Steve Monks didn’t prioritize winning when he coached. He wasn’t motivated by securing a big catch while hunting or fishing.
Those pursuits instead revolved around sharing time with those he cared about, from family and friends to students to those who called him coach in the Horseheads Central School District.
Monks cultivated a wide social circle that benefited from his optimism, his zeal for life, and his desire to share those qualities with those around him.
“He’s probably one of the most caring individuals I know,” said Matt Gill, who played lacrosse for Monks and later became family. “That’s what made him a good coach and what made him a great person as well.”
Retired Horseheads coach Jeff Limoncelli said of Monks, “He was always compassionate for kids more than his passion for winning.”
Monks died May 16 at age 65 from an aggressive form of brain cancer.
He retired as boys varsity basketball coach at Horseheads in 2013 and four years later bid farewell to teaching physical education after 33 years in the district. But Monks remained heavily involved in the community and classrooms until the time of his death.
“He had a great personality, kids loved him,” Limoncelli said.
“This is a tough one. He’ll be missed very much by so many people because he touched so many lives. Young lives and adult lives. A very, very big void, especially with me, and I know many people.”
Limoncelli followed Monks as varsity boys basketball coach at Horseheads after working alongside him as JV coach. He is now a Mansfield University assistant baseball coach after guiding Horseheads to a second state title in baseball last year.
Survivors include Steve’s wife, Deborah, along with his siblings, nieces, nephews, and cousins. He comes from a family of six children and when circumstances dictated, he became a father figure to younger siblings Troy and Tracy.
“I wouldn’t have accomplished what I have in life without him,” Troy said. “He was not just a brother, he was a dad, he was my best friend. He basically raised Tracy and I while finishing college and going out and getting his first job and meeting his wife.
“He was definitely our rock. Not only emotionally and psychologically, but he also helped us out financially when we needed it. He was our dad.”
Troy, retired as a teacher from the Elmira City School District, is varsity wrestling head coach at Horseheads and was an NCAA Division III national champion at SUNY Cortland, which is also Steve’s alma mater.
Among the coaching lessons he took from Steve was lack of preparation leads to poor performance for both coaches and athletes.
“There’s been some great coaches in the area, but no one in my mind – and I’m biased – was as good as Steve Monks,” Troy said.
Coaching success went deeper than wins
To borrow a word Steve Monks liked to use with gusto, his coaching record at Horseheads was “outstanding.”
The Odessa-Montour graduate is the winningest coach in Horseheads boys hoops history with 248 over 24 seasons, a run that included 11 division championships and eight sectional finals.
Monks’ tenure was highlighted by the 2000 team that won the Section 4 title before losing to a Mount Vernon team led by future NBA player Ben Gordon. That Blue Raiders group finished 22-2.
When he retired as hoops coach, Monks mentioned pridefully he never received a technical foul, though he added there were times he probably deserved one.
“I find that very hard to believe, but he knew how to treat officials,” Troy Monks said. “Most of the time he put them in his back pocket, he buttered them up, he told them how great they were. If they made a bad call he might jump on them a little bit, but pat them on the butt as they went by.”
In December of 2009, Steve had surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland and it was discovered he had two blocked arteries. He had his first of four stents installed to open the arteries. There were other health challenges.
“He stressed that to his athletes, to us as siblings, never be content and enjoy life,” Troy said. “He had a rough life, but he enjoyed life.”
Steve coached lacrosse at Horseheads for more years than hoops, and he had six seasons coaching varsity and JV football. Before coming to Horseheads, he coached JV basketball at Odessa-Montour for a season.
Monks became an assistant coach for Elmira College’s men’s basketball team after retiring as Horseheads’ coach.
In an era when Sullivan Trail Conference rivalries were intense, Monks joined Elmira Free Academy coach Roger Hover in guiding the Central Region to a gold medal at the Empire State Games in 1993.
Limoncelli said Monks cultivated a family atmosphere among his programs that he learned from, including end-of-season dinners for the coaches.
“I’ve always appreciated the fact that he helped me to calm down a little bit, so to speak, which was very difficult,” Limoncelli said. “I learned so much about the game of basketball and how to coach and how to treat kids and treat people.”
Monks and his wife have been strong supporters of the Josh Palmer Fund, including its basketball tournament that has grown into one of the biggest nationally, with 32 varsity teams competing over four days each Christmas season. The fund helps area patients with costs related to cancer treatment.
“Obviously they won the first championship we ever had with the basketball tournament 27 years ago,” Palmer said of Monks’ team. “Then this past year he was still sitting at the JV games doing the scoreboard for us and keeping the book.
“The Monks family couldn’t have been a bigger supporter and we are beyond proud to call them friends.”
Andy Scott went over 400 wins as Horseheads’ girls basketball coach this past season. Monks is a strong influence.
“I think that was one of the best things I liked about him is when I first started coaching he had a work ethic that was pretty much unmatched by anybody around here,” said Scott, who added Monks did everything the proper way.
“He showed me how to run a program the right way. Go to the camps in the summer, run the open gyms, make sure you’re the first one there, always 15 minutes ahead, and the last one to leave.”
Scott joined Steve and his wife, Deborah, on a trip to Indiana for a coaching clinic of the legendary Bobby Knight.
“Every single time he was around, you were just a happy person,” Scott said of Monks.
“He always found positives in every situation. He sort of brightened up the room whenever he walked in. He always had stories to tell you and if you wanted to listen he’d talk to you all day about them.”
Cherished time spent outdoors
Hunting and fishing was a passion Steve shared with Troy. They made annual trips to the Chateauguay River in northern New York for fly fishing, with their most recent excursion coming early last fall. They invited family and friends to join them.
About 20 years ago, Steve and Troy joined Ed Kowalski for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska. They enjoyed five straight days of guided tours on rivers. Troy recalled one day they caught so many fish all three came back exhausted, taking immediate 2-hour naps.
“It was priceless, absolutely priceless,” Troy said of his bond with Steve.
“After every fishing trip, after every hunting trip, he would thank me for being there with him. … He wasn’t a very good fisherman, but he tried like hell and it was more about spending the time with whoever he was doing it with.”
Matt Gill played modified lacrosse for Monks at Horseheads and participated in basketball camps Monks ran. He became family when Troy married Matt’s mom, Terri. Steve got a license so he could officiate their wedding.
Matt, who lives in Baltimore, regularly joined Steve for hunting and said he was one of the best story tellers he has been around.
“I always looked forward to seeing that burgundy Frontier pull down the driveway and him get out and waddle on over and give you a big bear hug and ask, ‘How are you doing? What’s going on? Where do you want to sit?’ ” Matt said.
“He had the biggest smile on his face and he always had a good short story or one-liner, something that would make you smile and wake you up before you go out on the early morning hunt.”
Matt said Monks had a high standard for himself and his players, adding Monks did a very good job of holding all players to that standard. Steve also showed compassion, giving one of his players in need a place to live for a period of time.
“I think that’s one of the things that made him an unbelievable coach is the fact that whether you were the guy that was averaging 5 points a game or you were the third-string guy who played in the fifth quarter back when they used to do fifth quarter in modified days, he treated everybody the same,” Gill said.
Monks carried his commitment to the classroom.
In her second year of teaching, Terri Monks recalled Steve coming into her kindergarten class when he was an administrative assistant at Gardner Road Elementary in Horseheads. She told him the class was studying Native Americans and they had made a paper vest for him and built a teepee. Before the kids arrived, Steve put on the vest, hustled to the library and got a book to read to the them.
“If that doesn’t inspire you as a teacher to want to be the best that you can be, I don’t know what does,” Terri said.
Steve was a member of the Catharine Creek chapter of Trout Unlimited and introduced into seven area schools a Trout in the Classroom program. Steve would drop off brown trout eggs for students’ 55-gallon tanks, setting up classrooms to supervise hatching before he would release the fish into waterways in the spring.
Steve was able to release only one set of fish before his passing. Troy will take over the remaining six.
Troy said Steve was big on protecting the environment and emphasized the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Mr. and Mrs. Monks
Steve routinely introduced Deborah as Mrs. Monks, a chivalrous nod that reflected how thankful he was to call her his wife.
“He always talked about Mrs. Monks and how much he loved her and cherished her, and he tried to make her feel really special,” Scott said.
Troy said he wanted his marriage to Terri to be just like the partnership Steve and Deb had.
“They did everything together except hunt and fish,” Troy said. “That was me.”
Limoncelli said Steve loved the Blue Raiders. Monks was routinely at other events at Horseheads, including operating the clock for football games. Limoncelli recalled one time when he took his kids to a play at the school and Steve was there with Deb.
People were thrilled to see Monks wherever he showed up.
“He was always focused on being the best version of himself every single day and I thought that was fantastic,” Scott said. “I think he’s a fantastic person and a great human being and we’re going to miss him a lot. I loved that guy.”
Asked about his brother’s legacy, Troy responded, with an assist from his wife, “Love life, live it to the fullest, appreciate the little things, love people with everything you have.”
When Steve retired as basketball coach, he talked about how lucky he was to have had the opportunity to coach the program for so long.
“I have enjoyed every single minute of it and love every kid I’ve ever coached,” he said. “I had a great time doing what I did.”
Celebration of life
A celebration of life will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 30 at Horseheads Elk Lodge 2297, 6 Prospect Hill Road. A tribute service with an Elks ritual will take place at 4.
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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Longtime Horseheads coach Steve Monks remembered as ‘fantastic person’
Reporting by Andrew Legare, Elmira Star-Gazette / Elmira Star-Gazette
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