Orange County Community College Notebook / Steve Kresal : Schedule Keeps Montgomery Going

There are active people, there are ridiculously active people, and then there is Bill Montgomery.

Montgomery, a freshman at Cypress College, is taking 17 units and also is working full time as a car stereo installer and part time as a high school soccer official.

He is also a starting halfback on the Cypress soccer team coached by Tony Baca. So that should be enough, right?

Not for Montgomery.

He is also a member of the Cypress wrestling team coached by Ray Haas. Cypress will have its first match Wednesday at home against Palomar, and Montgomery will wrestle in the 137-pound division.

“I just try and do as much as I can,” said Montgomery, 23. “I like staying busy, and it keeps me out of trouble. I always have something to do. I probably could work less, but I like having extra money.”

Montgomery went to Forest Park High School in Cincinnati. He was an all-state wrestler at 112 pounds and his school’s soccer team finished third in the state tournament when he was a senior in 1982. But instead of going to college, he joined the Army the next September.

Montgomery said he soon became bored with the day-to-day life of the infantry and transferred to the airborne division for a little more excitement. He said he made about 30 jumps at Fort Bragg, N.C., before getting his discharge in September 1985.

Montgomery then decided to move to Buena Park to live with friends he met in the Army.

He worked at various jobs until the spring of 1987, when he decided it was time to go back to school.

He enrolled at Cypress last spring and didn’t play any sports. But over the summer, he decided to play soccer and wrestle.

“I wanted to play both because I’m about equal at each,” Montgomery said. “In soccer, you can use speed and just outrun people, and in wrestling, you have to be an animal, and there are times when I like that.

“I had a meeting with Coach Haas and Coach Baca, and they told me it would be no problem.”

Montgomery leads the soccer team in assists this season with eight, and he has scored five goals.

“He is always in shape and has played anywhere, including goalie, this season,” Baca said. “He has great quickness and speed and is always so positive, he’s just great to have on the team, even if I have to share him.”

Haas said that Montgomery is the first wrestler he has had who plays another sport during the season.

“He’s played soccer and wrestled all his life, so we simply allowed him to do both, and that makes him happy,” Haas said. “The soccer season will be over by the time he gets ready for state finals, so he should be really ready by then. He has the capability of making the state meet, but past that, I can’t be sure how well he’ll do, because we don’t know who he will be competing against yet.”

The results of the Sept. 18 men’s Orange Empire Conference cross-country meet involving Rancho Santiago, Orange Coast, Citrus and Cypress have been voided, and the event will be rescheduled, according to the coaches involved.

Rancho Santiago was reported to have won the race, but there was some controversy over the results because the Citrus course was poorly marked and several runners went in the wrong direction for part of the race. The men’s race was switched to the women’s course because of a swarm of wasps, and after officials tried to lengthen the course by a mile, markings became confusing.

Finally last week, all four coaches involved decided to reschedule the event.

Community College Notes: Paul Ellison, a former Orange Coast College catcher, signed with the Phillies last week. Ellison, the starting catcher at OCC in 1985-86, played at California last season. . . . Lisa Johnson had 13 kills, Kim O’Dowd had 17 assists and Lynne Egan had 11 blocks to lead Cypress to a 15-4, 15-8, 7-15, 15-5 victory over MiraCosta Friday in nonconference women’s volleyball.