Monty Sanders is in his first season with the Winthrop men's basketball program, serving as the director of player development.
Sanders joined the Winthrop staff after spending the 2020-21 season as an assistant coach at UNC Wilmington. Prior to his stop at UNCW, Sanders spent two seasons with Prosser at Western Carolina. Sanders was an assistant coach during Prosser’s first season with the Catamounts in 2018-19 and before the start of the 2019-20 season was promoted to associate head coach. During that season (’19-20) he helped lead the team to the second-largest turnaround in NCAA D1 by winning 12 more games than the previous season. As the offensive coordinator he helped guide the team to final national rankings of 17th in scoring offense, 14th in three-point field goals per game and 17th in effective field goal percentage.
His coaching career began at his alma mater as the director of operations for the Elon men’s basketball program. Sanders, who began his collegiate career at Richmond, played his final two seasons with the Phoenix and was a team captain as a senior. He was promoted to assistant coach before the 2013-14 season and spent five seasons in that role before departing to join Prosser at Western Carolina.
A native of Raleigh, N.C., Sanders began his playing career at Richmond before transferring to Elon following the 2005-06 campaign. He was a two-year letter winner with the Phoenix and served as a team captain in his senior year under former head coach Ernie Nestor.
Sanders continued his association with Elon as Director of Basketball Operations in August of 2010 and was promoted to assistant coach in the summer of 2013. In Sanders’ five seasons as assistant, Elon posted double-digit victories each year, including a pair of 18-win seasons.
Sanders was a tireless recruiter for the Phoenix, signing players from across the United States as well as international talent from Canada, Germany, Croatia and England. He was instrumental in signing Elon's top career 3-point shooter, Tanner Samson, who drained 324 career treys and racked up 1,320 career points.
Working mostly with Elon's big men, Sanders aided in the development of the program's all-time blocked shots leader and 1,600-point scorer Lucas Troutman. He also worked closely with all-time great Tyler Seibring, the first Elon player from the program's NCAA Division I era to finish in the top-10 all-time in scoring and rebounding. Seibring was a three-time All-CAA and two-time NABC All-District 10 selection and finished his Phoenix career with 1,794 career points (6th all-time) and 779 career rebounds (10th all-time). Sanders also worked primarily with big men at both Western Carolina and UNCW. At WCU he assisted in the development of Carlos Dotson who earned back-to-back All-Conference selections as well as a Lou Henson All-American selection.
Sanders helped the Phoenix pile up 21 wins in the 2012-13 season, the school’s most victories in the NCAA Division I era, and the program's first D-I postseason berth in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament as Elon captured the Southern Conference North Division regular season championship. Sanders was also part of Elon transition’s to the Colonial Athletic Association in the 2014-15 season.
Prior to returning to Elon as a member of the staff, Sanders served as assistant boy’s varsity basketball coach at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh and head coach of the Garner Road Basketball Club AAU 15U team.
As a player, Sanders was a popular standout for the Phoenix, on and off the court. One of Sanders’ career highlights came in the 2009 Southern Conference Tournament when he scored a career-high 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in an upset victory over Wofford in Chattanooga, Tenn. Away from the court, he served on Elon’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council from 2007-2009 and spearheaded the annual "Phoenix Field Day" for inner-city youth of Burlington, a program still continued by Elon students today.
Sanders earned his bachelor's degree in business administration at Elon in 2009. He is married to the former Page Hall and the couple has a daughter, Emmerson Sloane Sanders and son, Beckham Steele Sanders.
