KEEP GOING

Matt Weber has wrestled for almost as long as he can remember. At least, he says he remembers being on the wrestling mat for the better part of the last 18 years.

It's a place where he's always found success, too, whether as a young amateur, a state champion at Forsyth High School, or most recently, as one of the best 141-pounders in the NAIA over the last four years.

But as much as wrestling has been a huge part of Weber's life, it's also provided him with some tough times, and some gut-check moments, especially with his own body. That includes the present, as he'll be unable to wrestle his own on senior night for the Lights.

And yet, through all of the tough times, all of the pain and the moments when he might have thought about just walking away, Weber has pushed back, he's fought back, and he's always risen up.

It's just who Matt Weber the wrestler and the person, is.

"When I think about all of the tough times, the first thing that comes to mind is the relationship I've always had with my teammates," Weber, the top-ranked 141-pounder in the NAIA said. "You have a bad day, you're going through something and you realize the guy next to you is going through the same tough times. So my teammates, the guys you're in the room with every day, they've kept me going.

"Tyson (Thivierge) is another reason I've kept going, too," he added. "He understands me, we have great talks, great communication, we have a great relationship, and he's always been there for me."

Of course relationships are a big part of Matt Weber's wrestling journey. He grew up in a wrestling family, he's always been part of a team, and he's been close with his current head coach for a long time now. And there's no denying, wrestling is a brotherhood, and for Weber, that term is literal.

His family includes four brothers, who just like Matt, have grown up on the wrestling mat, and, two of them are currently at Northern with him. But it's the relationship with fellow senior Brandon that has been another rock, another pinnacle in Matt Weber's time at MSU-N.

"Wrestling with my brothers has always been something that's motivated me," Weber said. "But Brandon and I really feed off of each other. We've been doing this together, pretty much for 18 years now."

But as close as Matt and Brandon are, Matt did get to a point when he thought their wrestling journey together was at an end. Brandon was going away to college in Miles City, but the two took a Team Montana wrestling trip to Germany together the summer before.

"I thought on that trip to Germany, that was going to be it for us," Matt recalled. "I thought we would both probably move on into the real world and never look back."

Things didn't end up quite working out that way, though, and Thivierge and Northern wrestling ended up ensuring that Matt would get to continue to wrestle with his brother, just as they'd done for so many years.

"Tyson brought us back together," Matt said. "Because of him, everything just really came together for Brandon and I. And now, I look back, and because of us coming here together, we have barely spent any time apart the last four years. We lived in the dorms together, we got an apartment, then a house together. We've built a really strong bond through all of this. We've stayed up many nights just talking about wrestling, or life in general. So he's another big part of what's kept me going."

And Matt Weber has kept going.

Make no mistake, there's been plenty of highs for him in his time at Northern, book ended by a third-place finish at nationals as a freshman, and a second-place finish last year as a junior. There have been many incredible moments in Weber's career, but there also have been times when he simply thought, wrestling may not be in the cards anymore, especially, his injury-plagued sophomore season.

"There's things I'm very happy with when I look back at my career," Weber said. "I feel I've accomplished a lot. But there are things that I look back and wish I could just do over. My sophomore year was really tough. The injuries sucked, at times my head just wasn't in it. I would say that year was the lowest of the lows for me, and honestly, I was not planning on coming back after that year. I felt I was kind of ready to move on from it all."

That moment, though, didn't last long, and Weber credits his head coach for that.

"Tyson really helped me through that," Weber said. "He let me take a step back and kind of figure things out. I respect him so much for that. He was really there for me. He really knew and understood what I was going through, and he supported me. He's supported me through so many different things, and honestly, he's a big reason why wrestling is so enjoyable to me now. Tyson, Bo (Bettinson) and my teammates, they are all why I love coming to practice now, they are the reason why I want to come and get better every day."

Thivierge said Weber has had the same effect on his teammates, and on the head coach himself.

"Matt is a leader," Thivierge said. "He's going to make an incredible wrestling coach some day. He's meant so much to me personally, too. Matt is someone I can talk about anything with. He's someone I can relate to really well, and I will always appreciate that about him. Matt has changed me, he's been someone who has had a tremendous impact on our room, and on me as a coach over the years. That's just who he is."

Matt Weber has shown just who he is, not only by being a leader, a good teammate, a good friend, a good brother, and so much more, but he's shown who he is because he's still at Northern, because's he's still battling and still fighting on the mat, when there would have been so many good reasons for him not to.

And while Weber credits the Northern wrestling program, Thivierge, his brothers, his friends, his teammates and his family for the support and help they've given him to keep going through all of the ups and downs of his college wrestling career, there's one more reason why he's still on the mat, why he's going through the injuries to make it to the end of an already brilliant career.

Simply put, Matt Weber is a competitor, and after coming oh so close to winning a national championship last March, he wants to get back to Des Moines, Iowa, in two months and finish what he started.

"I've never felt satisfied with what I've done in wrestling," he said. "I've always felt like I should be doing better. I've accomplished a lot of my goals, but I've always felt like I need to go farther, to go after more goals. I've never wanted to stop pushing myself to be better, to do more. That feeling continues to motivate me.

"Matt has already made a name for himself in this program," Thivierge added. "He's never let his past credentials get in his way. He's always tried to take that next step. That's something I'm really proud of him for. He's never quit working. He's always wanted to be better. And that kind of mentality is something that's had a huge impact on our program in his time here."

Now though, Weber's time at Northern is indeed almost up. He says though he's sidelined with an injury presently, he'll be ready to go come Cascade Conference and national tourney time next month.

Weber also says that, even though times have been hard, and wrestling is like life - full of trials and tribulations - now that he's embarking on the end of his college career, he knows and understand exactly why he came to Northern in the first place. And it's something, a feeling that's a common theme between him and the other Northern seniors, as well as the rest of the MSU-N program. It's the same thing it's been wherever Weber has wrestled, whether in AAU as a youth, as a Dogie in Forsyth, or as a Light.

"We're a family," Weber said. "We're a family brought together by Tyson and by the sport of wrestling. Our family is a group of hard-nosed individuals, who came together because we all have the same things in common, we love wrestling, and we love being at Northern. It's a choice I'm so glad I made because the last four years have been an incredible experience. And I'm just humbled and honored to say I've been a part of it."