Illinois Valley news., November 23, 2016, Page 3, Image 3

Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Page A-3
IVHS coach has left the pitch
Jason McMillen
IVN Contributing Writer
Dick Matti has been a
coach for the girls’ soccer
team at the Illinois Valley
High School (IVHS) for eight
years and was responsible
for organizing the program,
planning practices, ensuring
that the proper equipment
was available, and, of course,
helping students improve
their game. At IVHS Matti
spent his first year as assistant
coach, though he ended up
coaching a lot of the time,
and the seven years after that
as the head coach. Before his
time at the IVHS Matti had
been teaching various club
teams in Grants Pass and even
founded the team at the North
Valley High School sometime
around 1991. In total, Matti
has been coaching for 32
years and when asked about
his favorite part of teaching he
stated, “I love being a part of
the kids’ lives. They keep me
young and hopefully I gave
them some guidance along the
way that will help them along
in life.”
The last season Matti
taught started in the third
week of August and ended
in the middle of October.
However, a week before
the season started there was
a special non-mandatory
event called “team camp”
which brings in coaches
from England and Brazil for
the youth who want to get
warmed up or hone their skills
for the coming season. This
year the guest coaches were
from Brazil. In total, the team
played 13 games with four
wins, eight losses and one
tie primarily against Rogue
River, Lakeview, Cascade
and St. Mary’s which are
the schools in their league.
However, a few of those 13
games were non-league. St.
Mary’s, according to Matti,
is the undisputed champion
of high school soccer in the
area had won first place in the
league for at least eight years
straight.
The MVP of the
team this year was Andrea
“Drea” Miller and she was,
according to Matti, “an
athletic, skilled, fearless and
aggressive player.” In total,
she scored nine of the 17
goals throughout the season
and assisted with two of the
other ones.
Matti has enjoyed soccer
throughout his life but he
did not play it in his youth
and only started coaching
when his daughters became
involved in the game. On the
topic of his recent retirement
Matti stated the reason as
simply, “old age,” before
laughing a bit and continuing
with, “I’m 71, and it’s just
getting very difficult for
me physically to handle the
practice.” As a final farewell
Matti said, “It’s been a
pleasure for me to be at I.V.
and I’ve enjoyed every year
and the players I got to work
with and their parents. I
would love to be able to keep
going but I just don’t feel like
I can.”
(Photo by Dan Mancuso, Illinois Valley News)
Coach Matti (bottom left) clowns around with his
players before Senior Night, Oct. 22, 2013.
Owners Ed & Colene Gonzalez