Signing Day: Jamier Montgomery's rise from sitting out freshman year to a Kent State scholarship

Freshman year, Jamier Montgomery was an ineligible player on a Public League White Division basketball team. He spent this summer playing for an independent club basketball team outside of the two major circuits. It is not an easy road from there to a Division I basketball scholarship, especially in today's college basketball landscape.

But Wednesday at Crane, Montgomery and his family officially pulled off the feat when he signed with Kent State.

Montgomery started high school at Warren, so he couldn’t play his first year after transferring to Crane a few months later. His mother and grandfather are Crane graduates, and his dad, Archie Boyd, played at Farragut and Crane.

“I am proud beyond words,” Boyd said. “I can’t explain how proud I feel that he is in this situation where he will be able to succeed. He’s a good kid that gets good grades. And now he can go to school for free.”

Sitting out freshman year was difficult for Montgomery.

“He went through a depression a little bit,” Lanae Montgomery, Jamier’s mom, said. “It was a bad year for him. But that pushed him a lot more. He kept telling me he had a chip on his shoulder.”

“That gave him the urgency to do better,” Boyd said. “He felt counted out. I was able to understand that. I was counted out in high school, and when you come out with that chip on your shoulder, it is different.”

Sophomore year, Montgomery immediately showed his smooth overall game and his potential was clear. There were kinks to work out, and that started to happen this summer.

“He blew up,” Crane coach Mekiel Posey said. “It happened pretty fast with the college attention. But I always knew it was coming. He’s a gym rat, a guy you have to kick out. I knew we would be at this moment because of the work he puts in.”

Montgomery played football and baseball before basketball. When he came to his dad and asked about basketball, everything changed.

“I said if we start that, there is no turning back. You have to be serious about the game,” Boyd said. “But he wanted it. He woke me up at six in the morning the next day; we went to the court and never looked back.”

Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

Montgomery, a 6-2 guard, also had offers from Western Illinois and Akron.

“Starting off learning with my dad was chill, but then it got intense,” Montgomery said. “Any time and any place we could play basketball, we took advantage of it.

“Then I had to focus on improving my grades after freshman year. I had to improve in the classroom before the court.”

Montgomery’s rise would have stood out a decade ago when a few dozen local players typically signed with Division I colleges. It’s much more notable this year, when just six local players on the area’s 400 high schools are signing Division I scholarships.

“Our visit to Kent State was amazing,” Lanae Montgomery said. “The experience was great, and I think we all felt it right away. But I made sure to keep quiet and stay in the background and let him make his decision.”

Montgomery averaged 11 points as a sophomore and 14 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2 steals as a junior. He’ll be Crane's focal point and leader this season and a marked man in every game as the Public League's best player.

“I’m looking forward to making it downstate,” Montgomery said. “That’s my main goal for sure.”

2026 Signing Day

The complete list of seniors that have committed to Division I schools as of Nov. 12, 2026. Please send additions and corrections to [email protected].

Mason Martin, Neuqua Valley, Illinois

Jamier Montgomery, Crane, Kent State

Markese Peoples, St. Laurence, UIC

Hayden Schroeder, Wheaton Academy, Pennsylvania

Alex Sirbu, Buffalo Grove, Columbia

Edward Stasys, Benet, Yale