There are many things involved in basketball beyond just playing the game. There’s workouts and conditioning drills to be set up, travel arrangements to be made, keeping an accurate recruiting and alumni database, overseeing student managers, maintaining equipment and much more.
One man, Monty Sanders, is the glue behind the Elon University men’s basketball team, doing all of this and more.
Sanders played basketball for Elon from 2007-2009 and was a captain in his senior season. He showed leadership off the court at Elon, serving on the Student Athlete Advisory Council from 2007-2009 and came up with the idea of “Phoenix Field Day,” a program benefiting children living in inner-city Burlington that is run annually by student athletes. He graduated with a degree in marketing, and returned to the school as the director of basketball operations in 2010.
Sanders has had a lifelong love of the sport. His father spent 17 years playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. Sanders grew up in Raleigh and attended Cardinal Gibbons High School where he fell in love with the sport, and especially with colleges games. Sanders went to the University of Richmond before transferring to Elon his junior year where he averaged 5.4 points over 2 seasons.
After graduation, Sanders served as an assistant boys’ varsity basketball coach at his former high school and as the head coach of the Garner Road Basketball Club AAU 15U boys’ team.
When the director of basketball operations position became available at Elon, head coach Matt Matheny immediately thought of Sanders to fill the position.
“I met him when I first came to Elon,” Matheny said. “And when the job opening was available in spring 2010, he was the first person I called.”
Mathney described Sanders as “the glue guy” that holds the team together.
“He takes care of all the details that nobody sees, but he’s the one that makes it possible for our program to run smoothly,” he said.
Senior guard Josh Bonney has known Sanders for five years and played with him for two years.
“It would be very hard to replace him,” said Bonney. “It’s such an important dynamic that we have with him because he’s been where we are and he can relate to us. We can talk to him about some things that we can’t talk about with some of the other coaches because he’s closer to our age and it would be a very different team without him.”
Sanders believes being a former player helps him to relate to the players better.
“When I tell the players stuff, they know that I see it from both the coaches’ side and also their side,” said Sanders, “I miss being a player sometimes, but I really love being where I’m at.
Sanders has aspirations of one day becoming a Division I coach. The position he currently holds will allow him to work his way up the ladder to one day reaching his goal.
“It would be ideal to stay at Elon,” said Sanders said., “I would love to one day become head coach here.”
Elon has always been a special place for Sanders. Even when he was a student, he wanted to come back and work for the team.
“I knew back when I first wanted to get into coaching that staying at Elon would be the ideal situation,” he said. “I knew that it was going to be a premiere school one day and it is. I want to be here and be a part of it as long as I can. I understood that it was a long shot, but I always knew I would be back here.”
His passion and love for Elon is part of what helped to land him the job.
“He loves Elon and loves the school so much,” Matheny said. “His passion for Elon is what made him so attractive for the position. I feel like this quality is what really makes him such a valuable asset for our community.”
Sanders cherishes his current position.
“I think that we have an amazing staff right now and we work really well together,” he said, ”I hope that we stay together as long as possible.”