| Office1: | Commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Term Label1: | Assumed office | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Term Start1: | March 4, 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office2: | Commissioner of the Games and Amusements Board | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Term Start2: | 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Term End2: | 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Matthew "Fritz" Gaston is a Filipino former basketball player and coach.
The basketball team of the Ateneo de Manila University had Gaston as a player. He was part of the Ateneo squad which won two consecutive titles in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1975 and 1976.[1] He was part of the last NCAA Ateneo squad before the university left the collegiate league in 1978 to transfer to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).[2]
Gaston also played in the Philippine Basketball Association from 1979 to 1986.[2] He played for multiple teams namely as the U/Tex Wranglers (1980), San Miguel Beermen (1983), Crispa Redmanizers (1984), Manila Beer Brewmasters (1985) and the Great Taste Coffee Makers (1986). With U/Tex he clinched the 1980 PBA All-Filipino Conference title.[1]
He was also a player for the Philippine youth national team in 1977.[1]
Gaston became coach of his alma mater's basketball team. He led the Ateneo Blue Eagles to a UAAP title in Season 51 (1988).[3]
He served as an assistant coach under Norman Black for the Mobiline Cellulars for the 1997 PBA All-Filipino Cup and Commissioner's Cup.[4]
In 2003, Gaston became the head coach of the Philippines women's national basketball team.[5] He guided the team to a bronze medal finish at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and a silver medal finish at the 2007 SEABA Championship for Women.[6]
Gaston was commissioner for the Games and Amusement Board, a government body which deals with professional sports in the Philippines, from 2011 to 2017.[5] He would be later appointed as a commissioner for the Philippine Sports Commission (that administers grassroots and amateur sports) on March 24, 2023 by President Bongbong Marcos.[7]
Gaston has Silay, Negros Occidental as his hometown.[5] [8] Gaston is married to Aurora Mandanas Gaston, a former beauty pageant contestant who won the 1984 Miss Asia Pacific.[9]
His daughter, Pauline is a professional volleyball player who has played in the Filipino Premier Volleyball League.[10] [11] Therese, another daughter is a former collegiate volleyball player and a beauty pageant queen like her mother.[9] [12]