Chuck Kyle's legacy will last well beyond his coaching years at St. Ignatius

CLEVELAND — A signed St. Ignatius flag, foam football and pendant from coach Chuck Kyle and his 2012 football team remain treasured by Ashton Montgomery. The mementos for a second-grader battling cancer are why Montgomery wanted to attend St. Ignatius, where he spent the last three years starting on the offensive line for Kyle. Next year will be Kyle's 40th and final season at St. Ignatius. He announced Monday he is retiring in 2023 from the school, where he teaches English, coaches football and track and field. It's surreal to Montgomery and many former players who suited up for Kyle in the last 39 years, which brought 11 state championships to St. Ignatius and shaped countless graduates for the rest of their lives. Some are pursuing their passions and helping others, such as Adam Shibley, a starting linebacker on St. Ignatius' last team to reach the state finals in 2016. "We were all wondering when it would be," Shibley said. "He's just so in love with the game. It's exciting to see him accomplish everything he wants and leave the game content with where he is." Shibley, meanwhile, is working on his master's degree and finishing his final season of college football at Notre Dame. He already founded an organization that supplies youth teams with equipment and uniforms. Others have gone on to become coaches, such as Carter Welo, who played running back and receiver as a junior on St. Ignatius' 2001 state title team. "Seeing his interactions, I wanted to do the same and impact young people," said Welo, who is now at assistant at Archbishop Hoban in Akron. "I remember being at Benedictine and seeing him at events and CYO games. I always tried to take something new from him that I could implant with the teams I was with." Another one of Kyle's former players, Ryan Franzinger, will take over the Wildcats in 2023 after the longtime coach retires from the field and as an English teacher. The selection of Franzinger to succeed Kyle as the Wildcats' next coach does not surprise either Welo or Shibley. Franzinger played with Welo on the 2001 state title team both as a linebacker and running back, before he walked on at Ohio State, then returned to their alma mater shortly after college. He became co-defensive coordinator in 2009 and assumed sole responsibility of the play calling on that side of the ball for Shibley's senior year. "I really do believe he gets the best out of every player," Shibley said. "Our senior year, everyone wanted to play for Franzinger. We wanted to back him up on the field." They all were molded under Kyle. For Montgomery, that began before he met the coach. Others say the same, but Montgomery's first interaction with Kyle came as a second grader while undergoing treatment for a tumor in his stomach from a form of lymphoma. His second-grade teacher, Mrs. Meehan, had a son on the team at St. Ignatius. She knew Montgomery liked football, so Keagan Meehan, a linebacker for the Wildcats through 2012, conveyed the message to Kyle about Montgomery and his fight. "I was in the hospital for three months and went into remission in 2013," said Montgomery, now a 6-foot-3, 290-pounder looking to play college football and major in business analytics or marketing. "They signed the football. Coach Kyle said to keep fighting." Montgomery still keeps that football with him. He also has a picture. "It was just real cool because they were in their jerseys," Montgomery said. "It made me feel a part of the team. It was the reason I went to St. Ignatius." Montgomery met Kyle while playing CYO football and again when he shadowed at the school for a three-week summer enrichment program while attending St. Mary's of Berea. Like Shibley, Welo and countless others before Montgomery, he felt drawn to St. Ignatius by Kyle. Welo said he remembers receiving a call from the coach while in middle school and his mother hardly being able to contain her excitement. "Growing up, I'd watch the 'Holy War' trailer," Shibley said of a video about the St. Ignatius-St. Edward football rivalry. "He gives a pregame speech that left me with chills. I said I want to play for this man and go to this school." Two speeches during Shibley's senior year still resonate with him. The Wildcats missed the playoffs the previous season in 2015, one of only three times they failed to reach Week 11 since Kyle's first state title run in 1988. That August in 2016, Kyle noticed a lackluster effort in practice, Shibley said. "He said nobody's forcing you to be here," Shibley recalled. "If you don't want to be here, there's the ramp." Kyle pointed to the ramp, which led to the exit from the field. The Wildcats, following a 5-4 season, went on to win 13 games that year until a 27-20 loss in double overtime to Cincinnati St. Xavier for the state championship. A few days after that loss, once the team returned from Columbus, Kyle gave that team one last speech. It sticks with Shibley as much as the "Holy War" video. "He gave a speech about how a football is shaped in a unique object that could bounce anywhere when it hits the ground," Shibley said. "You have to be able to react in any way and move forward. You have to adapt in any way and move forward." That is what Shibley has been doing, first walking on at Michigan as a linebacker and later starting The Uniform Funding Foundation. He began TUFF in 2019 with the goal of providing equipment to youth and high school teams. It has raised more than $280,000 to help football programs around Cleveland and the Midwest, drawing support from professional athletes and sports personalities. "We're going to be donating to all six high schools in American Samoa this summer," Shibley said. "We probably have over six different cities planned for this summer." While the idea for TUFF came to him while at Michigan, the seeds for that thinking were planted at St. Ignatius. "He's a class-act example of what you want to be in a person," Shibley said. "I never saw him lash out as a young man. I don't think I ever saw him swear once." Kyle's players have gone on to become professionals in the business world, as Shibley hopes to achieve with sports. Others have gone on to politics, such as former Ohio State and NFL receiver Anthony Gonzalez. LeCharles Bentley is now the NFL's senior advisor of player performance and development. He returned to St. Ignatius earlier this year to speak at a town hall meeting on youth football during NFL Draft week. Coming back reminded Bentley of the summer running he endured during football practices, taking three buses from Cleveland's east side just to get there and be coached by Kyle. "That seed was planted early for me in my career," Bentley said, "that resiliency that I understood it was going to take to have this type of career." Others remain closer to St. Ignatius and Northeast Ohio as coaches, such as Welo and Kyle's successor in 2023 with Franzinger. "There's probably maybe five or eight of us in the 'Ignatius world' that are coaching in high school," Welo said. "Then you have collegiate and NFL. Coach Kyle inspired guys to go make money and be great." That inspiration started with his faith, his faith in those around him. Once Montgomery reached St. Ignatius to play for Kyle, he earned a varsity spot as the starting center his sophomore year. "He asked me if I could do it," Montgomery said. "He never looked back. Gave me tips every day. He was always confident in me and never doubted me. It was really important. A guy like that and he believes in you? I think that means something." ©2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.