Montgomery’s run in education ends after 47 years

June 16, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

Former Hubbard

volleyball coach,

AD has retired

HUBBARD

Hubbard’s longtime athletic director and former volleyball coach Chuck Montgomery has retired after 47 years in education.

A spokesperson for the school district confirmed on Friday that Montgomery is stepping down on June 31, but will stick around to train his successor who takes over Aug. 1. The district will search for a new AD this summer.

Montogomery, 69, said he and his wife Cathy made the decision to leave in January and he submitted his notice to the district in June.

“I guess it’s age and years of service. I started thinking about it at the beginning of the school year and this is the right time to retire,” Montgomery said. “Nothing is really going on — I could have retired after the fall season, but I thought the right thing to do was to wait until the end of the year. I went to the state track meet with [discus thrower Seth Jones] and made sure he was treated well. I knew I was going to do this for a while.”

A native of Salem, Montgomery played for the Youngstown State men’s basketball team from 1969-2. He scored a career-high 34 points during a 106-74 win against Westminster in 1969. Penguins coach Dom Roselli helped get him his start in coaching: serving as an assistant coach for WPIAL legend Ed McCluskey, an 11-time WPIAL champion and a seven-time state champion in boys basketball at Farrell.

“[McCluskey] called Dom Roselli and asked if he had anyone who could teach phys ed and coach basketball and that was me. I met Ed and he said ‘You’re hired. You’re going to teach here. You’re going to coach here.’ That’s how he did it,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think I even met the superintendent. That was just how he did things.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that had his kind of stature.”

He started as a physical education teacher at Farrell in 1971 and began coaching girls volleyball in 1972. He also started a boys volleyball team and served as its head coach.

Montgomery started Hubbard’s girls volleyball program in 1991 and built the team into a powerhouse. When combined with his win total at Farrell, Montgomery has over 600 victories. The Eagles won 151 consecutive league matches in the now-defunct Trumbull Athletic Conference-8. His teams won nine district titles.

When asked about his most memorable teams, the answer for Farrell was easy: the state runner up boys team in 1986. Picking one from Hubbard left Montgomery stumped.

“I hate to say there was one team at Hubbard. We had a lot of great teams,” Montgomery said. “We had great kids. We had a lot of parental support. We had a great booster club. The school backed us and anything we needed, we got. That really helps with building a winning program.”

He remained a teacher at Farrell until 2007 before serving as a substitute teacher at Hubbard while he was coaching. He was promoted to athletic director in 2009 and retired from coaching in 2013.

Montgomery is a member of the Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame, the Trumbull County Sports Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

For his post-retirement plans, Montgomery and his wife plan to travel the country. He’s also an avid golfer.

“I’ve been very fortunate to do something I’ve loved my whole life,” Montgomery said. “I taught physical education. I coached basketball and volleyball. I got to be an administrator in athletics and I’m very lucky. The Hubbard Schools were great to me.”