Derek Montgomery (Dragoonish football coach)

Derek Montgomery
Birth name	Derek Justin Montgomery
Born	December 10, 1964 (age 49)
Birthplace	Aikenville, Zinrico
Playing career	Zinrico State (1984-1986)
Coaching career	Zinrico State (1988-1993) Lohana State (1994-1995) Carlana (1996-1998) East Zinrico (1999-2004) Zinrico State (2005) Salviana (2006-2011) Zinrico State (2012-present)

Derek Justin Montgomery (born December 10, 1964) is a Dragoonish former football player and current football coach. He currently coaches at his alma mater, Zinrico State University, serving as the head coach of the Angry Cats football team. He had previously coached at the university from 1988 to 1993, serving as an assistant, and in 2005, serving as the head coach. He also coached at Lohana State, Carlana, East Zinrico, and Salviana. Montgomery began his second term as ZSU's head coach, and third term as a coach at the university, in 2012, replacing Frouth Beagley, who resigned to take a position at Beckar University.

Early life

Montgomery was born in Aikenville's Westmoreland neighborhood on December 10, 1964, at 3:45 p.m., to Justin Montgomery and Gertrude Montgomery (maiden name Peterson). He attended school in the Westmoreland neighborhood until the sixth grade, when he relocated to Zinrico City, nearly 100 miles (or 170 kilometers) east of Aikenville. He finished his school years there, and attended college at Zinrico State University, where he played football for the Angry Cats under Coach Patrick Miller in the 1980s.

Coaching career

Zinrico State (1988-1993)

After graduating from college, Montgomery began coaching at the very university from which he graduated, serving as an assistant football coach for six seasons there. He served under Coach Miller until Miller's retirement at age 69 in 1992. For the 1993 season, he served as an assistant under Coach Wesley Eezel. During Montgomery's time as an assistant coach at ZSU, the Angry Cats won two championships, in 1990 and 1991. In the autumn of 1993, after the regular season ended, Montgomery announced that he was leaving ZSU to take a position at Lohana State University after one of Lohana State's assistant coaches was killed in an automobile accident on Lohana Highway 363 near Lohana City.

Lohana State (1994-1995)

Montgomery began coaching at Lohana State in late summer of 1994. He served as an assistant under Coach Jasper Rhied during the 1994 and 1995 seasons. In October 1994, Montgomery nearly quit after getting into an argument with another coach, Brian Grey. Montgomery stated that it was "either me or Grey who's leaving." Grey ended up resigning in November 1994, and Montgomery announced that he was staying. He was disappointed during 1994 season, when Lohana State's football program had one of the worst seasons in the university's history. Montgomery began thinking about leaving the university, and also suggested that they fire Rhied for leading the team through a very bad season. When the university decided to keep Rhied as their head coach, Montgomery was very upset, but decided to stay to see if Rhied could "redeem" himself by coaching through a better season.

During the 1995 season, Montgomery constantly gave coaching advice to Rhied, hoping the head coach would take the advice and Lohana State would see an undefeated season. Unfortunately, Montgomery was ignored by Rhied, and Lohana State's football team saw an even worse season, with only two wins. At the end of the 1995 season, the university decided to fire Rhied, and Montgomery, who would not have been fired by the university, quit to take a coaching position at the University of Carlana. Montgomery said of Rhied being fired, "One bad season is excusable. Two bad seasons back-to-back, well, that's just sad. [Rhied] won't find another coaching job on this planet after this." On leaving for Carlana, Montgomery said, "I feel I must go. I do not want to be around here when the next head coach is named. I just hope he's better than Rhied, but I won't be here."

Carlana (1996-1998)

Derek Montgomery at Carlana in 1997

Montgomery began his time at Carlana in late December 1995. His first game at Carlana was on August 31, 1996, and the team's opponent was Lohana State. Carlana came away with a 35-28 victory over Lohana State, and Montgomery felt "right at home" after the seven-point victory. During Montgomery's first year at Carlana, the team went undefeated until the October 26 game against North Beckar, which went into overtime, and resulted in North Beckar winning the game. On Carlana's undefeated streak being broken, he (Montgomery) said, "Well, we did great. This team has many inexperienced players this year, but they will get better in the next few years. You can't expect a team to go undefeated. You have any idea how hard that is?" Montgomery fought rumors of him leaving Carlana toward the end of the 1996 season, but he stated in a December 1996 interview, "I am not leaving Carlana! I'm staying right here!"

He kept his word. He stayed at Carlana for the 1997 season. Carlana opened its 1997 season with a 55-0 win over South Cutra on August 30, 1997, which Montgomery said was "very impressive --- or would have been, if South Cutra was good." Montgomery gave plenty of advice to the head coach, which helped Carlana in one of their best seasons in the 1990s. They went undefeated until their final game of the regular season on Saturday, November 29, 1997, when Carlana lost to Zinrico State 21-27. Montgomery's reaction to that six-point loss was, "We came so close to an undefeated regular season! And then our players got too full of themselves, and we lost by six. I'm not leaving because of this, because that'd make me a coward or something."

Montgomery after the September 4, 1998 game against Carlana State

Montgomery and the rest of Carlana's football coaching staff spent the off-season preparing the players for the 1998 season and trying to get them to "forget about that devastating November 29 loss. Focus on getting Zinrico State back in 1998." They took those words to heart. They opened their 1998 season with a big win over Carlana State, and went on to another nearly perfect season, but it wasn't Zinrico State (whom they beat 35-34) that gave them their loss that season. It was Lohana State. Montgomery, upset over being beaten by one of his former teams, immediately wrote a letter to Lohana State's coach, stating that Lohana State "cheated, and didn't deserve the win." At the end of the 1998 season, Montgomery left Carlana for a position at East Zinrico for "personal reasons".

East Zinrico (1999-2004)

Montgomery began his years at East Zinrico University (EZU) in 1999. Upon his move to Kapsa, Zinrico, Montgomery was met by the coaching staff of the school's football program. He was warned about the school's not-so-perfect record, and was told that he was hired because the coaches heard "great things" about him. His first game at East Zinrico was played on September 4, 1999, in Kapsa against North Zinrico. Under his direction, East Zinrico's offense helped lead the Elites to a 35-34 victory over the North Zinrico Twisters. The Elites would go on to have one of the greatest seasons in school history, and Montgomery received some of the credit for it. After serving as the offensive coach at EZU, Montgomery was moved to the position of defensive coach at the school; this move was made because the coaches and athletics director believed that Montgomery could do wonders for the team's defense after improving the offense. Dale Watslem was brought in as the new offensive coach.

In the 2000 season, East Zinrico lost more games than they won. Many of the coaches, including Montgomery, blamed Coach Watslem for this, as Montgomery had tried to warn the athletics director that Watslem was not a good offensive coach, "or a good coach, period." Both Montgomery and Watslem faced the possibility of being fired from their positions. On December 8, 2000, the school's athletics board agreed to fire Watslem and move Montgomery back to being the offensive coach, after Montgomery showed them Watslem's coaching record.