- November 27, 2024
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If coaching was a college major, it’s safe to say Pat Monahan has taken the survey course. During his 17 years at Mainland (14 spent as an assistant athletics director), he’s coached boys’ and girls’ tennis teams, golf teams and bowling squads. And oh yeah, one season of freshman girls basketball.
“That was fun,” Monahan quipped.
Monahan took over as Mainland’s Athletics Director this summer following Dick Toth’s retirement. As Toth’s assistant for the past 14 years, Monahan helped make the choice a simple one for the school’s administration.
“They asked me if I’d be the AD, and I said ‘OK,’” he said.
Now, Monahan’s looking to build upon the winning foundation that Toth created at Mainland.
“He brought a level of professionalism that was just the highest,” Monahan said of his predecessor. “He was always very professional, dealing with the other schools, the FHSAA, the newspapers. I just want to carry that over. It’s one thing I’ve learned from him — is to act and be professional in everything I do.”
He won’t have to start from scratch. As a Seabreeze grad and longtime member of Mainland’s administration, Monahan has deep community roots as he steps into his new role.
“I’m just excited to work with my coaches and the other athletic directors,” he said. “I’ve known them all as Dick’s assistant, so it’s good to get to know them a little bit. I feel I have a good relationship with a lot of my coaches, so I’ll try to keep that up and help them out whenever I can.”
He expects plenty of new opportunities and challenges as the Bucs’ AD, but right now, the focus is on the upcoming fall sports season, which kicks off in less than a month.
“It’s kinda tough,” Monahan said, “because football and volleyball start Aug. 4, and the teachers don’t even go back until a week after that. I’ll be communicating with my coaches, making sure everyone’s on the same page and good to go that first day of practice. In 14 years as an assistant, you learn a lot.”
PAT MONAHAN 101
Age: 39
Family: Lives with his wife, Angie, and his three children in Ormond Beach.
Education: Seabreeze High School, Florida State University
Favorite sports film: Pride of the Yankees. “That’s a good one. Everybody should watch it at least once.”
Favorite sports memory (player): “My junior year of high school, we won the district golf tournament in a playoff against New Smyrna. That was pretty exciting. And I made a par, so I was happy.”
Favorite sports memory (coach): “The year (2009) we won the state bowling tournament. It was the first year we ever made it out of the district tournament. We lost the last three years in a row in the round right before making states — we got knocked out by Seabreeze every year. We made it to the state playoffs and ran through undefeated. We beat Timber Creek in a roll-off. It was pretty awesome.”
