Silkowski looks to end season and
Railer football tenure with program in better shape than when he began
[October 17, 2025]
NOTE: This is the third of three installments in a
three-part feature looking at Railer football coach Matt Silkowski’s
10-year tenure as head coach. Part 1 of this series (published
October 15) looked at some of the events leading up to him being
hired for the position. Part 2 (published October 16) looked back at
some of the biggest wins Railer football had during his tenure.
Today’s installment looks at the close of his time as LCHS football
coach and the future of Railer football.
The 2025 Railer football season does not conclude until the team
plays its final game on October 24 in Jacksonville. However, the
October 18 contest against Quincy Notre Dame will be Silkowski’s
final home game coaching LCHS. While the season has not produced as
many wins as some of the recent campaigns, Silkowski is proud of the
body of work in terms of the overall progress of the football
program.
“This is the first year post-Covid where we won’t be playing for
something Week 9.” he said. “That’s obviously disappointing; you
want to be playing for something this late in the year.
Unfortunately, we’re not in that situation right now, but that’s
quite a run of four years there where Week 9 mattered.
“Ten years ago, if you would’ve said, ‘You’re going to go on this
run where Week 9 mattered,’ we’d take that. That’s pretty good
progress.”
And now, after nearly a decade at the helm of the program, Silkowski
can look in his rearview mirror--at everything from player
equipment, to coaching resources, to game strategies and scheme--and
see how the program has evolved and taken shape during his time as
head coach.
“We have changed everything about this program except the color of
the facemasks,” he said. “Everything else is different; some of it
by design, some of it has just kind of happened along the way. But
everything but the color of the facemask has changed.”
Hindsight is 20/20, so the saying goes. And today, with the added
wisdom and benefits of having been a head coach for 10 years,
Silkowski said there are some situations he would have handled
differently.
“I think a lot of it just comes with maturity and on my end and the
experience,” he said. “I wish I would’ve handled some discipline
issues differently and some relationships with players differently.
In 2018, we maybe let some things go, and I think maybe I was trying
to prioritize winning too much at that time. I think maybe if we
would’ve nipped some of the stuff earlier on it maybe wouldn’t have
been an issue.”
Another evolution has been a more consistent student section of fans
supporting the team.
“That’s one thing that I think has definitely changed,” Silkowski
said. “The student section is always very supportive. We had some at
MacArthur, and we had some that came to Eisenhower. That’s awesome
that they’re coming out and supporting their classmates.”
Success breeds success, and as the Railer football program began
winning games, Silkowski said the mindset of onlookers also shifted.
“When I first started, it was pretty much just kids in class asking,
‘Hey, are you going to win the game tonight,’” he said. “But the
last four years, it was kind of like…I wouldn’t say that we were
expected to win, but it’s been more like, ‘You’re going to win
tonight, right?’ And it was not just in our locker room, but outside
in the hallways, the student body was kind of expecting us to win.”
And now, two games from the end of his final season at Lincoln,
Silkowski said he can begin to look at some of the experiences and
accomplishments during his tenure as head coach with a better
perspective.
“Obviously the most rewarding thing was getting in the playoffs,” he
said. “That was huge. I can’t tell you how many times…we practiced
at 6:30 in the morning in the summer, I was getting up at 5 and
making that drive. I just wanted to coach a playoff game here. I
drove into town so many times just thinking about that, that’s it’s
all going to be worth it if that happens.”
Even before the team’s playoff appearance in 2023, Silkowski said
there were things taking place that gave him an indication that
things were moving in the right direction overall for the program.
“Sometimes we would do something and hear, ‘That’s the first time
that’s happened in ten years,’ or ‘We don’t even know the last time
that happened was.’ That was cool; that lets you know we’re going in
the right direction. There’s been roadblocks, there’s been times
we’ve taken steps backwards. But, for the most part, we’ve been able
to take that next step and get over the hump. And that’s the most
rewarding part, really, and just knowing we’ve done good.”
[to top of second column] |
Railer head football coach Matt Silkowski lifts his wife Lauren off
the ground while embracing her after Lincoln won its first game in
3-plus years by beating Lanphier 21-20 on October 7, 2016. The
victory was also Silkowski's first win as Railer head football
coach. Photo courtesy of Loyd Kirby.
And while not all players Silkowski has coached got
to experience playing in the playoffs, he said players, alumni and
members of the community all enjoyed the team’s run of success.
“I know that playoff run meant a lot to the coaches and to that
team,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to make a lot of other people
happy, because I know that meant a lot to a lot of people.”
On a personal level, as the end of his time as Railer head football
coach approaches, Silkowski said he is grateful for all the
experiences that he had as a result of being in the position.
“This opportunity that was given to me here opened
up so many other the doors for me,” he said. “I went to the Ohio
State coaches’ clinic back in 2017; if I wasn’t a head coach here, I
probably wouldn’t have ever gone to that. And that was just really
cool meeting Lou Holtz and hearing Urban Meyer speak knowing that my
wife was back home pregnant with our son we were going to name
Urban.”
As the end of the road approaches as head coach approaches,
Silkowski said he will do what he can to help make the transition
for the new coach go as smoothly as possible.
“I have the third most wins here (27), but it’s really not a lot for
a program that’s been playing football since 1899,” he said. “So, I
just hope that the next guy becomes Number 3 and has more success
than I do.
Much like a camper who is supposed to leave the forest in better
shape than they found it, Silkowski plans on leaving things in a
state so that the next coach can hit the ground running.
“He’s going to walk into a clean equipment room and he’s going to
walk into film on Hudl,” Silkowski said of the next Railer head
football coach. “I want to make sure that his experience is better
than mine when I first started. That is something I’m taking a lot
of pride in so that he can just walk in and just start coaching
football.
“I’m going to leave the coach note along with a bunch of other stuff
that I think he needs to have so he doesn’t waste a bunch of time
doing stuff. I want him to be able to reach out to me. Or he may not
contact me or want any part of me, and that’s fine too; I won’t take
it personally.”
And what will Silkowski miss the most about being the head football
coach and a teacher at LCHS?
“What I think I’ll miss the most is celebrating
with the kids and embracing my family after a win,” he said. “I
respect and embrace the tradition of our program. I know it’s hard
to win football games here, so I appreciate every single one of
them. Even the ones that we’ve come to expect to win. I never lost
track of how hard those early wins were to get so I’ve made sure to
enjoy and appreciate every single one.”
[Loyd Kirby]
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