Montgomery family, Hart send Joliet native Jim Ozella to Game 3 of World Series

Jim Ozella, the 58-year-old baseball coach at Hart High School in Newhall, California, in the Santa Clarita Valley, thought he was sitting through a routine faculty meeting last Wednesday.

Surprise!

“All of a sudden, our principal [Collyn Nielsen] says, ‘I know you’re all watching the World Series. We’d like to send our baseball coach to Game 3,’ ” related. “I was stunned.

“Dave and Mike Montgomery got me a ticket. I don’t know who paid for the plane flight – the principal won’t say.”

Game 3 last Friday, of course, was the first of three played at Wrigley Field. Cubs left-handed reliever Mike Montgomery and Cleveland Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer played for Ozella at Hart. Dave Montgomery, Dave’s dad, taught and coached basketball there, and Ozella is close with him and his wife, Jeanette.

Ozella, who grew up on the east side of Joliet and played baseball at Providence, graduating in 1976, said the Friday morning flight out of Los Angeles “was delayed two hours, and it was packed. There must have been about 20 people on there who were going to the game. They were nervous.”

When he finally arrived in Chicago, Ozella checked into a hotel and jumped on the Orange Line and then the Red Line, arriving at Wrigley Field a little more than an hour before the game. The crowd outside the park was so large that “I think it took another half-hour to get inside the stadium,” Ozella said.

“It was a great event even though the Cubs lost, 1-0. I got to see Mike pitch – he got a couple of outs – and I saw him after the game. I went out with Dave and Jeanette for an early breakfast after the game.

“I never had seen a World Series game at Wrigley Field. Of course, not many had.”

Pipeline to the majors

Montgomery and Bauer are not the only major leaguers who played for Ozella at Hart.

“After the September call-ups this year, we had six in the major leagues,” Ozella noted. The others were White Sox pitcher James Shields, Pirates pitcher Tyler Glasnow, Giants catcher Trevor Brown and Rockies shortstop Pat Valaika.

“Shields, Glasnow and Montgomery graduated from high school and went straight into pro ball,” Ozella said. “The other three went to UCLA and then got drafted and made it to the big leagues. Pat Valaika [whose brother, Chris, was with the Cubs in 2014] played on the NCAA championship team at UCLA.

“People joke about us being a feeder program for UCLA. But it’s close by. It’s a good hour trip from here to UCLA only because of the traffic. UCLA has been good to us. I’m close with coach [John] Savage and a lot of guys who are academically inclined go there and play in a great baseball program at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Ozella’s proteges remember their Hart roots.

“We say the gate that’s in left field at our park is always open,” Ozella said. “We have college kids and pro guys who came out of our program coming back here to work out. They’re great role models for our players.

“Bob Walk, the former major leaguer, is a Hart graduate. He won a World Series game years ago. James Shields was with the Royals in the World Series, but he didn’t get a win.”

Coach has been blessed

Ozella – whose late father, Frank Ozella, was an prominent local baseball coach, particularly at the Ingalls Park Pony League – said he has been blessed.

“I have had the opportunity to learn the game and learn coaching from lots of great baseball people, beginning with my dad,” he said.

For example, Joliet legend Tom Dedin.

“I had a nondescript playing career, though I guess I was relatively successful at Providence,” Ozella said. “I went to Lewis to play baseball, but had injuries. Tom Dedin had been my high school coach and moved to Lewis, and I was playing there for him.

“I went to talk to him one day about helping him out in some way if the injuries were going to keep me from continuing to play.”

When Dedin became the baseball coach at Illinois, Ozella transferred to the U of I (after two years at Lewis) and became an undergrad assistant coach for Dedin for three years. He recruited the Chicago area in the summers.

“My dad and my high school coaches all had a major impact on my life,” Ozella said. “And I was blessed to have another mentor besides my dad in Tom Dedin. He showed me the ropes in the coaching world. I learned how to coach the game the right way.”

After Ozella graduated from Illinois in 1981 with degrees in journalism and secondary education, he spent two years as head baseball coach at Danville Schlarman. He and his bride, Kate – they have been married for 34 years – then moved to California, where he spent 14 years as the baseball coach at Alemany, a Catholic high school in Mission Hills, followed by a four-year coaching stint at College of the Canyons, a junior college in Santa Clarita.

He landed the job at Hart, where he teaches U.S. history and Advanced Placement U.S. history, in 2000. He coached a team two years ago that finished second in the state in California’s largest division.

The Ozellas’ son, Ryan, played baseball at Hart. Their daughters, Lauren and Jessica, were swimmers.

“I love it here,” Ozella said. “I am blessed to have had quality players and quality people alongside me for all these years. It’s been a great run.”

A great run punctuated with a seat at the first World Series game at Wrigley Field since 1945, with two of his former players in uniform, one of whom pitched in relief for the Cubs on that unforgettable night.