After serving as the offensive coordinator and offensive backs coaching roles from 1972-2002, Montera is back for his 10th season (40th overall) on the staff and will work primarily with the running backs and kickers. He spent the 2015-16 seasons working with the secondary and will be the team’s running backs and special teams coach this season. During his first stint with Cerritos, Montera was also an instructor in the Physical Education and Math departments, while also spending time as the division’s Athletic Coordinator before retiring from teaching.

Back in 2018, Montera was inducted into the California Community College Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Montera started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the University of Colorado before moving to Downey High as an assistant football and junior varsity baseball coach for two seasons (1964-65). He then coached at El Rancho High from 1966-67 and was an assistant football coach and physical education instructor at Santa Monica College from 1968-71 before coming to Cerritos. Montera also spent time as the Falcons golf coach. From the time he left Cerritos the first time until his return, Montera was an assistant coach at Mayfair High from 2003-14.

While a student at Trinidad High in Colorado, Montera was a quarterback and defensive back on the football team for four seasons, while spending four years on the baseball team and three seasons with the basketball team. He earned a football scholarship to the University of Colorado, where he was a three-year quarterback for the Buffaloes, which included playing in the 1962 Orange Bowl, while also playing baseball.

Montera received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the University of Colorado with a minor in Physical Education in 1962, and went on to earn his Masters of Education degree from Whittier College in Education in 1970.

His youngest son, Peter (53) was a quarterback for the Falcons during the 1989-90 seasons and is in his second season on the Falcons coaching staff. Montera has two other children, Kris (59), who was a USA Gymnastics Team Member and competed at UCLA, and Dennis (57), who’s retired after a career in the Air Force Academy. Montera, 84, and his wife Kendel have been married for 60 years and reside in La Palma.