Montrose names Sandly head football coach
By Tom Robinson, NEPAFootball.com
Bill Sandly had never been to Montrose High School and had never interviewed for a head coaching job before.
One trip to Susquehanna County to do both paid off for the Clarks Summit resident and Riverside graduate.
Sandly was named coach of the Meteors during a Jan. 14 board meeting, taking over a program coming off a winless season.
Montrose was 1-19 in two seasons under Steve Miller.
“I understand the challenge,” Sandly said. “The challenge is part of what turned me on to it.”
Sandly played fullback, defensive line and linebacker at Riverside, Mansfield University and with semi-professional teams in northeastern Pennsylvania. He began coaching football with one of those semi-pro teams, the Electric City Chargers.
In addition to coaching a variety of sports on the youth level, Sandly has been an assistant football coach for one year each at three different District 2 high schools. He coached at Nanticoke and Pittston Area prior to spending the 2018 season coaching the defensive line on Harry Armstrong’s Riverside staff.
Sandly said he is aware of some of the struggles within the Montrose program, which also takes in players from Elk Lake and Mountain View in a cooperative sponsorship. He made two trips to Mountain View last week, met with his players in the weightroom at Montrose and was making plans for his first visit to Elk Lake.
Trying to boost participating in weightlifting and getting players from the three schools together for that are among Sandly’s current priorities.
When the season comes, Sandly said he plans to have a flexible approach when it comes to strategy.
“I’m not someone who’s going to sit and say we’ll have one type of thing,” Sandly said. “We’re going to be very diverse in what we do offensively and defensively.
“We don’t have a ton of numbers and don’t have a ton of big strong kids. So, I’m not going to tell you we’re going to line up in a pro style offense or run the ball down peoples’ throats.”
Sandly said the game plan might change every week.
“It’s going to be indicative to what we’re seeing on film,” he said.
