Eight days before he was officially hired as Mishawaka Marian’s new boys basketball head coach, Monday, May 11, Matt Sobieralski led a rosary in the high school’s chapel for assistant coach Brian Foster, who is currently hospitalized following a serious car accident Friday, May 1. Foster underwent successful neck surgery on the day of the rosary, and Sobieralski interviewed for the position just two days later.
Leading up to the interview, Sobieralski admitted to still dealing with the raw emotions of one of his fellow coaches and close friends having gone through such a traumatic event, but he thought back to interactions he and Foster often had during their time together with the Knights for reassurance.
“He would always dap me up and say, ‘You’re the next guy,’ in his Brian kind of way,” Sobieralski said. “I did use that. It was an influential way of being able to get through that interview. It’s been a roller coaster.”
Foster’s wife, Natasha, texted Sobieralski to congratulate him on the new position, and Sobieralski promised to visit Foster at Memorial Hospital to personally tell him the news. It’s relationships like those that may have been Sobieralski’s biggest strength during the interview process, as he has dedicated more than half of his life to Marian.
First, it was as a student. Then, for the past 16 years, it has been as a teacher and coach. Athletic Director Steve Ravotto knows that while this is Sobieralski’s first IHSAA head coaching job, his experience as a Knight is invaluable and unparalleled by fellow applicants.
“With his expertise, he will continue to build on our past successes as he brings a culture of new ideas to lead the next generation of Marian Knights,” Ravotto said via press release.
Sobieralski said he was initially on the fence about applying for the job, which opened following the March 25 firing of 16-season leader Robb Berger in the wake of former Knights standout Demetrius Jackson being preliminarily charged with battery due to an alleged incident at a Marian boys basketball practice March 10. The incident was reported to the IHSAA by Marian Athletics immediately, leading to the one-game suspension of Berger in a Class 3A regional championship game, a 78-74 loss to East Chicago Central in which Sobieralski served as interim head coach without knowing he would become the full-time leader less than two months later.
After first doing so from 1996-99, Berger again led the Knights from 2010-26, during which time Sobieralski was an assistant for all 16 seasons and spent the last three as Marian’s assistant head coach. Berger had a combined record of 295-96 in his second stint as head coach with a 336-118 mark in 19 seasons overall. He won five sectional titles, two regional crowns and led Marian to the state title game in 2022.
Now, Sobieralski is the Knights’ fifth head coach this century.
“I never would have thought this was in the cards for me,” Sobieralski said. “I tell my students that all the time when it comes to teaching. Sixteen years ago, I wasn’t sitting there saying, ‘I’m going to be the head coach someday.’ As time goes on, you get involved more and more, and you grow in the community.”
Sobieralski said his experience coaching and playing at every level of Marian’s boys basketball program — freshman, junior varsity and varsity — means he can better relate to all players and means the culture won’t have to change much to succeed. The Knights haven’t had a losing record since the 2009-10 campaign, and although there will be two major differences with the loss of senior All-Northern Indiana Conference (NIC) First Team center Prescott Horvath and the addition of a new head coach, Sobieralski said to expect Marian to once again be competitive in an uber-talented Michiana area.
“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel; there have been things that have worked and we’re going to continue to do those things. It’s just going to be a new era,” Sobieralski said. “Some things will seem the same, but a lot of things are going to be different.”
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka Marian hires Matt Sobieralski as new boys basketball head coach
Reporting by Kyle Smedley, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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