City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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When Dymir Montague looks at how far he’s come as a player in just one year, he still surprises himself. After being the sixth man as a junior on a Neumann-Goretti team that boasted McDonald’s All-American Quade Green (Kentucky) and forward Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree (Villanova) and won the PIAA Class 3A state championship, he transitioned into the starting lineup as a senior and was called upon to be the leader that his two former teammates had been previously.

It was major step for Montague, but one he embraced, and it has only benefited him during his final year.

“Going from sixth man to being the leader or person who gets blamed for everyone’s little mistakes is a hard transition,” Montague said. “My teammates and my coaches helped me through that. Coach [Carl Arrigale] basically sat me down and stated what he wanted from me before the season even started. He set the standards really high for me. I just had to be the player he needed me to be and the leader my team needed.”

Montague doesn’t mind having the leadership role lie solely on his shoulders because it caught the attention of several college programs and he officially made his decision on where he’ll play at the next level on Tuesday night.

The 6-3, 189-pound guard committed to D-II Holy Family (Pa.) following a visit to the Northeast Philadelphia campus. Tuesday’s visit included a tour of the campus including the classrooms and athletic facilities, introductions with team members and coaches and finding that sense of “family” the university’s name perpetuates.

“When I first went there, they made it into a home for me,” Montague said. “I didn’t feel like a stranger. They made me a part of their family and they made it known.”

Seeing Montague’s maturation as a player has been a rewarding experience for Arrigale, who has coached his fair share of impressive guards.

“He’s so much more confident,” Arrigale said. “He had the ability a year ago but things didn’t work out for him. He kind of took a backseat to Quade and Dhamir.”

After Green and Cosby-Roundtree had moved on to the next level, Arrigale needed someone to be the vocal leader and someone who be willing to take on the responsibility of when a teammate made a mistake. He found that in Montague.

“He took on the leadership part of it because the other two seniors don’t talk much on the court,” Arrigale said. “[Marcus Littles] does a little and Noah [Warren] does very little. He’s really come a long way with that and he’s steadily gotten better. He’s our leader and our heartbeat.”

As the small forward in Arrigale’s starting lineup, Montague has averaged 14.3 points per game and he’s one of four starters averaging double figures. He has scored in double figures in all but two games this year which includes four 20-point outings.

Montague chose to play for R.C. Kehoe and the Tigers because they had been recruiting him since he was sophomore. He recalls Kehoe watching courtside as the Saints took on Roman Catholic, the Holy Family head coach’s alma mater, in a JV game. Arrigale noted Kehoe and his coaching staff’s pursuit of Montague as the deciding factor.

“Holy Family has always been there,” Arrigale said. “They’ve been at every game and done a good job of getting to him before the point to where a lot more interest came.”

In addition to Holy Family, Montague also had an offer from East Stroudsburg. He received interest from low D-I schools in Fairleigh Dickinson, Robert Morris, NJIT and Mount St. Mary’s.

A major influence on Montague’s decision of committing to Holy Family was Derrick Stewart, who won three state titles and four consecutive Philadelphia Catholic League crowns with Neumann-Goretti then moved on to Rider before transferring to play under Kehoe. Stewart was an integral part of Holy Family‘s 2015-16 team that won a school-record 26 games, claimed the program’s first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament Title and hosted the East Regional of the D-II Tournament.

"He reached out to me and told me what a great program it was," Montague said about Stewart. "He was a Neumann-Goretti alum who had a lot of success."

One of Kehoe’s talking points with Montague was about him developing into the player who can help the program get back to competing for CACC Tournament titles and NCAA Tournament berths.

“Coach R.C. was really honest with me from the start,” Montague said. “He let me know what type of player I was and what type I have the potential to be in the future. We really built a relationship throughout this whole process and I’ve enjoyed having that with him. He has my back always and that was what my decision really came down to.”

Following its most successful year in program history, Kehoe and the Tigers took a step back after graduating nine seniors, finishing 11-17, 9-10 CACC last season. It has been another disappointing year for Holy Family as they are 2-17 overall and have not won a game since Dec. 19 against Chestnut Hill College. Still, the future looks bright for the Tigers as there are pieces for Kehoe to work with in Terrell Jones (Lower Merion), Mekhi Bryant (Pennsbury) and Maliq Sanders. Holy Family should also be benefited by the addition of Pace University transfer Vinny Delassandro, who won a state title at Conwell-Egan in 2015.

Before Montague begins his work to join the Tigers’ rotation, he has his sights set on helping Neumann Goretti (12-4, 7-1 PCL) secure league, city and state titles to finish off his high school career. With the likes of Warren (13.4 ppg), Littles (10.5) and Chris Ings (12.2),  Montague would love the chance to play deep into March and get another shot at a state title but his focus has continued to remain on becoming the best leader he can be for this team.

“I’m still working on being a better leader than I was the day before,” Montague said. “Every day, day in and day out, I’m working on being a leader and perfecting my craft in order for when I get to the next level.”