There are few coaches in Division III with the experience that it takes to lead a program as steeped in tradition as the Emory & Henry College football team. Don Montgomery is one of those few coaches.

Montgomery, now in his seventh season at the help of the Wasps’ football program, is beginning his 35th year of coaching college football, nearly all of which have been on the D-III stage.

Last season, E&H posted a 5-5 record and saw eight players named to All-ODAC teams. The Wasps were sixth in the nation in attendance with an average of 5,391 fans at each home game.

In 2009, Emory & Henry went 7-3 on the year, finishing fourth in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Caleb Jennings received Honorable Mention All-America honors while winning the Lanier Award as the Richmond Touchdown Club’s College Division Offensive Player of the Year. Jennings was also named ODAC Offensive Player of the Year.

The Wasps were 6-4 in 2008, finishing in a four-way tie for first place in the conference, a tie which was broken by Randolph-Macon. E&H posted a 6-4 record in 2006 and saw Marshall Doss selected as the ODAC Defensive Player of the Year and a Honorable Mention All-America pick.

Montgomery and his staff dedicate themselves to inspiring leadership in the long tradition of Emory & Henry football: champions producing champions – on the gridiron, in the classroom, and in life.
Prior to coming to Emory & Henry, Montgomery served his alma mater for 28 years. During his time at Mount Union, Montgomery helped build the Purple Raiders’ football program into a national powerhouse, and Division III’s “Team of the 1990’s,” taking seven of 10 national championships 1993-02 and winning 104 straight regular season games.

He was an offensive line coach, a defensive line coach, an inside linebacker coach and, for his last 19 years, defensive coordinator. As defensive coordinator, his teams led the country in scoring defense and total defense numerous times.

In addition to his duties on the gridiron, Montgomery was the Purple Raiders’ head wrestling coach for 22 seasons (1978-2000). During that time, he coached 34 All-Americans, an individual NCAA Division III National Champion and won nine Ohio Athletic Conference championships, including a record six in a row.

For those achievements, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in March of 2010.

After graduating from Mount Union in 1977, Montgomery served as an assistant coach at Indiana State University while working on his master’s degree.

Among Montgomery’s coaching honors are the 1999 AFCA National Assistant Coach of the Year Award and the Cleveland Touchdown Club’s College Coach Service Award in 2004. Montgomery has also been listed as one of American Football Monthly’s “Hottest Coaches To Watch.”

As a player, Montgomery was an All-Ohio Athletic Conference at offensive guard as a senior. That same season, he was named team co-captain and Offensive Most Valuable Player. His junior year, he received the Jack Thorpe Memorial Football Award.

Montgomery’s wife Theresa, is a P.E. teacher at Meadowview Elementary School. The couple has three daughters and a son and resides in Glade Spring. Ann Marie is a 2002 graduate of Mount Union and is married to Scott Kish. The couple had their first child, Khloe, in May. Joe, a 2006 Mount Union graduate, is entering his fifth season as Head Wrestling Coach and Assistant Football Coach for Muskingum University in Ohio. Katelyn is a 2010 graduate of King College. Kara is a senior at Patrick Henry High School, where she is a member of the soccer team.