Matt Petersen comes to Knox from South Elgin High School in South Elgin, Illinois, where he was the head varsity boy’s basketball coach for two seasons (2013-14 and 2014-15). Petersen inherited a boy’s basketball program that was coming off a 5-win season in 2012-13. He guided that team to a 13-win improvement finishing with an 18-15 record, capturing an IHSA Class 4A Regional Championship, and advancing to the Sweet 16, the program’s best finish in school history and the best finish of any program in the school's history. The Storm finished that post-season run by upsetting 4 teams, including the #12 state ranked and #20 state ranked teams, before eventually bowing out to the #8 state ranked team in Illinois.
Prior to taking over the program at South Elgin, Petersen was an assistant women's basketball coach at Division II UW-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Before that appointment, he served in numerous part-time assistant roles at several NCAA Division III and NAIA colleges. He began his coaching career as a boy’s basketball assistant at University High School in Normal, Illinois before returning to Hall High School in Spring Valley, Illinois, his alma mater, as the varsity boy’s basketball assistant.
Petersen also founded the Illinois Valley Starz Girls Basketball AAU Program, which competed nationally from 2002-2008 at the 17-under, 15-under, and 13-under levels. His AAU coaching concluded at one of the nation's premier AAU programs, the Illinois Lady Lightning.
In addition to his coaching credentials, he played collegiately at Iowa Wesleyan College, as well as finishing twice as the IHSA State Runner-up while at Hall. In his junior season, Hall was ranked #1 the entire year and 32-0 entering the state title game before losing for the second consecutive season in the championship game.
