I read with considerable sadness this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and this story in the Washington Observer-Reporter that Canon-McMillan head football coach Guy Montecalvo has decided to step down from his coaching position at the Washington County school.
I can’t pretend to be a Guy Montecalvo expert; we’ve had a cordial, but limited relationship over the last 15 years, mostly in the coach-reporter context.
But I have had opportunity to talk to Montecalvo outside of the box a little bit. And I can tell you that I would not hesitate to let him coach my kids in any sport or to allow him to mentor my kids outside the lines.
Monte calvois one of the nicest, classiest coaches I have met in my 37 years in the journalism business. And I will say that the coaching business is full of decent men and women. To be near the top of the class list says a lot.
Sadly, the most recent conversation I had with Guy was in the hallway at Canon-McMillan High School when I was at the school gathering interviews and information for a feature I was doing for The Patriot-News. Why was it sad? It was just a few months after Guy’s oldest son, Jim, had passed away after battling a long illness. It wasn’t difficult to see the extraordinary pain behind Guy’s eyes.
I have never lost a child – thank God my three daughters are healthy, smart and beautiful; I’m actually typing this story while sitting in their orthodontist’s office – so it is impossible for me to understand that loss.
But it was just a few months after that March 2009 conversation with Guy that I lost my brother Rob to liver disease. Let’s be honest: there’s a difference between losing a brother and losing a son. But I now have a window on that sense of loss; I can understand why Guy’s passion to coach is diminished.
And that’s a loss, too. No one questions that Montecalvo was a fine football coach; his 2001 Washington High School team won the PIAA Class AA championship, eight years after the Little Prexies played a miserable game in the state championship game against Dallas. He stepped away from coaching briefly before he returned at Canon-Mac and made a bad program competitive.
By the way, the 2001 AA title game between Washington and Pen Argyl provided me with one of the great laughs I’ve had in the business, but it didn’t come from Guy. It came from Pen Argyl head coach Roy Cortez.
Washington had one of the fastest teams to play in a AA state title. The entire backfield was comprised of athletes who also teamed to run on Washington 4×100-meter relay team in track. Prior to the game, someone asked Cortez how Pen Argyl, which did not have Washington’s reputation for speed, would handle the Prexies’ quickness.
Cortez’s reply was classic: “Hey, they’re not running in lanes out there. This is football. People get in the way, you know.”
That was hysterical. And Pen Argyl did get in the way, slowing and frustrating Washington in a choppy game. But Washington made enough plays to win, 19-12. And Montecalvo, as always, was completely gracious in victory. It’s always been the Guy Montecalvo way.
So we salute Guy and his 225 football coaching victories upon his resignation from coaching at Canon-Mac. Guys like Guy merit our respect.
