Belmont (N.H.) High School’s baseball team ended a 38-year drought by capturing a state championship earlier this month. Leading the team from the dugout was Matt LeBlanc, a Swampscott native who was part of the town’s 1996 American Legion team that won a second straight state title.
Belmont defeated Derryfield, 10-2, in the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) Div. 3 championship game.
When the final out was recorded, LeBlanc’s mind wasn’t on the present. It was on 2017.
“To be honest, it went to 2017 when we lost in heartbreaking fashion to Jim Gorham, who was a mentor to me. We were winning in the 10th inning with two outs, and [members of] the NHIAA were in the dugout congratulating us,” said LeBlanc, whose father, Victor, was a longtime coach in the highly successful Swampscott Little League program. “When it actually happened (this year), the emotions flooded over me. My longtime assistant coach, Jim LaClair, who’s been a coach for 49 years, it was his last game. Our seniors were in their last game. I had my parents in the stands, my brothers and their families, my wife. All of this came into my mind when we got the final out. It was indescribable. I’m still on cloud nine.”
Belmont lost in the 2024 championship game, but that team was a year “too early,” according to LeBlanc. And in 2025, the team was eliminated in the semifinals.
Despite falling short in back-to-back years, LeBlanc believes failure was necessary to get over the hump.
“They did a good job of taking it all in, enjoying it, and knowing the opportunity they had,” LeBlanc said.
Adversity is something familiar to LeBlanc, who was cut from the Swampscott High baseball team as a senior.
“There’s a lot of adversity that you go through in life that you don’t understand at the time — why it’s happening. I think, as a coach, I have an understanding of that. Being in education and teaching, knowing the bigger picture, a lot of what I try to do is teach real-life lessons through baseball,” LeBlanc said. “There’s something to be said about people who hang in there and the consistency with which they approach their lives and deal with adversity. I try to relay that to the kids — that, sometimes you think you should be playing and you’re not, but to hang in there and play the role you’ve got. Eventually, it will work out.”
From Little League through high school baseball, LeBlanc made sure to take what he learned and implement it into his coaching style.
“I became really close with Coach (Paul) Halloran playing Legion. I think I was very interested in the coaching aspect of it. We had such a good team that year; there was no weak link in that lineup,” LeBlanc said. “There were a bunch of us who would always talk baseball and play our role. I would talk a lot about baseball with the coaches and it was cool to see their view of the game. My father coached for 34 years. My brother Michael coached for around 30 years, too. I come from a line of coaches and guys who dedicated their lives to teaching baseball. You pick up things from everyone. I picked up coaching techniques and strategy because I was able to talk to Coach Halloran about the game.”
“Matt came out for the Legion team after being cut from the high school team and legitimately earned a spot,” said Halloran. “He was a role player, but on a team that went undefeated in the regular season and was one out away from making the Legion World Series. He knew his role and he embraced it. He was a sponge, a kid who just loved the game.”
LeBlanc remembers when he first started to fall in love with the game. He was 6 years old.
“I remember 1984 when I was 6 and Swampscott Little League was rolling. We had Matt Murray, who eventually went pro. We had Billy Madden and Tony Nicosia,” he said. “That’s where the love of the game came from. I wanted to be like them and follow in their footsteps. I picked up a lot from my dad, Billy Buffalino, Al Duratti, and Andy Holmes. These are guys who didn’t have sons and they coached for 50 years. It doesn’t escape you and you pick up on things like that. Baseball mattered in Swampscott. You had Coach (Frank) DeFelice coaching the high school team and they all worked together to establish a feeder program. I watched these guys get older and play in high school, and I wanted to be part of it.”
Gorham, who got his start in coaching as a JV assistant in Swampscott and went on to win five New Hampshire state titles at Campbell High School, was mentor of LeBlanc’s before dying in 2022.
“Jim invited us down to scrimmage them in 2013 or 2014. We went down to scrimmage Campbell and he said he could see we were building toward something,” LeBlanc said. “He told me you need three kids per class to build around to have that core group of nine to 12 kids, and you can add to it year after year,” LeBlanc said. “Him being in the same circle with Coach Halloran, Nelson Woodfork, and Coach DeFelice and building that connection led us to being friendly with each other. I had a lot of conversations with Jim where we talked about baseball and his experiences for more than an hour on the phone.”
LeBlanc remains close with his family, despite his kids being rivals of Belmont.
“My daughter Gracey and son Sawyer go to Gilford. Gracey graduated last year and plays soccer at Plymouth State, but they are in my dugout just about every game,” LeBlanc said. “She (Gracey) runs GameChanger for us. My stepdaughter, Riley DeGange, goes to Belmont and runs our team’s social media. I said recently that baseball often pulls me away, I dedicate a lot of time to it, yet, somehow, it brings my family and me closer together. Coaching this program has been such a blessing in so many ways.”
