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Monticello basketball is all in the family; the Lambert family
This is the eighth consecutive and final season Monti head coach Tim Lambert and his brother/assistant coach Todd Lambert get to coach a son and nephew
Jan. 10, 2025 3:05 pm
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ANAMOSA - Ball is life. Lambert life.
It always has been, it likely always will be.
“It’s everything,” Luke Lambert said. “It’s what we bond over, really. It’s our whole life. As cheesy and cliche as it sounds, you learn life lessons from it. It is something that brings us together, it unites it, and we just love it.”
Luke is one of 10 Lamberts in Monticello involved in this unique and special family hoops tale. He is a first-year assistant coach for the Panthers and works with the junior high program as well.
His father, Tim, is in his 26th season leading the Monti program. Tim Lambert has built things to the point where the Panthers are a legitimate state tournament contender yearly.
Monticello broke a 60-year state tourney drought by making it to the 2020 event. It then qualified again in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Right alongside Tim in this two-decade-plus journey has been his brother, Todd. That’s with the exception of three years when Todd Lambert and his wife Cheyanna had a new baby to take care of.
Todd Lambert still would attend and help out with practices and stuff, but wouldn’t be on the sideline for games.
“It sounds corny,” Todd Lambert said. “We don’t have a camper, we don’t have a boat, we don’t have a snowmobile. We go to basketball games, we watch basketball. That’s just what we do. And to do it with Tim and our kids now is super, super special. It’s just special.”
Their kids. Tim and Todd have three each: two boys and a girl who are, believe it or not, the same ages.
Their daughters (Maddie and Rileigh, respectively) are 24. Their oldest boys (Luke and Connor, respectively) are 22 and recent college grads who either are already or want to be educators and coaches.
Their youngest sons (Jack and Carson) are seniors on this Monticello team, one that went into a Saturday game against Easton Valley 8-0 and ranked seventh in Class 2A. This is the eighth consecutive and final year that Tim and Todd will have a son and nephew playing for them.
Incredible.
“(Coach) Chet Knake from Bellevue, we played them before break, gave me great advice,” Tim Lambert said. “He asked ‘Tim, do you enjoy this?’ I’ll be honest, sometimes I don’t. Because I worry so much, you don’t want them to lose. If you lose one game, is it a big deal? No. But I don’t take the time to enjoy it enough. Chet said that, I got home and told my wife (Tricia), and she said ‘Yeah, you have to listen to him.’
“It’s my last year with all this, with the boys. I do need to take a step back and enjoy it. I’m pretty lucky. My sons have both gone to the state tournament multiple times, they’ve both started at the state tournament. Even my daughter made the semis her senior year ... I’ve just been really lucky, and I do need to enjoy it because it’s super special.”
It almost turned horrible before Christmas, when Jack Lambert dislocated his knee in a freak injury on the court. Jack was running the floor and accidentally bumped into an official, his foot catching, his leg turning and his knee popping out of place.
The worst was feared, but Jack was cleared to play and went all 32 minutes last week in his first game back at Anamosa.
“At first, I thought he had a broken leg. My heart sank,” Luke Lambert said. “He was screaming in pain on the floor, and I thought ‘Well, his season is over. His senior year, the only sport he plays.’ So I was freaking out a little bit. But I’m so happy he has come back. He has worked hard for this, there has been a lot of pressure over the years from me ... my dad being the coach, our state appearances. To see him come out and perform the way he has, I’m proud of him.”
“Basketball is our life, honestly,” Jack Lambert said. “During winter, that’s all we talk about, that’s all we think about. We’ve done it since we were little. I remember playing basketball with (Carson) when we were, like, 2 or 3 years old, just coming into the high school and shooting. You know, when you’re little, you look up to all those guys on your dad’s team, and you want to be them. Now that we’re here, it’s really cool. It’s fun.”
Jack and Carson call each other best friends and will attend Kirkwood Community College together next school year, planning to be teachers and coaches, of course. Carson wants to become a special-education teacher, to be specific.
“Basketball is all we talk about at home,” Carson Lambert said. “We try and not bring up the games, but we always do. It just comes up naturally. It’s what we do.”
Carson Lambert leads Monti in scoring at 18.5 points per game, followed closely by Conley Schauf at 17.4. Then there’s point guard Brady Gogel at 10.5.
Jack Lambert averages 8.2 points, 4.4 assists and a couple of steals per game. This final season with Lamberts coaching and playing has gone off without a hitch thus far.
“We are brothers and probably best friends,” Todd Lambert said of he and Tim. “We coach together, our kids are all best friends. It’s fun, it’s cool, it’s what you always wanted it to be. And now we’re successful. We have really good kids that buy in. To do it the right way with the kids, your brother and your nephew, now my nephew is coaching, too ...
“It has been super fun. We feel fortunate.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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