LEOMINSTER  — Leominster High’s wrestling coach Matt Schiller passionately emphasized the importance of hard work and dedication as his wrestlers lunged lengthwise across the basketball court during Monday night’s practice. 

“There is nothing you can do in this world where you can show up part-time and be good at it,” he said. “If I was your employer and you didn’t show up for my work and you didn’t tell me why, you would be fired. I would say, ‘buh-bye, see you later, go away!’”

Schiller pulled together a diverse team of 29 wrestlers this year, including two women. This is the first time the Blue Devils have had a full team in over a decade. 

“The biggest thing isn’t a lack of talent, it’s been a lack of numbers,” Schiller explained. “I don’t remember them having a full team in 15 years. They always had good individual kids, but if you don’t have a full team, you are giving up 6, 12, 18 points. You can’t have a winning record. So, it’s been quite a long time since they had a winning record.”

Schiller coached at the Advanced Math & Science Academy in Marlborough from 2013 to 2017. He was in retirement for two years when he got a call from Leominster High’s Athletic Director David Palazzi.

“With COVID, we didn’t wrestle last year. 2019 was the first year we hired Matt,” said Palazzi. “Matt has done a fantastic job. Wrestling is a huge sport in Leominster. It has been one of those sports that we are well known for, [but] we have struggled over the past four or five years.”

Schiller stepped in for James Sheehan at the end of the season three years ago, officially taking over the program a year later. Sheehan stopped coaching to assist his wife with their newborn child. 

Prior to working in Leominster, Schiller was Nashoba Regional High School’s wrestling coach from 2001 to 2011, where he had the pleasure of coaching me long before it was fashionable to have a girl on your team. 

While at practice Monday, Schiller reminded me of a match I wrestled right where we were, in Leominster High School’s gym some 20 years ago. The match he referred to was more of a street brawl than a wrestling match. 

My opponent, a male, kicked me in the head. The referee didn’t intervene until I responded by returning a kick. After the ref broke up the fight, citing “unnecessary roughness” for both of us, my opponent fell to his knees and proceeded to get sick on the mat, then I won the match.  Years later, my father told me he never wanted to see me wrestle again after that.

I began wrestling my freshman year in high school with Schiller. He’s a die-hard aficionado of the sport who’ll workout with his wrestlers up to five hours a day if they’re dedicated. I put in my time, and by my sophomore year, I placed third in sectionals and made it all the way to the men’s Division 2 State Championships in the 103-pound weight class. Two years later, when I was a senior, I returned to state’s again, scoring a point, one of the first women to do so at the state level in Massachusetts. 

My senior year, in 2003, Schiller also took me to the first ever United States Girls Wrestling Association New England Championship, which I won handily in 2 minutes and 11 seconds, pinning all my opponents. I then went on to girl’s nationals and came in third, becoming an All-American athlete.

“You know how I am, if you can handle wrestling, you can wrestle,” Schiller said of having women on his team. 

Today, Schiller has continued his tradition of turning the underdog into a champion. First, by pulling together the most robust team Leominster High School has seen in 15 years, and second, by recruiting and welcoming aspiring wrestlers from all walks of life; most of his current wrestlers have a year of experience or less.

“I think with the team this year we have some tough kids which is 50 percent of wrestling,” Schiller said. “It’s going to be a rough start. We wrestle some really good teams, Methuen, Natick, but I think as the season goes on, we will be good.”

Leominster High is a Division I team, one of the top divisions in the state with some pretty tough competitors including Natick, Springfield, Methuen, Franklin, and Framingham. However, Schiller says that as his team progresses, he believes the Blue Devils will become a force to be reckoned with.

“I think we are an up-and-coming program and a team to watch out for in the next two or three years,” he said.