English Teacher
Matt Sawyer
Roles
English Department
Teams
Football Assistant Coach
Bio:
The 2026-2027 school year will be my 33rd year teaching/coaching/advising at Williston. In addition to teaching English and coaching the defensive backfield for the varsity football team, I am the 9th Grade Dean, run the 9th Grade Program with Allison Marsland, and am a dorm parent in John Hazen White House, the 9th and 10th Grade Boys’ Dormitory on the Residential Quad. My wife, Sarah, established and runs Williston’s Writing Center and teaches in the English Department. Our son Will ’22 and daughter Anna ’24 are recent Williston graduates and grew up on campus, so Williston has been a huge part of the Sawyer Family’s lives!
Education:
B.A., Amherst College, 1994; M.A., Middlebury College, 2002; M.Ed, Columbia University, 2007
Academic Interest:
I come from a family of educators. My mother Mary was my sixth grade social studies teacher, and my father Mike became a substitute teacher at my former high school (Clinton High School MA) after being a manager at Smith Kline for many years. My older brother Joe was in the very first cohort of Teach For America and just finished a run of over 30 years in the Shrewsbury, MA school system, the last 17 years as Superintendent of Schools. My older sister Anne is teaching English at Clinton after stints in other towns in the state. Finally, my niece Sheila is a first grade teacher at a school in Brooklyn, NY.
Fun fact:
After being the head coach of Williston’s varsity baseball team for 31 years, I have switched to the “dark side” of work on the diamond and am now a certified umpire. The switch to umpiring has been challenging and refreshing as I now get to learn new aspects of the game that I have loved as a player and coach since 1977.