Samantha community mourns loss

In the Samantha area of northern Tuscaloosa County, the high school is the center of the community.

Generations of Northside Rams pack the stadium for every home game. It was where Jake Montgomery felt most at home.

The 22-year-old graduated in 2015, but he spent every Friday night with the team, helping the coaches and players with anything they needed.

“This Friday is going to be tough,” said Matthew Knight, one of Montgomery’s close friends who also works as a graduate assistant for the team. “This will be the first time I’ve had to do this without him. The stands will be packed out, but there’s going to be an emptiness there."

Montgomery was killed when he crashed his truck Monday night on Alabama 171 near Bone Camp Road, not far from where his grandmother Sue Montgomery died in a crash last December. He’d just left Jalapenos Mexican Grill on U.S. Highway 43, where he and a group of friends met for dinner at least three nights each week.

A passing volunteer firefighter stopped to move a tool box out of the road just before 10 p.m. when he saw the wrecked truck alongside the road.

Northside High Coach Chris Hilliker got a late-night phone call with the news. He went to the Montgomery house, where he stayed with the family until he left for work at the school at 4 a.m.

"The coaches here are devastated. This has hit us pretty hard," he said. "We were very close to him. We had him over to watch ballgames, played golf together. He was essentially a part of our coaching family."

Preston Burnette, Christian Barnett, Knight and Montgomery were a tight group of four who had known one another since playing baseball together as young children. They became friends in sixth grade, and even closer in high school.

“He was the best friend you could ever ask for,” Burnette said. “You couldn’t out-effort him. He character and integrity that the guy had was unbelievable.”

Barnett said he spent some time thinking about what he’ll say at his friend’s funeral.

“I started looking up definitions for words like integrity and traits of having good character,” he said. “Everything I read was like it was describing Jake Montgomery.”

Everything he did, he gave his all, his friends said. He was always smiling and always checking in on the people he loved.

“He had perseverance and he was dedicated. He was loving. If he said he was going to do something, he did,” Burnette said.

Montgomery worked as an electrician. For a time, he was working on the road, left a job in Virginia when his boss said he couldn't come home for a Northside softball championship game.

“That was him. He loved the community and was such an important part of it,” Knight said.

Burnette said his father thought of Montgomery like another son. Montgomery would often go help him on their farm, quickly learning how to operate the farming equipment, even when Burnette wasn’t around.

“I think he got more at my family Christmas last year than I did,” Burnette said.

All of his friends talked about how important Northside was to Montgomery. When Barnett got married, Montgomery skipped the rehearsal dinner so he wouldn’t miss the first football game.

“He loved Northside football more than anything,” Barnett said.

His love for his friends and family was clear. All of Montgomery’s friends said he was the one who would get up in the middle of the night, whether their truck was stuck in mud on a country road or they just needed to talk. Barnett called him at 3 a.m. about a month ago to say his grandmother was ill.

“The first thing he said, was ‘I’m coming to get you, we’ll go down there,’ ” he said.

“It didn’t matter where you were, he was there for you,” Burnette said.

Hilliker said it’s been a difficult few days at the school.

"He is the epitome of selflessness. Whatever anybody needed, no matter how small the task was or how large the task was, he just willing to help," he said.

"He’s kind of a coach’s dream. When I had those guys they were the kind that just bought in," he said. "Jake was exactly that. When he played football he was relentless at it. He didn’t like to lose and wanted to win no matter if it was hopscotch or football. He had that attitude with everything he did. Our number one word here is effort, and man he gave great effort in everything he did. He was a special person and very important to us."

Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m. Sunday at Magnolia North funeral home in Northport, with the funeral there at 11 a.m. Monday.

Executive Sports Editor Edwin Stanton contributed to this report.