Loyola Academy鈥檚 Odiotti is the best finisher in program history on IHSA state mat
WILMETTE, Ill. — Loyola Academy has had a long history of success in many sports. One sport that seems to have escaped that long history, however, is wrestling. According to the IHSA, Loyola has only had one wrestler place at the state meet, Michael Paloian, who took sixth place in the 182-lb. bracket in 2012.
That changed this year, however, when Loyola Academy junior Massey Odiotti became the highest finisher in Loyola program history when he took second place in the 120-lb. bracket at the state meet.
“I knew that Loyola hadn’t had a finalist and the entire history going into season and yes, definitely was a goal,” Odiotti said. “My original goal the year was to win it, but second place is still pretty awesome.”
Odiotti’s success at the state meet may not have been a big surprise to many people, as he’s been on the varsity squad for all three years thus far and won Catholic League, regional and sectional championships this season in his weight class.
Loyola wrestling has had a resurgence since Matt Collum took over as coach three years ago and has seen a number of wrestlers, as well as the team, continue to get better under his leadership.
One of those wrestlers includes Odiotti, who said Collum has helped a lot in his development.
“I think he’s the best high school coach in the state and not, not only just him, he’s a big part, but he brings in other coaches, our entire coaching staff is like amazing,” Odiotti said. “Our coaching staff’s just really…it’s deep. We have a ton of great coaches and my freshman year was Matt Collum’s first year. When he came my freshman year that’s what definitely started the upward trend. And it’s just been going off from there.”
Like many sports, wrestling didn’t have a proper state playoffs last season, so many of the wrestlers competed in a state-like meet hosted by the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Offcials Association state championships.
Odiotti, then a sophomore, went 1-2 at the meet and didn’t advance far enough to be able to place at state.
That finish was a bit of an eye-opener for Odiotti, but interestingly enough it was an opponent in his freshman year that stood out to both Odiotti and Collum and was one that helped him to this day.
Libertyville’s Caelan Riley, who knocked Odiotti out of the sectional two years ago and then faced Odiotti in the sectional final this year, seemed to be a thorn in Odiotti’s side.
“I knew I had a shot of winning it all this year after I beat him in the finals of our first tournament at Barrington,” Odiotti said. “I’d lost to him five times before bested him this year and I knew he was ranked, I think at that time, top three or four in the state. So I knew going into that tournament, I’d probably have him in the finals. And then after I beat him, I knew that I could place. I knew I made a big jump from sophomore year, so I knew I had a shot at winning it.”
A big thing that changed for Odiotti from last season to this season was his confidence level.
“When I wrestle, I know like my whole high school career and even like in middle school, I always used to like, be super timid and if they had a good name or if they were ranked or something, I wouldn’t wrestle like my best,” he said. “I would always just underperform basically. And I just kind of got a confidence I could win every match I wrestling.
“I used to be super timid and shy but when I started wrestling all year-round, something just changed.”
Up until this past offseason, Odiotti hadn’t been a wrestler who had focused primarily on wrestling. He played other sports, such as soccer, so not all of his offseason training time was dedicated to wrestling.
A couple things that really helped him decide to focus all of his time to wrestling was when he attended the World Team Trials and Fargo Nationals. The competitions didn’t go as he’d have liked and that taste of defeat stuck with him and it was something he didn’t want to feel again.
“I tried the first time and it didn’t go so well,” he said. “But I trained like a lot since then again, like wrestling year round and then obviously I’ve made like a huge level jump from state last year to taking second. So I think I improved a lot.
“And then also the fact that a lot of people are juniors now for world team trials and I’m still cadet, so I’m still one age group down. So I think that also gives me a little bit of advantage, which is going to obviously help. And I think I can do really well this year at the world trials.”
One thing that’s also helped is that Collum has brought in wrestlers either in college or recently just graduated to practice against some of his wrestlers.
Within the past year wrestlers, like recent Northwestern graduate Colin Valdiviez, have come in and helped out in the Loyola practice room.
“I definitely learned a lot and one big thing was pace,” he said. “Colin, being just fresh out of college and in really good shape. He always pushed the pace on me, just told me to not stop wrestling. That was another thing last year I used to stop. If I felt like I was getting taken down, maybe just giving it up. But when I wrestled with him, I’d learned to keep wrestling through positions, not give up the points until聽 they’re given and then keep fighting even after that.”
With team trials in April and Fargo Nationals, it’ll be fun to watch Odiotti as he continues to get better and to see what he can do next season on an IHSA mat again.
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