Matt Fiordirosa’s wrestling story began when he was recruited as a Division 1 wrestler for the United States Naval Academy. There he received coaching from an Olympic wrestler; however, he ultimately ended up transferring to Division 3 school, Warburg in Iowa. 

During his time at Wartburg, his team won a national title but he ended up transferring again to Wisconsin Parkside.

From there Fiodirosa started his journey as a MMA fighter, where he fought for twelve years and received his iconic nickname “Sunshine.”

This name started because, during his MMA career, Fiordirosa had long blonde hair and would smile while fighting because he genuinely enjoyed it.

“It kind of stuck, to be honest with you. I hated it at first. I wished they would not call me that anymore. But when marketing came around and I was trying to sell myself to the fans, promoters, and sponsors, it was funny because a lot of people would have scary, mean names and then to have sunshine was very marketable.”

Fiodirosa’s teaching story started here at LFHS in 2012. Since then he has made a mark in the community by not only teaching but coaching a variety of sports including wrestling, badminton, swimming, golf, flag football, and Esports.

“I love teaching here. Teaching is great but my passion here really is coaching. Which is probably why I do my business outside of here as well. I like being able to mentor people and use my experiences to help them make better choices than I did or you know put themselves in better positions than I did.”

Fiodirosa’s love for coaching inspired him to start his own wrestling academy called “Sunshine Wrestling Academy,” where the former MMA fighter trains kids from ages 3 to 18 years old helping them prepare for their upcoming season.

Fiodirosa’s drive for coaching came from his history as a devoted wrestler. Since “wrestling is a very unique sport being that it is an individual sport and it’s more of a hands-on experience,”

 he is very active with his students on the mat helping them to fine-tune their technique. 

“When I coached here I really wanted kids to be successful so when it comes to regionals, sectionals, state it’s really cutthroat and you have to place in the top three to get out and the top four to get out and then try all state and get recruited. I feel like I’m going through all that again and I’m like a part of those wrestling matches like I’m really emotionally involved as well. I want them to be successful,” said Fiodirosa.

Throughout Fiodirosa’s life the motto “No Bad Days” has stuck with him. His view on life is that when something bad happens individuals can either allow that to serve as an excuse to be unhappy or doubt themselves, or they can choose to stay positive.

“By choosing the idea that even if a bad thing does happen you can understand it, learn from it, and live in the moment through it but try to find the good of that thing happening and if you kind of always focus on choosing the good then life’s pretty good.”