having your last sports season pulled from under you like that," said Matt, a Moorhead High school graduate. "It's no one's fault. There is really no one to be mad at because it was the right decision I think. … It was a feeling of emptiness that you missed out on something that you were looking forward to."

Matt was preparing to compete at the Division III Indoor meet in the men's pentathlon in Winston-Salem, N.C., when the NCAA canceled the remaining winter championships and all spring championships on March 12, which was the eve of the D-III Indoor. The MIAC canceled its spring seasons the next day.

"It was pretty sad right away," Matt said. "I don't think I really emotionally felt it until a couple days later. It took awhile to process it."

At 6-foot-4, 195 pounds, Matt also played wide receiver for the Cobbers football team. He had 13 catches for 246 yards and four touchdowns last fall.

"I'd say that helped," Matt said of having a senior football season at Concordia. "Being a local guy and football being a pretty big deal in the area, that was nice to have closure with that at least."

Matt was also the last in a line of Concordia athletes from his family. Rob played football for the Cobbers in the early 1980s and was on the 1981 national championship team. Matt's older brothers, John and Erik, also played football and competed in track and field at Concordia.

"For me, the end of an era," Rob said. "I'm OK with that. There's kind of a sense of loss to it that it ended the way it ended, but the fact is it ends for all of us and these kids move on into life."

Matt is headed to graduate school at the University of Milwaukee next fall to earn a Master of Public Health in epidemiology.

"It's kind of helped put things in perspective, being able to understand it's important that we don't put sports over people's lives," Matt said of his plans of a career in epidemiology. "It didn't seem that way right away, it maybe seemed like a knee-jerk reaction, but at the end of the day, it was probably smart ending a lot of the sports things that were going on."

Matt said there's a chance he could compete in track and field at the University of Milwaukee next spring to cap his college track career.

"I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet, but that's potentially an option on the table," he said.

Matt said he probably felt the worst for his grandparents, Marlene Bye and Dennis Borgen, that his athletic season career at Concordia was cut short.

"They have been really supportive," Matt said.

Matt said his perspective on athletics changed during his career at Concordia. While he remained competitive and driven, he also valued the social aspect.

That showed when the D-III Indoor meet was canceled. He got text messages not only from teammates, but also his competitors. Matt received messages from rivals that said it was an "honor to compete against you."

"That meant a lot more to me now than it would have when I was younger," Matt said. "I became a lot more relationship-driven (with athletics). I tended to care a lot about those I was able to compete with and I was able to train with. … That kind of helped maybe deal with all of this."