By admin 
The brothers grew up surrounded by football. They went to bed with a ball and helmet next to their beds, ready to seize the day.
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The sport — the practices, the shaving of heads on the eve of seasons, the Friday night games — became as vital to their every-day existence as air and water. Their famed grandfather, Bill Miller, was from 1972-82 the head coach for the Placer Hillmen of Auburn, which opened its doors to teaching and learning in 1897.
The school is seemingly as old as the region, aging nicely, and the brothers still cannot live without this sport because of what it gave them — and what they collectively continue to give back to football.
Their names are Joey and Steve Montoya. Joey is in his 20th season as head coach of the Hillmen, and he is closing in fast on another playoff team and 200 career victories, which is a stamp of remarkable staying power. Steve is a storyteller and editor for the highly regarded national high school digital site called MaxPreps, which dove headfirst into the new digital era in 2002 in Cameron Park in El Dorado County and is now rooted in El Dorado Hills. The site is a database for scores, schedules, past results, photos, stats and more.
When Joey coaches Placer football, Steve is generally there, too, home or away, jotting down notes, updating MaxPreps on scoring summaries, and because this is what the brothers do. They remain deeply involved in their alma mater out of an obligation of loyalty to the school, the town and to their grandfather, who died six years ago at 85 years old.
Steve spent years working on a book that was published late last year and is a must-have for anyone who appreciates high school football and the challenges, the joys and anguish within. It’s called “The Hillmen: The true story of high school football, loss and brotherhood.” It is a powerhouse, terrific read that chronicles the 1981 Placer team that was a journey of a team gutted by graduation from the 1980 state-ranked No. 1 Division I team that navigated high hopes and searing sorrow in 1981.
The book has caught the attention of movie-makers in Hollywood. The beauty of the book is that none of it is made up or exaggerated. Placer football remains an authentic product, genuine to the core with coach Joey Montoya running around practices like a 10-year-old ball boy from his time running along brother Steve during their grandfather’s game.
Steve is also coaching football, in the state capital. The brothers are certain that their proud grandfather is up there somewhere amid the clouds beaming. The current Hillmen are 5-0. They are still the talk of the town. Steve’s football team does not block with ferocity or tackle with aggression, which initially would have made Bill Miller frown and fume.
Steve coaches girls flag football at Saint Francis High in Sacramento. Flag is the fastest growing girls sports in the United States, and it may not include tackling but it is still a sport big on preparation, execution, schematics, bonding and fun. The Troubadours are 13-3.
Bill Miller died before flag football took off. He appreciated girls athletics. He won scores of section championships as the Placer girls tennis coach at Placer despite never playing the sport.
“There’s no doubt that influence from our grandpa is written all over us,” Steve Montoya said.
Said Joey Montoya, “Oh, he’s with us every single day. We feel him. We’re inspired by who and what he was.”
“The Hillmen” is a glimpse into the greatness of Miller and co-coach Tom Johnson. Miller was a coach ahead of his time. A Southern California native, Miller arrived in Auburn looking for a new challenge and place to raise his family in a small town just north of hustle and bustle of Sacramento.
Miller was the first area coach to fully introduce strength-and-conditioning programs, the first to implement 7-on-7 passing leagues in the offseason. He was also the first to sample ambitious scheduling, including playing Southern California powerhouse teams, a trend that has become the norm locally for programs such as the Folsom Bulldogs.
And he was surely the first to mandate that players shave their heads before each season as a show of solidarity. Shaved-headed kids in the 1970s and early ‘80s was a shock outside the Auburn city limits. Kids in those days wore long hair as free spirits. But no one noticed the shaved heads on game nights because they wore helmets.
The opponents remembered the welts and bruises, though. Joey Montoya brought the shaved-headed tradition back several years ago.
Miller headed a program that had one of the most storied runs in the history of regional football. There was a six-year stretch of the team going 78-5. Placer won five CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championships from 1975-81, twice finishing as the top-ranked team in the state at D-II by Cal-Hi Sports. The Hillmen went 11-0 during the 1975, ‘77 and ‘80 seasons.
“Miller changed the way other coaches in the area had to prepare and coach against Placer because he was ahead of the times,” longtime sports reporter/editor Mike Ray of Gold Country Media told me several years ago. Ray is now retired. “I’ll tell you what: His teams struck fear in opponents.”
‘Prove it’
Joey Montoya ordered up a box of “The Hillmen” to hand out to football players. The book is for sale at home games for $10. The Montoya brothers want current players and Hillmen followers to learn of the history of the program, to live it and to appreciate it.
Above the door frame on the entrance to the Placer weight room is a strip of white tape with a lasting message, courtesy of a permanent black marker.
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“Prove It.”
As in, prove your worth. The Hillmen have proven it, all right, in the form of old-fashioned values, of brotherhood, pride and purpose. “The Hillmen” book details the 1981 team that started with tragedy — a player being paralyzed in a mine-shaft accident and another dying in a midseason car crash — and the effort to return to the section finals despite just a handful of returning starters, and winning it.
Another sign inside the Placer weight room is “Hit and have fun.” The locker room has the scent of sweat and all the charm of an old muffler shop. But wait. There’s also a splash of newness in this weight room with 25 new weight stations that blend in with the tradition of yesteryear.
“It always starts here, in a weight room, like my grandpa’s teams and our teams over the years,” Joey Montoya said. “It’s dingy. It’s hard work. It’s straight out of the movie ‘Rocky.’ We’re still Rocky with grit, perseverance and toughness.”
The Hillmen have had players, too. Great players. Gary Anderson played in the trenches for the Washington Redskins (now Commanders) after starring at Placer in the 1970s. Eddie Vanderdoes starred in football at Placer as a lineman terror, and he swatted home runs out of the yard as a slugging Hillmen from 2011-13, and he, too, played in the NFL.
A current player throwing his weight around as a lineman is Gage Esty. He is headed to UCLA on a full athletic scholarship.
“Every week, I get texts from past players, and some stop by to talk to our players,” Joey Montoya said. “It keeps tradition alive.”
In the back of the weight room, there are a row of old helmets from yesteryear along with photos of past greats. One of them is Brett Rodarte, from 1981, when he was named the school’s “Hitter of the Year.” He is the uncle of current Placer quarterback Chase Rodarte, whose father, Eric, played quarterback at Placer in the early 1990s and is the Hillmen defensive coordinator these days.
“We hold onto our history, our tradition,” Joey Montoya said. “In a town like this, it all matters.”
Small-town football always matters. That’s Placer then and now. The school has 30 freshman players on the freshman team, 30 on the junior varsity squad and 50 on the varsity. Not bad for a school with 1,200 students.
A Hollywood visit to Placer?
The book touches on all the traditions and history. A Hollywood script? It’s worth it, says Steve Montoya.
“The book is humbling and exciting at the same time, and it’s so powerful with such strong emotions that it tugs at you,” he said. “A player death. A player paralyzed. It’s an incredible story, a true story, a team coming together, a town coming together. It’s instant Hollywood.”
Joey Montoya has no timetable on how long he will coach. He has three kids, ages 7, 10 and 12, and they ask if he will be coaching them. He cannot say no. Steve Montoya is locked into his MaxPreps and Saint Francis coaching gigs with the full support of his family, too.
Joey Montoya coaches football conditioning drills on a grass field, not far from the football stadium that offers a view of a sparkling new artificial turf and the horizon of downtown Auburn. Bill Miller never would have approved of fake grass — he was a mud and guts sort of coach — but he would understand the change of times, his grandsons say.
“Coaching football hasn’t gotten easier from when our grandpa did it,” Joey Montoya said. “If you’re only dealing with kids and practices and games, that’s the easy part. But coaches now are always putting out fires, dealing with parents, fund-raising, everything under the sun. The job hasn’t gotten any easier, but it’s more important than ever.”
He added that football remains big on legalized violence, where hitting is paramount. Hit or be hit. Players enjoy it. Coaches, too. Fans especially want to see it.
“It’s violence, and players are praised for it with stickers for the back of their helmets,” Joey Montoya said. “Where else can this happen? Sports is a final frontier, especially football.”
Montoya on this day then peered off into the distance, imaging Hollywood stepping on campus to size things up.
“You can’t beat this view,” the coach said. “You can see downtown Auburn from the bleacher seats, the courthouse, the Catholic Church, the epic sunsets. It’s the perfect place to grow up, to coach, to be.”
Steve Montoya agrees. That’s why he can’t get enough. And somewhere, Bill Miller is nodding in proud approval.
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