Having lived in five different states throughout life before College has offered the opportunity to see the world of basketball from different perspectives.  Moving to Cincinnati, OH freshman year in high school is where Monty’s journey began.  

 

Starting varsity as a 14 year old freshman for 5A (largest division in Ohio) Lakota West High School in one of the top conferences in the state, allowed Monty the opportunity to stand out and prove himself as a worthy underclassman.  He received his first College D-1 offer his freshman year. Competing in this environment pushed him to work hard, spending all his summers between Five Star camps, Invitational only showcases and many other basketball opportunities.  His first high school AAU team earned a chance to play in the championship game against top ranked teams at the AAU nationals where he caught the attention of many coaches and garnered a heavy following of mid major D-1 schools.

 

After growing four inches and showing a solid upside, interest and offers from schools such as Lehigh, Penn State, Princeton, Harvard and Providence started to come his way.  After receiving All-State honors and being voted the top shooting guard in the state of Ohio his Sophomore year, the interest grew to schools like Notre Dame, USC, Xavier, Pitt, Iowa, Vanderbilt and Michigan.  Playing on the Nike EYBL circuit with  number two nationally ranked All Ohio Red, and his final AAU season on the Adidas circuit with the Ohio Phenoms allowed him to further his College interest to include over thirty D-1 offers from mid to high majors.  

 

Six games into his Senior year he suffered a knee injury (torn ACL) which ended his high school season.  This did not stop his fight to fulfill his dream to compete in College.  He ultimately decided to attend a high academic, D-1, Patriot League school called Lafayette College in Easton, PA as a four year scholarship student athlete. Being a contributor as a sophomore on a team that won the Patriot League Championship and earned a berth to the NCAA tournament in Pittsburgh, PA was an experience he will always cherish.

 

During his senior year at Lafayette College, he suffered a shoulder injury in an opening season game against Villanova that put him out for the remainder of the season.  This untimely injury was not all a lost cause because it afforded him the opportunity to continue his educational and basketball career as a grad transfer.  After hearing from several schools, he narrowed the decision to Oklahoma, Penn State and Pitt.  He chose one of the Power 5 schools in the ACC, The University of Pittsburgh to further his Basketball career and decided to go into Social Work to advance the opportunity to work in the field of coaching one day.

 

After completing his time at Pitt, he took an opportunity to play overseas in the EurAsian league in Armenia competing in international games/tournaments against teams from Russia and Turkey.  He was named the shooting guard of the EurAsian league and his team took the gold medal in the Championship game against Russia.  It was an experience to remember.  After returning to the states he earned an opportunity to play in the G-League with Orlando Magic.  During the COVID year, Monty decided to move back to his new home in New Jersey.  While keeping his options open to go back overseas to play, he found a passion for training.  

 

Always having the desire to start his own AAU basketball program he joined his training with OST (Old School Training) in Randolph, New Jersey and his love for the game to put together teams to compete locally.  Going into his second year, he has grown his program to 14 teams of boys and girls from 5th grade to High School.  

 

He looks forward to continuing the growth of 32 Hoops Phenoms to include national, regional and local teams for both boys and girls.