Former basketball player, coach at North Catholic

Before Kathleen Monti was the wife of a Marine, the mother of three daughters and an assistant basketball coach at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School in Cranberry, she was a teenage girl who didn’t want to lose her team.

When Domenec Catholic High School on the North Side closed in 1973, Medio Monti said, his wife, then Kathy Hickey, led a charge to keep the school’s basketball team together. The team could have been sent to any number of other schools, but Mr. Monti remembered that his future wife pressed North Catholic, then an allboys school in Troy Hill, to take the girls instead.

North Catholic became coed in 1973, and Ms. Monti became the captain of its first-ever girls basketball team. The move also brought legendary girls basketball coach Don Barth from Domenec to North Catholic, giving birth to a basketball dynasty.

Later, Ms. Monti made an impact on hundreds of lives as a teacher and assistant basketball coach at North Catholic and as a wife, mother and friend.

Ms. Monti, a North Side native who lived in Ohio Township, died June 1 of breast cancer. She was 59.

Even though she was something of a pioneer at North Catholic, those close to her say Ms. Monti didn’t talk much about her achievements.

“She would not go bragging about anything,” said the Rev. Fred Cain, a close family friend of the Montis. “She was a servant. What she did, she did for love. And everything she did for love came back to her.”

After graduating from California University of Pennsylvania with a degree in special education, Ms. Monti returned to North Catholic as an assistant athletic director and assistant girls basketball coach under Barth, who died May 1. There, she was again part of the burgeoning basketball dynasty and, more important, she was a role model for girls in athletics.

“Having her there as the female role model has really meant a lot to me throughout the rest of my life,” said Jody Thornton Powell, who played for Ms. Monti.

Nancy DiLallo Fitzgerald, who grew up across the street form Ms. Monti and played for her at North Catholic, added: “Besides my parents, she’s probably the most influential person in my entire life. Her energy, her zest for life, her wisdom — I don’t know anybody in my whole life like her.”

Mr. Monti recalled how their relationship began when she was a junior in high school and she followed him to the parking lot, tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to take her to the homecoming dance.

He said yes and she kissed him on the cheek, beginning a love story that would lead to their marriage in 1985. Mr. Monti’s service in the U.S. Marine Corps meant they moved around more than their fair share — 12 times to 12 cities in 28 years, Mr. Monti said — which, to most, would have been a grueling proposition. BUBA

“When ANGELINE you “ANGIE”have a wife like Kathy,” (GENTILE)Mr. Monti said, “she makes it easy.”

Those close to Ms. Monti spoke about her compassion and interest in the lives of others, even when that meant putting herself and herown life second.

“Shewas very much like a living saint among the people she [felt] it was her privilege to share life with,” Father Cain said. “But they would always be more important than she was.”

Before his wife died, Mr. Monti received word that she would soon be inducted into the North Catholic Hall of Fame — and was selected unanimously.

He said their three daughters only recently learned about the depths of their mother’s dazzling basketball career. “They’ll never know those stories because she didn’t tell them,” Mr. Monti said. “So I tell them now.”

In her final months, friends and family said, Ms. Monti remained active. She went to Boston to see the Pirates play the Red Sox in April, and she, her husband and their friends completed a 24-mile bike trek in March.

“She did not let it stop her,” Mr. Monti said. “She was completely unstoppable.”

In addition to her husband, Ms. Monti is survived by her daughters, Julia, Natalie and Lia, all of New York City, and two brothers, Thomas Hickey of Troy Hill and James Hickey of Beaver.

A funeral will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Holy Child Parish, Bridgeville. Burial will be in National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.