At Bishop Manogue Catholic High School, students are required to take a special class that no other high school in the Reno/Sparks area offers. This unique class is Theology, where attendees of Bishop Manogue learn about the teachings of God as well as moral philosophy. The teachers that teach this subject are well educated in the field of religion and are passionate about their job. This profile piece covers one of those teachers, who’s easygoing and charismatic nature had made him a memorable personality of Bishop Manogue, as well as being involved in athletics by coaching alongside Wes Farnsworth for the wrestling team. This profile piece will showcase none other than Matt Galli.
Mr. Galli has been a Nevadan his whole life, being born and raised right here in Reno. He loves the Silver State and its community and is glad to have been able to live here his whole life. However, he credits his friend and family to shape him into who he is today rather than it being due to living here.
Mr. Galli graduated from Mcqueen High School and gone to pursue his higher education at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he got his degree in education. After he graduated from UNR, he went to live in Elko for a couple of years. There he worked as a Circulation Manager at Great Basin College before coming back to Reno to teach at Manogue.
On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Galli wakes up early, around 5:00 am, which is when he tries to get a run or workout in before helping his wife prepare his kids for school (kindergarten & preschool). He’ll drive out, drop the kids off, and go to work at Manogue. He comes in and “teaches people about Jesus, philosophy and faith”, as he says, and does this for about 8 hours or essentially until school lets out. He’ll typically chat with Mr. Bedoy, who’s in the classroom next to him for a little while about Catholicism, ethics, or Lord of the Rings (a franchise that they both seem especially fanatic about). After, he’ll work out again, using the weight room that is conveniently in the school. When his kids’ school lets out, he goes and picks them up, then enjoys the evening with his family before going to bed to prepare for another day. On the weekends or whenever he has any free time, he uses his membership at American Iron to go work out. He believes that getting hobbies in is important when growing up, especially with how hard it gets from that point on.
Other than going the gym, Mr. Galli also likes to sit down, relax, and read a good book. He also used to watch movies, but after having kids, his cinematic range mostly consisted of Disney movies, as watching any Oscar winning film or an action flick might not be the best thing to watch in front of little kids. But nonetheless, he enjoys just spending time with his family watching whatever Disney movies appeal to them. He also enjoyed traveling, but again kids. He plans to eventually get back to doing that at some point as he really likes to stay active.
Anyone who had seen Mr. Galli’s old Bloodborne screensaver would know that he also likes to game. He has a PS5, although he describes it as a “really expensive paperweight” as he doesn’t have much time to play. He enjoys it when he can though. One of his proudest achievements is being able to complete Elden Ring last year.
Regarding any secrets or fun facts people might not know about him, he said it himself in his interview that it was a tough question, as he describes himself as a pretty straightforward kind of person. “What you see is what you get for anything or anything,” as he said. The first thing Mr. Galli could think off the top of his head that he didn’t officially convert to Catholicism until he was about 23-24 years old, which would be surprising to those who’ve been taught by him, because when he teaches things about God or the Bible he speaks with a lot of enthusiasm and urges people to pray or be quiet during the morning, Angelus, or closing prayer over the intercom. He also didn’t start off wanting to teach religion. When he was offered the position as a Theology teacher at Manogue, he just took it, made the best of it, and made it work out really well.
Mr. Galli is genuinely a great teacher, and a great relief to whoever expected high school teachers to be incredibly strict and merciless. Suffice it to say, Bishop Manogue definitely wouldn’t be the same without him.
