MONTAGUE — Even while having some success at his alma mater - Hamilton - the past several years, Phil Koops knew the difference that a community fully bought into football can make. When he passed Montague on U.S. 31 on a vacation in summer 2024, Koops told his girlfriend that if the Wildcat job ever came open, she'd better get ready to move.
"(I love) the tradition," Koops said. "I love the small-town feel. People here know how to win and they know how to support winning."
Koops, who took over as head coach at Hamilton in 2019 after two seasons as an assistant, enjoyed his best season at Hamilton last fall. The Hawkeyes posted a 5-4 regular season record, earned the program's first playoff berth (outside the all-in 2020 season) since 2016 and won Koops a Division 4 regional coach of the year award from the state coaches' association.
However, the Montague job did in fact come open, as predecessor Justin Dennett resigned to take the Kelloggsville head coach position, and Koops pursued and won the Montague job. He'll also take over the strength and conditioning program across the athletic department, work he has experience doing at Hamilton.
"The experience, leadership, and passion for developing all student-athletes make him the perfect fit for this role," Montague athletic director Jay Mulder said of Koops in a press release announcing the hire. "We are confident that under his guidance, the Montague football program will continue to grow and achieve great success in the years to come."
"They have a beautiful new weight room facility in Montague," Koops said. "They were looking for, in the interview process, somebody to fill that void. They felt like it was something they needed across their athletic programs. I've done that at Hamilton for six years. I'd stand our kids (at Hamilton) against anybody as far as how they operate and how they perform lifts and the physical look of our kids compared to where they were six years ago."
Koops is friendly with former Montague coach Pat Collins, who's now leading the West Ottawa program, and was excited to take on the promise of the Wildcat team without, as he said, "following 'the guy,'" which Collins, winner of three state championships, is at Montague.
"You want to follow the guy after the guy," Koops said.
The new coach met with his team Friday - sticking around to watch the girls basketball team play in the district finals against Spring Lake - and distributed the players a handout with a list of get-to-know-you questions and instructions to text him their replies. He plans to get back to each player about their responses as the first step in building a relationship, which he views as paramount to building a program.
"This player-coach thing, everybody thinks it's just 'coach tells player what to do,'" Koops said. "It's all based on trust. I met with them today and told them what I was leaving, my hometown and a bunch of kids that love me. It's been a tear-filled last couple of days. But I'm coming here because I have a dream of winning a high school state championship. This place has done it.
"'All the things that you need to do it are right here in this room,'" Koops said he told the team. "'If we can all get on the same page and start pulling the same direction, that'll happen again.'"
Koops, who played offensive line at Hamilton and later at Olivet College, is naturally a proponent of establishing a run game on offense, but said throwing is a part of his philosophy too - just not doing it for the sake of doing it.
"I like throwing the ball, but not just to say we threw it," Koops said. "I like to throw the ball for yards and touchdowns. Defensively, I've got to get with the current staff to see what we've done, (look at) some other schools in the league that we compete against, make sure our coaches can coach it, and our kids can line up and play fast."
As Koops noted, leaving Hamilton was not an easy decision. However, he said he needed a new challenge after battles with school higher-ups about "pieces (I felt) like were crucial" to program success. Having been named coach last Wednesday, Koops said the conflicted feelings about pursuing the job have given way to excitement about the new opportunity in front of him.
"Now it's just excitement about the next opportunity, and what's going to happen here, what we can do, what we can build," Koops said. "It's just refreshing to have all the possibilities of what could be."
