Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Michael Jordan
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Placing fourth at team states my freshman year with my teammates
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: The most embarrassing thing would probably be the time in my sophomore year when I had my singlet on backwards going into my semifinals match at regionals.
Music on my playlist: Kanye, Mac Miller, Drake, and pretty much anything with a good beat.
Future plans: Attending the United States Naval academy
Words to live by: “Don’t take things to seriously, and be grateful for everything.”
One goal before turning 30: To become a better version of myself in all aspects of my life.
One thing people don’t know about me: I'm really big into Marvel and Star Wars media.
By Ed Morrone
Wrestlers are a rare breed.
To achieve excellence in their chosen sport, they have to push themselves harder than perhaps any other kind of athlete, and one would think such physical and mental sacrifice would lead to an unconditional love of the vocation. Otherwise, why do it at all?
But in the case of Council Rock South senior Matt Colajezzi, things aren’t quite that simple.
Colajezzi is District 1’s top-ranked wrestler at 160 pounds, and according to South wrestling head coach Brad Silimperi, is tops in his weight class in wrestling-obsessed Pennsylvania as well as one of the very best in the entire country. So how does Colajezzi feel about the sport that has propelled him to such heights, not to mention three straight district titles, a fourth-place finish at last year’s state tournament and a life-changing wrestling scholarship to the United States Naval Academy?
“It’s a love-hate relationship,” Colajezzi said Wednesday night after pinning Pennsbury’s Benjamin Primich to improve to 23-1 on the season. “I didn’t like it at first, but I learned to like it. Nobody likes getting their face pushed into the mat, but that’s how you get better. It’s become my life. It’s all I do, it’s who I am. When you build your lifestyle around a sport, it becomes your identity. Sometimes I don’t like it, but at the same time I go to it when I’m stressed out or have a bad day. It becomes therapy when I can get it all out, and that’s the fun part.
“If you’re being honest with yourself, not everyone likes working and pushing themselves. There are going to be days you don’t feel like doing it, but you do it anyway because that's how you get better. It sounds corny, but when you fall in love with the grind, that’s where the growth comes from.”
Colajezzi started wrestling around first grade, but at the time he was more into traditional mainstream sports like football, basketball and baseball. At first, wrestling was simply an outlet for Colajezzi to become more aggressive on the football field. Eventually, it evolved into something more than that.
“I found that wrestling was my thing, more so than any other sport,” he said.
From there, Colajezzi was off to the races. As a freshman at South, he posted a 40-12 record, and while it’s not out of the ordinary for a varsity wrestler to achieve such success so early, Colajezzi impressed everybody around him with how consistent he was in all aspects of the sport.
“Matt will be going for his fourth straight district title,” Silimperi said. “I don’t care what sport you play or what league you’re in…only a few people in their careers can say they did that. He was good right out of the gate, and he’s gotten better every year. There’s nothing flashy about him, he’s just good in every single position. For Matt, it’s a mindset more than it is technique, and that comes from his discipline and training.”
On the surface, wrestling may appear to be a predominantly physical sport, and while that’s a major part of it, there’s also a lot more immeasurable factors that give star wrestlers like Colajezzi their edge.
He certainly agrees with his head coach on the mindset bit.
“Consistency is key, and when I wrestle my style, I don’t have to worry about my opponent,” Colajezzi said. “Now, he’s forced to wrestle my style. It’s not all that goes into it, but it is the mindset: there’s nothing else to worry about but getting a lead and working from there. Don’t worry about the opponent; make the opponent worry about you. Go out there with an open mind, stay loose, have fun and take everything he gives me without forcing anything.”
Colajezzi followed up his freshman campaign with a 35-11 sophomore season, another excellent showing that was decidedly not good enough for Colajezzi himself. It was the second straight season that ended with him not placing at states. To Colajezzi, this meant that he was too satisfied with what he had accomplished in year one instead of building on top of the foundation that had already set.
Not only that, but the end of his sophomore year was when COVID first hit the world hard, and like everyone else on the planet, Colajezzi didn’t know how to react. “I was in my feelings,” he admitted. “Wallowing, self-pity…”
Thankfully for Colajezzi, South assistant coach Dustin Tancredi became something of an unexpected quarantine mentor. Over the summer, the two would work out exhaustively in Tancredi’s basement, disassembling everything Colajezzi had done in his first two seasons only to build it back from the ground up.
“My stance, offense, top, bottom…everything,” Colajezzi said. “The biggest thing was a change in mentality. I wouldn’t say I was timid, but I was maybe going through the motions. I had a purpose now. He set me on a path of success, and I’ve been training with him ever since. He woke me up. I’m grateful for him and I wouldn’t be here without him. He’s a testament to what I’ve become.”
Colajezzi returned for his junior year with a vengeance, winning 27 of his 31 matches, including the 100th of his career during the state tournament. Not only that, but he finally found himself on the elusive medal podium, placing fourth. According to Silimperi, Colajezzi’s only two defeats came in the semifinals to a top-ranked wrestler in the country, as well as in the 3rd-4th match to a returning state champion.
“I’ve been taught to win with class and lose with class,” Colajezzi said. “The best guys stay level-headed and just ride the wave. All I could think about on that podium is how thankful I was for such an awesome opportunity. Savor the moment and live in it as long as possible. I may never get that opportunity again, so I’m just grateful.”
Of course, it stands to reason that there is an extremely strong possibility that Colajezzi does get one more opportunity at a medal. Maybe even better than fourth place, too. Colajezzi admits that there is an unfinished business element to this final run, because to him, if he isn’t shooting to become a state champion then he isn’t aiming for the highest rung of the ladder.
The less time Colajezzi spends worrying about it, the more confident he is that it will happen for him this time.
As far as what comes next, it’s another big step, but one Colajezzi feels he’s ready for. A high school wrestler’s transition to a military service academy isn’t guaranteed to be seamless, but the intense structure of a wrestling routine will have obvious parallels to the disciplined regiment of what Navy expects from its student-athletes.
The Colajezzi-Navy pairing “came out of left field,” so the military calling wasn’t something that he and his family had spent his whole life chasing. He didn’t expect it to be a real possibility, because truthfully — and perhaps a little naively — Colajezzi didn’t see himself as someone the military would even be interested in. He always knew he wanted to wrestle at the Division I level but assumed he would end up at one of the Big Ten or ACC wrestling factories.
“The United States Naval Academy, that’s just crazy,” Colajezzi said. “But I have always been a team player, someone who wants to serve something bigger than myself. Life has a way of keeping you on the path you’ve been on the entire time even if you haven’t seen it yet. Now, I see it. I have a plan, something to work toward that will give me a future after high school. I want to do something at the academy to leave behind my mark on the world.”
Colajezzi hasn’t picked a career specialty yet, though he did mention aviation, submarine warfare, surface warfare or becoming a Navy SEAL as possible interests. Math, science and history are his favorite classes at South, and he figures whatever he ends up doing will be some blend of those subjects.
As far as what he likes to do and think about when he’s not wrestling, Colajezzi made it clear that when he’s done wrestling for the day, he has no issue hitting the off switch and leaving it inside the gym. In order to decompress, he craves less of his sport when he’s off the clock, not more. He’ll watch some collegiate wrestling on television but is more interested in tracking the Philadelphia pro teams. Colajezzi absolutely loves the Star Wars and Marvel universes and devours every bit of content available, and he also enjoys going for long runs, but more for the therapeutic aspect than the wrestling one.
“I like to give myself as much space as possible from wrestling, that way when I come back to it I can love it just as much,” he said.
There is little doubt that Colajezzi will succeed in anything he does in the future, both wrestling endeavors and otherwise. He speaks eloquently and is both thoughtful about the future and reflective of his present and past. There is an inherent maturity that the discipline of wrestling fosters, and Colajezzi is certainly on the right path toward something special.
When asked to imagine life without Colajezzi next season, Silimperi paused several times, fighting back the tears and emotions that come with watching a kid you’ve known since first grade reach the loftiest of heights with still more to grab.
“He’s been a part of my life since he was 5 or 6 years old,” Silimperi said. “I always say I’m not a coach, I’m a professional dream chaser: I help kids chase theirs. One of the joys of this is seeing them achieve their dreams when they put the time and effort in. He’s doing that now, and I’m just living in the moment. We'll cross that bridge when next year comes.
“You struck a chord, and my emotions are high right now. The biggest thing I want to say is thanks to him and his family for allowing me to be a part of his life and journey. Great things will continue to come for him, and he’s one of the best to ever put on the Golden Hawks singlet. Just very proud of him.”
For Colajezzi, his head coach's sentiment is a two-way street.
“The Council Rock South wrestling program has given so much to me, my entire foundation for wrestling,” Colajezzi said. “I’ve known the coaches since I was a little boy and they’ve treated me like family. I’m going to really miss working hard and getting better with the guys I’ve known my whole life: my coaches, teammates and all the people who helped get me to where I am.”
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