Minutes before his Cathedral Catholic High School team was set to kick off against host Mission Hills in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division semifinals, defensive coordinator John Montali stood in the east end zone, passing along instructions to his players.
Dons head coach Sean Doyle soon waved Montali toward him. What Doyle conveyed had nothing to do with football.
“Marshall had a heart attack,” Doyle told Montali.
Montali’s father-in-law, Marshall LeTourneau, had collapsed on the Dons’ side of the stadium after going to the snack bar. Montali hustled to the commotion, where his wife, Michelle, was holding her father’s hand.
CPR was being administered to LeTourneau, who appeared to be slipping in and out of consciousness.
Soon, an ambulance transported LeTourneau to Palomar Medical Center Escondido. John and Michelle Montali were driven to the hospital by a sheriff.
Less than 45 minutes after the Montalis arrived at the hospital, a doctor delivered the news. LeTourneau, a Dons alum (Class of 1963) and member of the school’s sports hall of fame, had died of a heart attack. He was 80.
With Montali missing only the second game since becoming a Cathedral Catholic assistant coach in 1994, a span of 387 games, Cathedral Catholic rallied to beat Mission Hills 42-35. The Dons play Carlsbad Tuesday night for the Open Division championship.
The morning after Montali’s father-in-law died, Doyle picked up his defensive coordinator at his Kensington home. Off they drove for the 9 a.m. coaches’ meeting to begin scheming for Carlsbad.
“I got in his car, I looked at Sean and I broke down,” Montali said. “It’s hard.”
Marshall LeTourneau, a University of San Diego High School grad nicknamed “Mr. Don,” died after suffering a heart attack before Cathedral Catholic’s CIF San Diego Section Open Division semifinal win over Mission Hills. (Montali family)
‘Mr. Don’
John and Michelle Montali began dating before their senior year at University of San Diego High School, the precursor to Cathedral Catholic. First date: the movie “Full Metal Jacket.”
The first time Montali stepped inside the LeTourneau home, Marshall was standing in the living room, feeding six-foot wooden planks into the fireplace.
At Montali’s Del Cerro home, the fireplace cleanly burned Duraflame logs, the glass protective shield closed. If a fire was burning, the only person permitted near it was his Coast Guard father.
“It was a completely different vibe at the LeTourneaus,” said Montali. “I figured, some way, I’ve got to get back here, whether it’s the next day or the next week. It looked like a lot of fun.”
John and Michelle Montali graduated from Uni in 1988, then headed off to college at UCLA. They were married in 1997.
As the years passed and John and Michelle raised four children, John developed a close relationship with his father-in-law.
“They say my dad was like a father to him,” said Michelle. “My dad was really like his best friend.”
LeTourneau was the ultimate handyman. The day he died, LeTourneau, a plumber, worked at five job sites. He spent the day before that atop his Clairemont home’s roof, applying sealant for the coming rain.
Montali, 55, admits he is not handy.
“He would be the guy holding the drill. I’d be the guy holding the ladder,” Montali said. “I could call him at 7 p.m. Sunday, tell him the pilot light to the water heater’s out, I don’t know what to do. He’d be there in no time. I can’t think of one time in 40 years he said, ‘I’m too tired. I can’t do it.’”
The Montalis’ daughter, Ava, performed in plays at Cathedral Catholic. Their son, Joseph, played soccer at Cathedral Catholic and now plays the sport at the club level at San Diego State. Their daughter, Caroline, is in the eighth grade and wild about soccer.
LeTourneau went to everything.
And he absolutely loved the Dons.
LeTourneau graduated from Uni in 1963. A lineman and long snapper, he went on to play at Humboldt State.
Later in life, LeTourneau worked the snack bar at Uni, then later at Cathedral Catholic games. He was on the ground floor of Uni’s athletic booster club and is a member of the school’s athletic hall of fame as a friend of sports.
“We called him Mr. Don,” said Doyle.
The school will host a celebration of life at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s expected to draw hundreds.
“Marshall LeTourneau is the person who I consider the standard of being a great human being,” Montali said. “He lived the life of servant leadership.”
Cathedral Catholic defensive coordinator John Montali, left, talks to Brady Palmer during practice at Cathedral Catholic on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Cathedral’s cornerstones
Montali said there have been four main mentors in his life: his father, LeTourneau, Ron Hamamoto, whom he played for at Uni and later coached under — and Doyle.
The two coaches are virtually joined at the hip: Doyle the head coach, Montali the faithful assistant.
Doyle took over the program in 1996, succeeding Hamamoto. That first year, Doyle served as his own defensive coordinator.
Sometime during the next season, Doyle handed the coordinator role over to Montali, the defensive backs coach.
To hear Montali tell it, there was a time in that 1997 season when Doyle struggled letting go of his say in the defense.
Montali remembers a game against Lincoln, late in the first half, when he instructed a DB to back up, preventing the long pass. Doyle moved the kid up. The DB followed Doyle’s instructions and was beaten for a long touchdown pass.
At halftime, Montali found Doyle.
“Here’s the deal,” said Montali. “If you want to be the defensive coordinator, you be the defensive coordinator and I’ll coach the DBs. If you want me to be the defensive coordinator, let me do this.”
Doyle began letting go. In their 30 seasons together, the Dons have won 11 San Diego Section titles, the last one in 2021, and have captured three state championships. Together, the two Uni grads — Doyle is Class of ’80 — have helped create a powerhouse at Cathedral Catholic.
Said Montali: “I couldn’t imagine working for anybody else.”
Prep Football- Cathedral Catholic High at Mission Hills High- The entire Cathedral Catholic defense seems to be taking down Mission Hills runner Jacoby Williams. (Charlie Neuman / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Always prepared
Montali’s defenses are as physical as they are smart. He’s meticulous in preparation, giving his athletes a notebook — one former player called it a syllabus — of the opposing team’s plays and tendencies every Monday.
For Tuesday’s showdown against Carlsbad, the playbook is 50 pages.
“I’ve never met another coach who had me more prepared,” said former Dons linebacker Jordan Lance, who graduated in 2010. “We were calling out the offense’s plays before they even ran it.”
As for the Dons’ physical style, Cade Smith — a senior on this year’s team and three-year starter at linebacker — said: “We want to punish the guy with the football. He’s not saying play dirty, by any means. Just physically dominate the team from snap to the whistle.”
There is no pretense to Montali. He regularly wears facial hair in a one-week growth look. His dark hair often looks like it hasn’t met a comb or brush in days. He keeps his state championship rings — “Somebody bought them for me,” he said — in a drawer.
Montali has been approached by other schools to become a head coach, but has passed.
“I like to coach football because I love the kids,” he said. “I love the camaraderie with the coaches. I love the scheming part of it. I love the work ethic, the grind of preparing for another team. I don’t love the minutiae of dealing with parents’ complaints and gear pickup. All I care about is the Dons’ defense.”
Cathedral Catholic defensive coordinator John Montali looks on during practice at Cathedral Catholic on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
‘A wave of emotion’
The 11 days since his father-in-law’s death have been difficult. The night LeTourneau died, Montali went back to Mission Hills, picked up his father-in-law’s truck, and drove it back to LeTourneau’s Clairemont home.
“I walked into that house and was hit by a wave of emotion,” Montali said.
Now the holidays are around the corner.
“How are we going to get through it?” Montali said. “We’re about to find out.”
For now, Montali is getting through it by being there for his wife, by being there for his players and students. The man who worked in college as a tour bus driver at the San Diego Zoo, who worked in sales at Nordstrom, who has a bartender’s license and sidehustles mixing drinks, who teaches biology at Cathedral Catholic, has done what LeTourneau would want him to do.
With a broken heart, he has served others.
Now, there’s a high-stakes football game to be played.
“If I didn’t come to work, Marshall would be like, ‘That’s what you do. Go to work. It’s not negotiable,” Montali said. “There’s a job to be done. It doesn’t take the weight off my heart. My heart’s broken, but there’s a job to be done.”
CIF San Diego Section Open Division Championship Game: (4) Cathedral Catholic (9-2) vs. (3) Carlsbad (10-1)
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Southwestern College
Dominant Dons
Cathedral Catholic High School (formerly University of San Diego High School) has won 11 CIF San Diego Section football championships since head coach Sean Doyle and defensive coordinator John Montali teamed up in 1996:
1998: Division 3
1999: Division 3
2007: Division 3
2008: Division 3 and state champions
2009: Division 3
2010: Division 3
2011: Division 3
2013: Division 1
2016: Open Division and state champions
2018: Open Division
2021: Open Division and state champs