CHARLESTON, S.C. – What is a hero? Who is a hero? What makes someone heroic? It’s hard to define, but the Oxford Dictionary tells us that a hero is “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”
It remains hard to wrap our minds around, despite a definition. It’s because heroes are subjective. They’re something we each feel and process differently. Many people will list their favorite performers, athletes, or their closest friends and family members as their heroes. There’s certainly nothing wrong with those selections.
But to me personally, there’s one local man who deserves to be treated as a hero for a collection of reasons, no matter who you are. Matthew “Matt” Kyler of Clearfield is about as tough and strong willed as they come. He’s someone we can all strive to be more like in a few different ways.
Whether it is his outstanding wrestling career, dedication to his family, or his 13-plus years of service for the United States Army and National Guard, Kyler has many attributes and accomplishments to admire. As a youngster, Kyler had two incredibly forward-looking and perhaps lofty goals. One was to go to West Point. The other one was to become an NCAA national champion wrestler. Over time, wrestling continued to grow on him and he thought West Point may be out of the question for him. He wanted to wrestle in his home state and strived to take wrestling as far as he could.
He was excited about the opportunity to wrestle at in-state college powerhouses like Lehigh and Penn State. But due to a few different factors, he decided that eventually would not be the right path for him. Trying to think thoroughly about his college decision, he also went through the process of being admitted to West Point.
Not long after receiving a partial scholarship to wrestle for the Nittany Lions of Penn State, he was tasked with figuring out if he was going to accept the offer or not. He was given a relatively short deadline to decide, but there was a sign that stopped him from committing to stay home to attend college.
When the letter from West Point came and said ‘accepted’, his mindset quickly flipped. It was a sign that perhaps his life was meant for big things, not just in wrestling, but in service to the country. To put into perspective what an honor acceptance into West Point is, only 12 percent of applicants are accepted. Admittance also means the path to graduating from perhaps the finest institution in the world with no debt.
These factors all played into his mind, changing to go to the United States Military Academy to wrestle for the Army Black Knights. It fulfilled those two boyhood dreams of wrestling at the highest level and going to West Point in one. And as if high-level wrestling and military duties were not enough, he added one of the more difficult degrees into the mix as a civil engineering major. “I think I always did a good job of prioritizing things,” said Kyler, about how he could balance his life in college. “I prioritized wrestling, my duties as a cadet, and school. There was not much of a social life for me (in college). Those were really the three things I prioritized in college.”
Those four years of dedication to his education, military service, and wrestling career have only guided him into a successful career past West Point. Kyler graduated in 2010 and spent his first year serving as a wrestling coach at the Army Prep School. It was an eye opening experience that solidified he enjoyed giving back to the next generation of wrestlers at the college level. After his year of coaching while in the military, he went to become an Infantry Officer and Ranger Instructor at Ranger School at Fort Benning.
His next stops included a stint in Fort Carson in Colorado for additional training and then a deployment of active duty service in Kuwait. During his time there, he thought about what could be next for him in his military career. He eventually returned stateside and completed the Maneuver Captains Career Course while stationed at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) in Georgia. His final two stages of service in the United States Army included being an Army Ranger at Fort Benning and a Company Commander while stationed at Fort Drum in New York.
His time in the army concluded in 2019 with a rank of Senior Captain. He eventually moved to South Carolina to start his family and set up a more permanent residence with his wife, Kristen, who is quite a hero herself as a professor and clinical physician specializing in pediatrics. The couple are proud parents of a young boy named Luke. In his new career, Matt has transitioned to become a Project Manager at Barnhart Crane & Rigging full time. But military service is not out of the equation. For the last four years, Kyler has been a member of the South Carolina national guard and is currently serving in another tour of active duty service abroad.
There’s no denying that Matt Kyler is a hero just because of his military service, but some may even consider him heroic for his perseverance as a wrestler. He remains the Clearfield Bison boys’ wrestling programs all-time leader in wins with 136. He also earned four trips to states, became a three-time state place-winner, a PIAA state champion at 103 pounds as a junior, completed a perfect 38-0 season as a high school junior, and became a 2015 District 9 Wrestling Hall of Famer alongside his longtime friend and former teammate Brad Pataky. But aside from the individual state title, the team District 9 title in his junior season will always be one of the more meaningful accomplishments to him.
“We had some things happen my junior year that were difficult for the team. There were some discipline issues and DuBois was a great team. It came down to the last match, and we got a reversal with 10 seconds left in the last match to seal the district title for us. It was a huge moment for all of us after what we went through to get there that season.”
Kyler continued his winning ways while wrestling for the Black Knights as he became the all-time wins leader in their programs history with 146 and in a season with 43. He also became a two-time Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) individual champion, a four-time NCAA national qualifier, an All-American, and a sixth-place finisher in the nation. His sixth place finish remains as one of the best finishes in nationals in the history of Army wrestling and he remains the last Black Knight to become an All-American when he did so in 2008.
“Everyone loves top of the mountain stories, but there is a lot of heartache that happens at nationals. Wrestlers earn a lot of respect from me when they lose at nationals and wrestle hard on the backend through the losers bracket to get third or even place. I always look for how people respond to those losses and how they handle adversity. Personally, I feel complete with how my career turned out and how I responded to the adversity of wrestling back through. With the knowledge and preparation I had, I know I gave it everything I had.”
In his civilian life, Kyler also serves as a Volunteer Assistant Wrestling Coach in Charleston, South Carolina for The Citadel. Being a mentor and helping these young men learn how to become a more technically sound wrestler and competitor is one of the most rewarding experiences he’s had in recent years and he looks forward to continuing this on a part-time basis soon.
From the young boy who grew up idolizing Clearfield Bison and those Penn State Nittany Lion wrestlers who helped him at Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, Matt Kyler put in an incredible amount of work to be the absolute best wrestler he could. He’s also become a true hero because of his incredible dedication to the United States military for over 13 years. It’s been a journey filled with a lot of hard work and sacrifice, but if anyone knows Matt Kyler, his discipline and work ethic will remain the characteristics that lead him towards his next set of goals in life.
