Immaculata-LaSalle’s Willie Trimmer to retire; Matt Dillon to take over

Press Release from Chris Crotty, Athletic Director at Immaculata-La Salle

Immaculata-LaSalle High School in Miami, Florida announces that Head Football Coach William Trimmer is retiring in June at the end of the current academic year. Coach Trimmer’s career at La Salle spanned fourteen years, making him the third longest tenured head coach in Miami-Dade County. Trimmer is credited with the resurgence of the football program at LaSalle after the school’s hiatus from the mid 1980s through the late 1990s.

Trimmer said, “after 42 years of coaching, it is the right time to step back and enjoy life a little. Our youngest son is graduating from university this May and I had always promised my wife, Charlene, that when he completed his studies I would slow down.” He added, “Boy, will I miss it…but I leave the program in good hands and feel honored to have been a part of such a great institution for all these years.”

Coach Trimmer will be inducted into the LaSalle Hall of Fame next month and will be honored with the Brother Carl Shonk Faculty Award for Distinguished Service to the school and its students.

Trimmer will be replaced by Matt Dillon. Coach Dillon, a Ft. Lauderdale native, comes to LaSalle from Pope John Paul II HS in Boca Raton, where he had been the Athletic Director and Head Football Coach since 2011. In his second season at Pope, Dillon led the Eagles to a 10-2 record, while in year three he lead the team to the Southeast Football Conference Championship game at FAU Stadium. Dillon is going into his 30th year as a Head Football Coach at the high school level, compiling a record of 168-115.

Previously, Dillon was the Head Football Coach at Dowling Catholic HS in West Des Moines, IA; winning back-to-back large school State Championships in 2000 and 2001 and going 26-0 in the process. Dillon also took Dowling to the State Championship game in 1998. Overall, Dillon has sent eleven teams into the playoffs and was named the State of Iowa “Coach of the Year” in 2000. He has been either a Conference or District “Coach of the Year” twelve times.

Dillon also spent four years as the Head Football Coach at his alma mater, Cornell College, from 2006 to 2009. As a player, Dillon was a two time All-American Quarterback; two time Captain and team MVP, as well as being selected as the Cornell College All-Century Team Quarterback. Dillon was inducted into the Cornell College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.

“I am really excited to become part of the LaSalle family. We have competed against one another during the past few years and I know first-hand the quality of athletes and students we have at the school,” said coach Dillon, “we will have a young team next year…but they are an eager and hard working group of young men that will make their mark in our community and on the gridiron in the years to come.”

About LaSalle: Immaculata-LaSalle High School is a Co-educational, College Preparatory High School of the Archdiocese of Miami under the direction of the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco. By embodying the Salesian system of education, the school provides the atmosphere and programs necessary for the holistic formation of young people into good, faithful Christians and productive, responsible citizens.