Chris Schauer - Richard Montgomery Handball

Richard Montgomery team handball coach Chris Schauer, who started the Rockets' squad three years ago, is the County Sports Zone/Buffalo Wild Wings Coach of the Month for September.

"He is great. He's really committed," said Richard Montgomery Athletic Director Chamy Wijeratne. "He gets all of the kids involved."

Coach Schauer, a special education math teacher, came to Richard Montgomery four years ago and found that there wasn't a team handball program.

"I asked why, and was told there was nobody interested in coaching," he said before a practice this week.

"We are trying to recruit kids who don't usually go out for sports," he said. "We are trying to convince them that they are good athletes. My job is to say that we all are good athletes. We all can play."

Although he's 50 years old, Coach Schauer is only in his seventh year as a teacher - he spent three years at Albert Einstein High School as a para-educator. His first career was in the debt collection industry.

But he said that the birth of his twins, Annie and Caleb, in 1999, brought him into education.

"After my wife, Laine, and I discovered Caleb had autism, she told me it was time to pursue my love for teaching children," he said. "I got into teaching because of Caleb and coaching because of my daughter Annie, and I haven't looked back!"

"For the first time in 50 years, I'm enjoying what I do," Coach Schauer said.

For being named County Sports Zone/Buffalo Wild Wings Coach of the Month, Coach Schauer received a gift certificate, a box of sauces and a hat from Buffalo Wild Wings, and a County Sports Zone Under Armour t-shirt.

If you'd like to make a nomination for next month's County Sports Zone/Buffalo Wild Wings Coach of The Month, click here.

Congratulations to Coach Chris Schauer!