Page 6 November 11, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Eagles from page 3
Matt Knox from front page
to work with Matt and the Wonderful team.”
And to think that Knox grew up with
aspirations to become a professional ice
hockey player, with the smallish but pugilistic
endowed Calgary Flame winger Theo
Fleury as a role model. Or to become a
rock star, as Knox fronted what he termed
a “hair band” decades ago. He said that he
favored the dudes in the band, Van Halen
or Jon Bon Jovi.
Alas, Knox said that the advent of grungetype
music and bands tanked the popularity
and commercial dreams of most hair bands.
And he begrudgingly came to the realization
that he was not going to make it to the NHL
as the next Theo Fleury.
So, it was time to recalibrate his career
path, he said.
Raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois, Knox
moved to the Tucson, Arizona, area when he was
in fourth grade. Knox said that once he
moved to Tucson, he thought he was done
with hockey, a sport he had played since the
age of three. “I thought my career was over,”
he said, but he was able to land a spot with
a Tucson area traveling team to continue his
ice capades.
After finishing his high school years, he
headed to Hollywood with his bandmates to
conquer the LA-area music scene, “become
famous rock stars,” he said, a dream shared
by more than a few musicians. He and his
bandmates briefly attended a musician’s
institute, attempting to sharpen their chops.
At that time, he said, he chose to play college
hockey at the University of Arizona or
continue fronting the band. “I chose the band,”
Knox said, “literally because it sounded more
awesome” than gliding up and down a sheet
of ice in Arizona and getting into occasional
tussles with six-foot-four defensemen.
Knox said he and his band haunted the
Sunset Strip from 1988-93, but then Nirvana
and their distinctive brand of grunge music
overwhelmed the music industry, which, Knox
said, “was the end of an era, and wiped-out the
rock and roll hair band era.” He and his mates,
Knox said, had played all the venues that were
“packed and happening” at the time on the
Sunset Strip, including the Whisky A Go Go,
the Roxy, and the Troubadour. But once it
became apparent that he was not going to
make his big-time mark in the music industry,
he pivoted his career aspirations.
He then bounced around the South Bay for
a while. He had, in that period, connected
with the current mayor of El Segundo, Drew
Boyles. Knox said that Boyles is also big-time
into music, and the association was made as
Knox pondered his next steps.
Welcome to Mayberry.
“El Segundo is an unbelievably businessfriendly
city,” Knox said, as well as being
welcoming to the creative industry. Knox
noted the availability of business space in
the Smoky Hollow part of town, and how
certain of the industrial units available were
very enticing for tech company entrepreneurs
and businesses who were not looking to cage
their employees in old-school drab cubicles
but featured “open space that we could make
our own.”
But there was a slight detour.
Since the music and hockey aspirations
petered out, “I wanted to make some money,”
Knox said of his work time before starting
Wonderful Collective. “I knew people in
financial services, so it was an easy introduction,”
he said as he joined the 9-to-5
working class. He said he enjoyed his time
in the financial industry, working on the life
insurance side, learning about how businesses
work. He said that he “had an affinity for
financial products, and I love selling, so it
was a natural fit.”
But while working in the financial services
field, Knox realized that he still was
not toiling in the area where he wanted to
make his living. So, he sought a new avenue
of employment. The financial services field
was “understandably, highly regulated, a bit
suffocating,” he said, relating how the tension
and differences between the relative freedom
of the rock-and-roll field and the financial
world led him to explore diving into the tech
sector, which he termed “an open field for
creativity.” He soon embraced the world of
tech, “the most “rock-and-roll thing in business
that I could think of,” he said.
And so, his new career took shape.
Wonderful Collective has partnered with
companies like EA Sports, GoDaddy, and
Lexus, as well as designing digital platforms
for the National Hockey League, the
National Football League, and the PGA golf
tour. They have also designed the “Bingie”
app, which allows avid content streamers to
“list whatever you want to watch, on every
single (platform),” Knox said. “Our goal
with Bingie,” Knox said, “is that you will
never have to guess what you want to watch
across all streaming platforms.”
Knox still hits the ice, saying that playing
hockey is “my meditation time. It reminds
me that “everything is going to be fine. You
get out there, run into a few guys, and they
run into you, and you feel better about life.”
He lives locally with his wife Skaie, who he
said is a “fantastic singer and songwriter,”
which Knox said “keeps the music going
on in my house.”
Knox touts the business-friendly environment
of El Segundo. “They have done such
an excellent job of attracting businesses,”
he said, mentioning that one of his favorite
relaxation destinations is Rock &-Brews,
which, he said, has “captured the backstage
feeling of a rock and roll show” while also
showing sports on their multiple screens.
The hockey guy Knox noted that he could
view the Stanley Cup at Rock & Brews after
one of the two LA. Kings triumphant seasons
in the last decade.
As for partnering with his brother Johnnie,
Knox calls the relationship “Awesome and
seamless. We have worked together for 15
years. We are both good at different things.”
For his part, brother Johnnie Munger, who
is currently working remotely from Tucson,
thinks the brother partnership is a great fit.
Munger is 14 years younger than his brother
and did mention that when he was interviewed.
Munger played tennis growing up, dabbled
in the music industry, and when Matt broached
getting into the digital field, Munger said he
was all in. He said that when he was making
music, he knew that the bands he played with
had to have a digital marketing presence. But
when the musical dreams waned, he and his
brother “woke up and realized that there was
value in (website and app designs), so why
not do it professionally?”
Munger said he is “pretty much in charge
of all creative output that comes out of Wonderful.”
Matt, Munger said, is the front-man
of the company, “and I am good standing
behind him,” noting that Matt is the character
guy in the company, always looking at the
bigger picture to move Wonderful forward.”
Added Munger, somewhat facetiously, about
his older brother: “Try to make him look
really old in the article,” softening that later,
saying “make him look ‘cool ancient,’ and
adding that Matt “is the face of the company,
and people trust him for a good reason.”
He said his tight relationship with his
brother is “the reason that we do well. We
complement each other. Where I fail, he
succeeds, and vice-a-versa,” noting that, as
brothers, they both have similar values.
What is on the upcoming agenda for Wonderful
Collective? Knox was asked? “We are
going to become our own biggest clients,”
he said, “teaming up with local businesses to
launch new products,” as well as increasing
the footprint of Wonderful Collective, both
regionally and nationally.
Hockey guy, rock and roller, entrepreneur:
Matt Knox, chasing the digital dream. •
Wonderful
Collective’s Matt Knox. Photo provided by Wonderful
Collective.
of their three matches. Single victories were
contributed by singles players Grace Bloom
and Hannah A. Smith and the doubles team
of Katrina Smith and Nora Green and Kate
Belson and Audrey CdeBaca. Sunny Hills
just had too much for an Eagle squad that
was exhausted by playing essentially five
matches in a week.
It was a crushing way to end their season,
but the team was still proud of their accomplishments
even through the adversity they
faced early on and towards the end. The
seven seniors, including Katrina Smith, Sam
Robert, Nora Green, Audrey CdeBaca, Lily
Boutry, Kate Belson and Morgen Jackson,
showed resilience and leadership to their
young teammates.
The Eagles, who fought through the adversity
of losing their coach to start the season
and their interim coach didn’t work out, were
grateful when Bonnie Maye stepped in to guide
the team. Sam Robert and the other seniors
said, “Ms. Maye stepped in to help the team
even though she does not play tennis.” One
observer said, “She has been such a nurturing
influence, and they could not have had a
season without her.” The Eagles ended their
season with a 6-5 record.
Lars Nootbaar (baseball)
Get used to seeing former El Segundo Eagle
and now Major League baseball player Lars
Nootbaar being mentioned in the sports section.
The 24-year-old right fielder for the St. Louis
Cardinals is turning heads with his hitting
and defense in the Arizona Fall League. He
is honing his skills playing for the Glendale
Desert Dogs. Lars is leading the fall circuit in
home runs (5), slugging percentage (.813), and
extra-base hits (12), second in OPS (1.142),
and fifth in batting average (.355).
In one game, Lars hit for the full cycle
collecting a walk, single, double, triple and
home run.
Cardinals’ Lars Nootbaar completed a cycle
with a bloop single in the 11th inning for the
Desert Dogs. Hitting out of the leadoff spot,
the 24-year-old worked a four-pitch walk
in the first, doubled to the left in the third,
tripled to the right in the seventh, and mashed
a game-tying home run to the right in the
ninth. The long ball was his fifth of the Fall
League and pulled him back into a tie atop
on the leaderboard with Boston’s Jeter Downs.
The four-knock performance raised Nootbaar’s
AFL slash line to a whopping .375/.490/.900.
Through his first ten games in the first inning,
he drew a walk, doubled in the third inning,
and tripled to right field in the seventh inning.
He hit a game-tying home run in the top of the
ninth inning and finished off the cycle with a
single to center field in the 11th inning in the
Desert Dogs’ 6-5 loss to Scottsdale.
Casey Lund (soccer)
Casey Lund finished up his collegiate freshman
season playing soccer for the Middlebury
College Panthers. He played in 13 games,
starting in five of them, and helped his team
to a 10-4-3 record. Casey guided his team
to an appearance in the New England Small
College Athletic Conference Tournament
(NESCAC) semi-final, where they fell to the
top seed 1-0. •
The Eagles, pose with their coach Bonnie Maye after their win against Oxnard.
Lars Nootbaar is tearing up the Arizona Fall League playing for
the Glendale Desert Dogs.
Former El Segundo Eagle standout Casey Lund wrapped up his
freshman season at Middlebury College (Vermont), where he
helped guide the Panthers to a 10-4-3 record.