WINGATE/CENTRE COUNTY, Pa — Matt Knepp, a senior wrestler at Bald Eagle Area High School, recently received a $185,000 scholarship from the Marine Corps to go to college.
He has been accepted into the NROTC program at Penn State, and he is still in disbelief that he has been given such a prestigious opportunity.
“I never thought it was going to happen and now it’s for real, so it’s just kind of...my recruiter said when I looked at the check, my face was like ‘oh crap, it’s real, it’s happening,’” he recalled.
Knepp received the hefty check just days before Christmas, and he says he can now fulfill a lifelong dream of serving his country.
“I’ve always been interested in the military and what I can do through the military...becoming an officer and then using that to further my career down the road,” he said.
Throughout his time in Bald Eagle Area School District, his wrestling coach, Ron Guenot, says he’s been quite busy outside the classroom.
“He’s always involved in some kind of thing...has another season after wrestling season. It’ll be track...and I know he played soccer and then I was wrestling and then some other things, extracurricular activities, so he’s always involved in something,” he shared.
But Knepp says it wasn’t always smooth sailing, waiting to hear about his application.
“You know, I had to trust God that there was a chance that I had still gotten it, that I hadn’t been picked over, had to trust God that...even if I didn’t get it, that there was still be a path for me...to plan my future,” he said.
But Guenot says Knepp's determination and will proved fruitful.
“Hard work breeds success and he’s had...a lot of success and for somebody that’s just wrestled for 3 or 4 years," the Bald Eagle Area High School coach said. "And (I'm) proud of what he has done in the classroom...what he’s done on the mat and now what he’s going to do...when he graduates here from Bald Eagle to see, I know he’s going to be successful.”
Knepp credits his experience in the Bald Eagle wrestling program for getting to this point.
“If I wouldn’t have had wrestling, I don’t think I could’ve earned the scholarship because wrestling just, here at Bald Eagle, teaches another level of mental toughness," he stated. "It’s something that has developed my character to the point where I think that I had the grit, and the want, and the drive, and the need to earn the scholarship.”
Yet his coach says Knepp remains humble, and is honored to have been a part of his journey.
“Yeah, he’s humble, he’s a great personality, he’s a lot of fun to be around and...it’s just a privilege for me to...have coached him.”
And Knepp says he has a lot of reasons for picking Penn State, and has big plans after
“I wanted to stay nearby, Penn State has a great engineering program, so that was a plus and then...I wanted to stayI do a lot of other things other than sports like hunting and fishing and stuff like that, so I wanted to still be able to do that," he said. "I grew up...with the Penn State program, everything Penn State, and we watch Penn State Wrestling, we root against Ohio State, my grandfather told me he’d disown me if I went there, so...I think it’s the place."
He intends to get a biomedical engineering degree, and use that to make prosthetics after his military service.
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