By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

 Matt Bozyczko has been playing football as long as he can remember—it has been a major part of his life. 

When he got to high school, he not only continued to play the sport that he loved, but he also decided to try playing basketball as well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t something that he could get into and his friend, Tristan Crimmins-Dearujo convinced him to try wrestling the following year as a sophomore. 

“Honestly, originally I didn’t want to wrestle at all. People have their opinions on the sport and I was like that until I tried and learned how to wrestle,” the Holliston senior said. “That first year was really hard; the conditioning was nothing like I had ever done before. No one knows how hard it is until you do it, but it allows you to push your body to the limit.”

During the first couple of weeks Bozcyzko didn’t even know if he was built for wrestling but realized that everyone else was feeling the same way, so they all struggled together as a family.

“Matt was in my English class and I thought wrestling would be good to help him with his football,” Coach Alex Strum said. “He was a little thin and basically had to learn how to wrestle on the job and although it as a tall task he took it to heart and learned how to handle himself rather quickly.”

Bozyczko found that wrestling was good for his football career, especially with his hand control in moving his opponent. He found that the more he wrestled the more he saw that his conditioning improved and he was becoming a better football player, so much so that he was named the Tri-Valley League lineman of the year this past season.

The first-time wrestler doesn’t remember exactly how he did in terms of wins and losses. He knows it wasn’t great and recalls the very first match that he had representing the Panthers.

“That first year was bleak and my first match was against one of the best wrestlers in the Massachusetts,” he said. “I got destroyed, but Coach Strum told me to shake it off and get back into the room and work on getting better.”

He did just that and although it took him some time, he was eventually able to secure his first varsity wrestling win.

“My season wasn’t that good for a varsity wrestler,” he said, “But I don’t like to quit and if I start something I am going to keep with it and here I am today.”

Coach Strum agrees that Bozyczko’s first campaign only saw him win about one-third of his matches, but he could see the potential. According to the Coach, he found himself losing because of his lack of technique and didn’t understand the sport of wrestling just yet. 

The following year his record improved to above .500, according to the Panther grappler it was not all that glamorous. Coach Strum noted wrestlers historically make that leap in their third year and it looks as though things are starting to click for Bozyczko and the coach is looking for him to be Holliston’s anchor wrestling in the 175-pound weight class. At the time of this writing, Bozyczko possessed a 15-4 record on the mat and he feels that he is giving his all in each and every match.

Upon entering the season, the senior was looking to be able to battle hard and come out with a positive record. After that his goals were to place in a tournament and place in the Sectionals so that he could go to the State Tournament.

“I had never come close to placing in a tournament, but so far I’ve finished third in the Marlboro Tournament, second in the Agawam Tournament and fifth at the Chelmsford Tournament” he said. “After that I definitely want to place at the Sectionals but would actually like to win at the Sectionals and get my name up on the wall with the other great wrestlers at Holliston.”

Whatever he is able to accomplish during his third and final wrestling season with Holliston he can always look back at his TVL Lineman of the Year award and it will remind him of how he actually got there through wrestling.

“Wrestling definitely helped my football game 100%,” Bozyczko said. “Without wrestling I know I wouldn’t be anywhere as good as I was on the football field this season. Now I want to end up on the top in wrestling.”