In this day and age, the chances of the average guy staying on the same job with the same company for 20 years are somewhere between unlikely and no way.

Perhaps in today’s college coaching system, that truth is even harsher.

There’s a limit to the number of top jobs. The pressure to win is always there. Always. But sometimes the fit is so good—the coach and the college mesh—and things go well—winning seasons—that as time goes by, a coach and college can find that making a mark in life isn’t something you’re going to, but doing.

Monte Cater, who just finished his twentieth season as head football coach at Shepherd University, commented that “not very many people get to stay where they want to stay for that length of time.” Coaches and athletes live free-agent lives dependant on performance; winners can go quick and go far. Cater may have the most wins of any Shepherd football coach; he veers from that view of winning and leaving.

“I have people asking why I stay here, and it’s not that we haven’t been offered or looked at other jobs.” But, Cater notes, just because “things go well” doesn’t mean you pick up and move on to the next best job.

Cater came to Shepherd and has remained at Shepherd for sound reasons such as location: though lacking in scholarships, it is geographically a prime recruiting area.

Also, there’s Shepherd’s strong tradition of success as an educational institution and of building and maintaining a good football program.

Cater came into a football program in which Walter Barr, in a 15-year-period, built a record of 104-48-4, then the most wins of any Shepherd football coach. When Barr departed in the summer of 1986, athletic director and assistant coach Mike Jacobs admirably filled the void: the Rams won a conference championship.

The other side of inheriting a winning program is no easy task—you’re expected to win. “You face a situation of [coming into] a strong program with a great tradition. [Barr and Jacobs] were both nice people, and they were two guys who understood hard work.”

Cater explained that “you can’t overcome some things,” such as lack of scholarship funds, but that can be offset by what came from his predecessors, staff members, and returning players: a solid work ethic.

“I found out pretty quick that football is important here,” Cater said. “And there better be more [winning seasons] coming.”

With 139 wins as Shepherd head football coach, Cater has produced the winning seasons.

Can’t Play Forever

As do most coaches, Cater started out as a player, but he understood that he didn’t have the size necessary for being a career player. “I knew it would end early,” Cater said of his playing days. In high school his size, a coach, and his future intersected.

Cater had the good fortune to have a high school football coach who moved on and became his college coach. “I was fortunate enough.…I was not a big player, but I was playing in college,” he said. “My high school coach, Merle Chapman, was my college coach.”

After college graduation, Cater’s first college coaching came by way of Chapman, who hired him to work with the offense. All total, “we had a 12-year working relationship” Cater proudly notes. “If I hadn’t had that relationship, I might not have gotten into college ball.” He went on to serve successfully as head football coach at a small private school—Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis.—before signing on with Shepherd shortly after the 1986 season.

To maintain a successful program, Cater has had to find the right balance of coaches and players. When it was suggested that the entire football staff appears involved in each aspect of a game to the point that the head coach is more of a CEO overseeing a corporation, Cater says with a smile, no, the fact is, “I often say I’m grateful that my staff allow me” to be on the sidelines and participate.

Monte Cater’s career in brief…

* 1971 graduate of Millikin University, Decatur, Ill.
* As head coach at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis., for six seasons prior to coming to Shepherd, won three conference titles in last four seasons
* Appointed Shepherd’s 12th head football coach on Feb. 9, 1987
* 1988, led the Rams to a tie for the WVIAC title
* 1990 season, first with a senior class that he recruited: 6–3–1 record, second-place finish in the WVIAC
* 1991, 8–3 record and the school's first NAIA Playoff appearance since 1986
* 1992, 9–3 overall; won first NAIA playoff game
* 1997, WVIAC Coach of the Year as Rams went 9–1, a share of the WVIAC title, earned first-ever NCAA Division II ranking, and set a new school record for scoring with 340 points
* 1998, WVIAC Coach of the Year; 10–2 mark as WVIAC champions; Shepherd made its first appearance in the NCAA II Playoffs and upset Indiana (Pa.), 9–6 in the first round, before falling to Slippery Rock, 31–20 in the quarterfinals

* Shepherd's all-time winning football coach

* Named WVIAC Coach of the Year for a record eighth time (2006) as Rams forced six shutouts (2006)
* Cater and his wife, Bonnie, reside in Martinsburg with their daughter, Taylor, and son, Logan.

As for finding and bringing in the players, well, he squeezed in this conversation between meetings and recruiting. In an even-toned voice, he addressed the technical aspects of football, the challenges, the wins, but his voice had more intensity when he spoke of the players in relation to the program and academics.

“You have to have a philosophy” to succeed, Cater said. “How we play the game is balanced”—not just in game plan, but throughout the rest of every day. “We have kids who don’t make it, but most do. Our graduation rate [on the football team] is higher than that of the overall student body,” Cater stated about the team work ethic. “Off the field, we’re like a lot of schools: I work the people; and I invite anyone to come and see what we do” whether it be in the weight room, on the field, or in the classroom. And unless the student-athlete is living at home, the coaches will be keeping an eye on them. “Our coaches’ chins can get pretty heavy looking over someone’s shoulder.”

In Monte Cater’s world it’s all about balance: work for it and maintain it.

“Our players realize there are two sides here: if you love football, you have to get the grade points….It can never be just football.”

Michael Abshire, a writer and editor for most of his working life, lives on the outskirts of Town.