Doug Montgomery, Ballard High School’s new baseball coach, says he wouldn’t want to coach anywhere but Ballard. After all, his pride for the neighborhood runs deep; he even tells people he’s from Ballard, Washington. Montgomery, a second generation BHS graduate (he graduated in 2003, his father in 1976), will be replacing former coach John Lamm, who announced his resignation after four years of heading up the team.
Montgomery played baseball while attending Shoreline Community College, where he was team captain and named Shoreline Community College Male Athlete of the Year. He then transferred to the University of Washington Foster School of Business, where he double majored in finance and accounting. He played baseball at UW, until a shoulder injury put him out after just six weeks on the team. He pitched in semi-pro baseball for one year before finishing his education. According to BHS, Montgomery is now as a financial analyst for a company downtown that develops and licenses financial products for banks and credit unions. “I spend a lot of time staring at Excel spreadsheets, and explaining accounting principles to techies. I’m a numbers guy, and that’s definitely apparent in my coaching,” he told BHS.
Montgomery was the pitching coach for the Beavers last season, and “understand what it takes to build a program,” says BHS. “When I was growing up, and tagging along with my dad to the high school practices, this program was buzzing. It felt like they were always at the top of the Metro standings, and making it to the State Tournament,” Montgomery said. “When we thought of Ballard sports,we thought baseball. That’s what I want to get this program back to…I want people to think Ballard, and have baseball come to mind. Ballard has been a high school since 1901, and has never won a state championship for baseball. I want to change that.”
Carrie Burr, BHS athletic director, says Montgomery is someone people are drawn to. “You just can’t help but like him. He is so positive and enthusiastic about Ballard baseball it makes me want dust off my shoes and go coach for him,” she said in a release.
Former coach Lamm took the Beavers to the playoffs in 2011, and last year helped them take third in the King County Tournament. “I have been blessed to have the privilege to coach my beloved Beavers and am fortunate that I had a great group of young men to help put the Beavers back on the baseball map. I am not sure I can express how difficult it was to step down but to those who know me, well you do,” Lamm said, according to BHS.
