In ‘God, Family, Basketball,’ he trusted
In new book, legendary coach chronicles his remarkable career at St. Joseph-Trumbull
Whenveteran sportswriter Chris Elsberry took on the task of helping Vito Montelli with his memoirs, it was no surprise the legendary high school basketball coach was well prepared.
“Coach Montelli had always had writing his memoirs in the back of his mind ,” Elsberry said, “and he had spent a lot of time putting things down on paper, about his growing up, his time in college, life in the army. We met in his living room, and he showed me these giant plastic crates, full of scrapbooks and all kinds of material. I thought it would be a lot of fun, and it was. Going through everything he wrote was just incredible.”
Over a period of more than three years, Elsberry and Montelli worked to distill the mountain of material and remarkable achievements into “God, Family and Basketball,” released in October by Hilltop30 Publishing Group LLC, a 167-page story of Montelli’s 50 years of coaching basketball and touching the lives of young people at St. Joseph-Trumbull.
“I respect him as much as any coach I’ve ever been around,” Kentucky coach John Calipari tells Elsberry for the book. “Vito and I probably still talk once a month, sometimes more. … He’s always stood by his convictions.”
Many other prominent college basketball figures are quoted in the book, as Montelli’s relationships tended to last. CBS analyst Seth Davis, who first wrote about Montelli as a young Connecticut sportswriter in 1992, penned the forward.
Montelli, 88, who graduated from Bristol High, began coaching at St. Joseph in 1963, retiring after winning the last of his 11 state championships in 2012. He won 878 games, a record for Connecticut and New England boys basketball coaches, and lost 329, a .727 winning percentage. Hecoached 33 all-state players, 27 McDonald’s All-Americans and has won numerous honors.
But “God, Family and Basketball” is a book about Montelli’s human touch.
“He has a tremendously soft side,” said Elsberry, who covered Montelli’s teams for decades. “There’s a chapter in the book titled ‘What’s an hour out of a lifetime?’ This is a gentleman who, it’s amazing, the lengths he goes to to help people. The things he did for his players, helping them out whenever they needed it. You thought of him as this gruff, tough-as-nails coach. I think what’s going to surprise people is what a soft-hearted, tender gentleman he is.”
Montelli played at Arnold College, moving to the University of Bridgeport when the schools merged to play for coach Tufie Maroon, who taught him the game and the art of coaching. “Learning how to manage people was very important as far as I’m concerned,” Montelli says. “I loved Tufie Maroon because he had respect for people. He answered my questions.”
What emerges is a story of a deeply religious man who found his calling in basketball and the perfect place to practice it, who stayed loyal and true to St. Joseph, and his belief system.
“I think it’s a message of positivity,” Elsberry says. “He is really, deeply into his faith. The one thing he wanted was to make this a feel-good book. What’s an hour out of a lifetime? You have a friend that’s passed away, go to the funeral, go to the wake, send a card. Show people that you care, and will always care.”