Finding True North in South Hills: USA Wrestling Coach’s Corner on Matt Kocher

Photo: Matt Kocher (center) pictured with his sons Bennett (left) and Calvin (right).

Editor’s Note: This article appeared in WIN’s Volume 32 Issue 7, which printed on April 1, 2026. 

By Tristan Warner

After winning 151 collegiate matches and earning All-American honors at 157 pounds for Pitt in 2007, Matt Kocher stuck around at his alma mater and served as an assistant coach for eight seasons.

The State College, Pa. native helped the Panthers send 70 wrestlers to the NCAAs, including 2015 national finalist Tyler Wilps at 174 pounds.

Just after the 2017 NCAA Championships, Kocher transitioned out of his role at Pitt and into the youth coaching sphere, as his eldest son, Calvin, was in kindergarten and was just getting started in the sport.

“I always thought wrestling would be a part of my life, whether it would be my career or not,” Kocher said. “When I was in high school, I tried to coach the younger kids, and I always worked Ken Chertow’s summer camps coaching kids.

“Once CaIvin started, I went from coaching the NCAA finals to sitting in a room helping kids tie their shoes. It was a very humbling experience. You have to re-learn the sport. With high-level coaching at the college level, it is more individualized. You are not telling them how to go score. Then, with youth, you start from zero.

“Coaching novice is the hardest level to coach. You have to make it interesting and keep them engaged.”

Kocher started his own club in the Bethel Park area of suburban Pittsburgh called South Hills Wrestling Academy.

Offering several age-level classes as well as a girls’ segment, SHWA provides year-round training opportunities and private lessons. In the spring and summer months, the club transitions to the freestyle and Greco season.

He maintains that helping kids fall in love with the sport is of utmost importance.

“We try to help kids become fans of the sport. If I can make them passionate, then the skills will come. We have a TV in the wrestling room and watch lots of highlight tapes. We want the kids to see that those guys could be them someday.”

When it comes to coaching his own sons, including his younger son, Bennett, Kocher brings a cautious, reflective perspective rooted in his own experiences in the sport.

“Wrestling was a really special part of my life but was bordering on unhealthy at times. I always dreamed of sharing it with a son, but I never wanted to put the burden on him. When they were little, they just wanted to please dad; it is easy to please dad by winning youth tournaments. 

“For me, with both my sons it has been different. With my older son, even though I didn’t want it to be this way, I’ve been his main coach his whole life. There have been times when I can’t coach him, though. I made him nervous or he would shut down at times. But, for now, it has mostly been really good.”

As Calvin prepares to enter the high school ranks as a ninth grader next season and Bennett ascends through the youth system, the patriarch Kocher tries to harness and pass on lessons learned from his own wrestling journey.

“When I got into coaching, I never wanted to forget how hard it is. I see my son go through it, and I am just so proud and impressed by the way he works. Not the results. Just the way he shows up and does it. It is so rewarding to watch your kids commit to it.

“Both of my boys took some time off in sixth grade, coincidentally. Calvin has decided to choose wrestling, and I’m giving Bennett the space to choose wrestling now. I got to choose the sport. My brother didn’t wrestle nor did my father. Me getting to choose it was an advantage for me over some of my teammates who had to manage being pushed to wrestle.”

Kocher believes in surrounding not only his own kids but his club kids with as many sound mentors as possible. South Hills has plenty of highly accomplished wrestlers within its coaching lineup, including 2023 NCAA champion Nino Bonaccorsi (Pitt) and recent DI qualifiers Luke Stout (Princeton) and Brendan Furman (Cornell), among others.

But it is really more about the camaraderie and the overall experience, Kocher posits.

“For me, I am probably way more focused on the love of the sport than most. I have been in the sport long enough that I’ve gotten to see it the whole way through. I got to see people turn the page from wresting to career and family lives, but there are way too many stories of kids who weren’t able to apply that in life or didn’t gain the characteristics they were supposed to from wrestling.

“What is it all about? If you can’t have good morals, be a good person and turn the page, it isn’t worth it.”

SHWA has its own team bus (see photo) that the club uses to shuttle club members to and from events for the purpose of team building and bonding. They often rent out houses and stay together for competitions.

“It is all for selfish reasons because I did all these things so my kids would have buddies,” Kocher said.

But the true “bigger-than-wrestling” driving force behind the SHWA modus operandi is effectively summarized on the club’s website as follows:

“People can learn a lot from wrestling, but wrestling in itself does not always teach the lessons. Wrestling opens the door for the lessons to be taught and realized by athletes, coaches, parents and teammates. For the athlete, winning and achieving goals can be very important. As a coach, those goals are the carrot we dangle in front of the athlete to teach the bigger lessons.”

In the end, Kocher hopes to raise champions—but not at the expense of everything else. Because if his sons and club goers learn to love the sport, embrace the journey and carry its lessons into life, they’ve already won the most important match they will ever wrestle.