When They Played: L-P wrestling coach Matt Rebholz

To motivate his wrestlers, La Salle-Peru coach Matt Rebholz will point to the record boards in the school’s wrestling room.

“I challenge all of my wrestlers to knock me off the record boards in the room because that would mean I am doing my job as a coach,” said Rebholz, who has been an assistant for the Cavaliers and was hired as head coach in the fall.

Rebholz has plenty of accomplishments noted on the wrestling room wall.

He is No. 2 for single-season wins (45), No. 4 for single-season pins (34), No. 2 for career pins (93) and No. 3 for single season team points (238).

Rebholz was a three-time conference champion and placed sixth in the Class AA 215-pound weight class as a senior in 2000 when he finished 45-4.

He helped the team win back-to-back conference championships and finish 20-3 with a regional title in 2000 when the Cavs qualified eight wrestlers for the state meet.

Rebholz also played football and baseball at L-P. He served as captain of the football team and played nose guard, fullback, kicker and punter. Rebholz was an outfielder for the baseball team and helped the Cavs go 45-22 in his junior and senior seasons.

After graduating from L-P in 2000, Rebholz was co-captain of the IVCC tennis team for one year before transferring to Northern Illinois University where he wrestled for one year.

“Each coach I have had since youth football and youth wrestling all the way through college tennis and wrestling has influenced by coaching style,” Rebholz said. “I want to try to pull all of the positive things from each coach and apply it to my coaching style.

“Every coach had an influence on me. My youth coaches helped me love the sport, my high school coaches helped me develop and my college coaches taught me how to truly work hard.”

A quote he heard from one of his coaches instilled in him the importance of developing all players on a team.

“A quote I remember vividly is, ‘Your team is only as good as your least skilled person in the room. Coaches must coach everyone to make them better. If I can make the least skilled kid good, he will make the good kids better, making the whole team better,’” Rebholz said. He also draws on his experiences as an athlete when he feels it could help his own athletes.

“I pull from all of my experience participating in sports and try to apply it to the students when the moments are right,” Rebholz said.