Montecalvo moves into college classroom
When Guy Montecalvo retired as Canon-McMillan’s athletic director last August, many believed his next athletic venture would be a return to the sidelines as a football coach.
As head football coaching positions opened across the WPIAL this year, rumors swirled the man who built Washington High School’s football program into a powerhouse, which included two WPIAL titles and a state championship in 2001, would be coaching again in 2015.
Not so fast. In fact, Montecalvo’s next endeavor involves his other passion – education.
Montecalvo, who hasn’t coached since 2010, signed on as program coordinator for Waynesburg University’s Athletic Administration and Coaching option of its Master of Education program. He will also teach and serve as a resource for faculty members.
The program begins its first year next month. Courses will be offered at the university’s Southpointe location and will be held for eight-week periods on weekday evenings from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“Naturally, it’s an area of which I am extremely excited about,” Montecalvo said. “I was a classroom teacher for 23 years before I became an athletic administrator. I loved teaching and coaching is teaching if you go about it the right way.
“I really enjoy the leadership position of being an athletic administrator and the teaching element of instructing and imparting knowledge to young people who have eyes and ears that yearn to grow.”
Early this year, Montecalvo was contacted by Dr. Helen McCracken, director of Graduate Education Programs at Waynesburg and former superintendent at Canon-McMillan. The two worked together when Montecalvo was athletic director at the district and McCracken was interested in him heading the university’s new program.
The 59-year-old was tentative at first, offering to help on a volunteer basis. After further discussions with McCracken, President Doug Lee and Dr. Jacquelyn Core, provost and vice president for academic affairs, he agreed to sign on for a year; molding the new program through its infancy.
“I can attest to Coach Montecalvo’s passion for athletics, his commitment to making a difference in the lives of young people and his overall contributions to our community through the integrity he consistently embodied,” McCracken said in a news release.
Montecalvo knows first-hand how demanding the job of athletic director can be. When he was named to the position at Canon-McMillan in 2003, the Wash High and Penn State graduate recalled being overwhelmed in his early days on the job.
He did not have a program like Waynesburg’s to learn from. Instead, Montecalvo’s knoweldge grew through certification courses hosted by the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. It certainly helped. From 2008-2014, Canon-McMillan’s athletic programs won nine WPIAL titles and seven state titles in various sports.
“When I took over as an athletic administrator after nearly 25 years in education as a teacher and a coach, I didn’t realize how ill-prepared I was in some areas,” Montecalvo said. “It required much on-the-job training. The role of the athletic administrator is so diverse and so complex.
“There are so many areas that you have to be very well-versed in and knowledgeable of. For someone to take that position without any type of background certification, to me, is unimaginable.”
Montecalvo helped develop the curriculum and recruited several high-level high school administrators from across Western Pennsylvania to become instructors, including North Hills superintendent Dr. Pat Mannarino, who began his career as an athletic administrator at Blackhawk under WPIAL president Jack Fullen, and former Central Valley superintendent Dr. Dan Matsook, who won WPIAL and PIAA titles as Rochester’s head football coach in 1998.
Current and prospective coaches are offered the opportunity to earn credits toward their Instructional II certificate. Additionally, educators have the opportunity to work toward a Master’s degree in athletic administration and a combination degree as a principal. With its accelerated schedule, Montecalvo hopes current athletic directors use the program to gain additional knowledge.
The school’s five core classes are contemporary issues in athletics, sports budgets and fiscal practices, facilities and event management/fundraising, sport compliance, and coaching and first aid. Issues that will be discussed vary from how to handle intrusive parents to Title IX requirements.
“The role of an athletic administrator today is not nearly the same as it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago,” Montecalvo said. “In fact, it’s not what it was 10 years ago and I can speak to that issue. It has become so much more demanding because of the continued requirements that we have placed on athletic directors.”
Many of those requirements involve safety and liability, but in Pennslyvania, athletic administrators do not require certification. The only certificates needed are for concussion protocol and sudden cardiac arrest, and there are very few educational requirements for men and women who coach high school athletics.
That is about to change. Effective next July, the PIAA will require all coaches participating in an athletic program to take a mandatory coaching and first aid course. In response to the change, Waynesburg is offering a three-credit course to fulfill the requirement that will count toward a degree and a shorter, 12-hour course.
With the unique program, Montecalvo wants athletic directors who follow in his footsteps to have the tools that were not available to him 30 years ago.
“You can say that you have a degree in this,” Montecalvo said. “It’s not just, ‘Well, I’ve worked here for 10 years and I’ve seen what my athletic director does.’ That’s kind of what my situation was, but now, these young people have that opportunity to learn. We want to inspire and educate.”