Monty Nagel: Metter High School

Minor was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2019.

Monty Nagel is no stranger to the high school baseball scene in Southeast Georgia. The longtime coach retired in 2018 from Metter High School where he not only enjoyed coaching the game but touching the lives of the young people.

“I always said if I could touch just one life, it would have been worth it,” he said. “I wanted to be a shining light, and if I could lead someone to Jesus Christ, that would be the ultimate.”

Nagel compiled a career baseball record of 204-120 in 14 seasons at Metter and nearby Pinewood Christian Academy. He was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019.

“He was my gym teacher growing up, so he always made sure I was doing the right thing and he always checked in on me,” said former Metter High player Brennan Crooms. “He had a lot to do with me, and he’s made me the player and person I am today.”

Nagel graduated high school from McDonough Christian Academy and West Georgia College. He started his coaching career as an assistant football and track & field coach at East Coweta High School where he coached for three seasons. He then moved to Cedar Grove where he was an assistant football and was the head junior varsity baseball coach for one season.

After the one year at Cedar Grove, he went to work with his sister who owned a mortgage company. Nagel spent five years before getting married and relocating to Metter.

He became the head football coach and athletic director at Robert Toombs Christian Academy in Vidalia, before joining Buck Cravey’s staff at Pinewood Christian. Nagel was a football assistant and the head baseball coach.

He later got an opportunity to work at Metter High where he was a baseball assistant for one year before taking the head coaching job for nine seasons.

He took a short hiatus to watch his children play in college, then took the Metter program back over in 2016. In his baseball coaching career, he had just one losing season.

He had a seizure in December, 2017 and in early 2018, Nagel battled for his life with a brain tumor that doctors later found to be benign.

He said getting inducted into the Hall of Fame is the most humbling experience of his life.

“It’s a huge honor,” he said. “To be in the company with those coaches as well as the past Hall of Fame guys, to be in their company is phenomenal.”