They first met playing high school volleyball. They came out as gay and are now married.
Nathan Matthews and Daniel Koloff met playing volleyball and love bloomed. Their gay wedding on a Greek island cemented their bond. The post They first met playing high school volleyball. They came out as gay and are now married. appeared first on Outsports.
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Their proposal was in front of the Eiffel Tower during the Paris Olympics. Their wedding was 10 months later on a Greek island with a stunning backdrop. For gay couple Nathan Matthews and Daniel Koloff, their special day this month came more than a decade after they first met as high school volleyball players.
“Daniel is the most beautiful soul I’ve ever met,” Matthew told Outsports about Koloff after getting back to the U.S. from Europe, following his wedding in Greece and honeymoon in Switzerland.
Matthews came out as gay at age 19 in a 2016 essay on Outsports and readers have followed his career since, which included two coach of the year honors as a men’s college volleyball coach at Wittenberg University. These successes helped get him a job as an assistant coach on the University of Alabama women’s team this year. With him every step of the way was Koloff, who works for Amazon’s HR department.
“I’m immensely thankful for what our partnership has grown into,” Matthew said. “I’m so excited to continue building our life together.”
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Nathan Matthews helped Wittenberg College to a regular season title. Being authentic as a gay man helped forge a bond with players.
Matthews and Koloff first met in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, in 2014. They attended different high schools but played on the same club volleyball team, becoming roommates at a tournament. Still in their teens at the time, neither was out as gay. Koloff was very religious and attended Liberty University, “so nothing romantic was on the table at that point!” Matthews said.
Volleyball is the vehicle that brought the two of them back together. After each moved back to Columbus after college, Koloff invited Matthews to play in a beach volleyball tournament together and from them on the relationship bloomed.
An Eiffel Tower engagement and a gay wedding of their dreams
Matthews proposed to Koloff at the Olympics last summer and they were married June 4 in Santorini, Greece, with Koloff’s brother officiating. The reception dinner was at a restaurant on the cliffs of Oia, overlooking the Aegean Sea. For their honeymoon, the couple hiked the Alps in Switzerland.
Matthews was one of the youngest athletes to share his coming out story on Outsports and has always been focused on being a role model, especially in men’s sports. After winning his second coach of the year at Wittenberg last year, he said being out was actually a benefit to his team.
“I absolutely think it’s an advantage at this point,” he said.
“Our guys feel safe to express their genuine self, whether it’s the type of music they like, or that they’re a nerd or that they want to play video games. It’s a pretty low-judgment zone, just kind of accepting people for who they are. In sports, it’s not always like that; it can be hypermasculine or chest-beating. I do think what we have is pretty cool.”
Now married to the man of his dreams, Matthews can continue to be an inspiration to other LGBTQ people in sports.
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The post They first met playing high school volleyball. They came out as gay and are now married. appeared first on Outsports.
