Girls coach Mantooth leaving Montgomery Academy

Reg Mantooth has coached at Montgomery Academy since the 2020-21 season. He announced he will step down effective immediately. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

He had a whole year to reflect on it, but Reg Mantooth never wavered in his philosophy.

The Montgomery Academy girls basketball coach elected to step down from his position at the end of the 2024 season, deciding it was best for the school to find a fulltime coach for the sport. He thought about it in 2022, but returned for the 2023 season. He contemplated retirement again at the end of the 2023, but the unexpected resignation of football coach and athletic director Robert Johnson caused Mantooth to put off retirement for another year.

“I was probably through last year, except for the fact that Robert left and we hired an A.D. late and he wanted me to do it another year,” Mantooth said. “I love coaching and I’ve enjoyed these teams, even though we haven’t been that good the last two years. It’s just a time commitment. I don’t have the time to commit to what needs to be done.” 

And while Mantooth won’t discuss publicly what needs to be done, it’s clear that he believes a full-time coach employed at the school can provide more development of the players than a community coach, which the school has at the middle school, junior varsity and varsity levels of girls’ basketball.

“The AD agrees with that,” Mantooth said. “I think everybody knows that, it’s just difficult to fill that (varsity position with a full-time coach). If you’re advertising as a full-time position, you’re going to attract a ton more candidates. But it’s hard to find a math teacher who’s a good basketball candidate.”

Mantooth, a former player for Larry Chapman at AUM in the late 1980s, was the athletic director, boys’ basketball coach and girls’ basketball coach at Fort Dale Academy beginning in 1994, winning girls’ basketball state championships in 1996, 1999 and 2004 and a state championship in boys’ basketball in 2003 and 2004. In between two stints at Fort Dale, he coached boys’ basketball at Oak Mountain High in 2008-09 and 2009-10, coaching the Class 6A team to a 42-15 record.

After taking a year off from coaching, he returned to Fort Dale, where he coached until his retirement following the 2020 season. Johnson was looking for a replacement for Barry Fencher, who left the Montgomery Academy program for Pike Road High, and immediately thought of Mantooth, a Montgomery Academy parent with a love for basketball.

He coaxed Mantooth out of retirement and Mantooth immediately coached the Eagles to the regional finals and a 26-3 record but they haven’t had a winning season since that 2020-21 season. Rebuilding years followed, including a 2-21 season in 2023 and a 6-18 record this past season.

He went over the 800-win mark in 2022 but it was a sub-par year by MA and Mantooth standards so few noticed. He will retire with an 818-435 record in 29 seasons.

Since making the finals in 2019, Montgomery Academy girls’ basketball has endured the second longest state tournament drought (five years) since the regional format was adopted in 1994. Trinity, St. James and Prattville Christian -- all rival programs with full-time coaches -- have all made trips to the state finals since Montgomery Academy’s last appearance.

Mantooth looks over his roster and believes next year’s squad can make a return to the postseason. 

“They’ll be better next year,” he predicted. “I think they can have some success next year with all five starters back. They’ll have a chance to go to a regional.”

Montgomery Academy athletic director Wright Ward will conduct an immediate search for a successor, but there are few obvious candidates in the River Region.

“I’ve asked around a little bit, but I don’t know who that is, either,” Mantooth said.