Biography Anne Butler MontgomeryAnne Montgomery is a former television reporter and anchor. However, getting that first on-air job proved to be difficult. Despite earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Montgomery was unable to find anyone interested in hiring a female sportscaster. So, with rejection notices piling up, Montgomery knew she needed a plan. After moving to Washington D.C. in the hope of landing some contacts, Montgomery found work as a waitress at a Georgetown restaurant. She met an amateur hockey referee who was lamenting the dearth of officials in the area. Since Montgomery grew up ice skating, earning a bronze test medal in ice dancing from the United States Figure Skating Association, she told him she'd give hockey refereeing a try. After studying the rules and taking to the ice, Montgomery realized that knowing how the games are played was vital to being a good sportscaster. With that in mind, she embarked on a five year odyssey to become a certified amateur official in the five top team spectator sports: football, baseball, ice hockey, soccer and basketball. Highlights of her officiating career include attending Bill Kinnemon's Umpire School in Florida, where she was the only woman in a class of 105 men, umpiring a New York Mets inter-squad Spring Training game, working the plate in a televised exhibition contest between the San Francisco Giants and the Triple A Phoenix Firebirds, and being a high school football referee and crew chief for the Arizona Interscholastic Association, a position she still holds today.Montgomery believed the knowledge gleaned from studying the rule books and blowing the whistle might convince a news director somewhere that she understood sports well enough to report on them. And that's exactly what happened. Montgomery's first TV job was as Sports Director and anchor for WRBL-TV in Columbus, Georgia. That led to jobs at WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, and a two-year stint at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut where she anchored the Emmy and ACE award-winning SportsCenter. Montgomery finished her on-camera career working two years as the writer and anchor for the Sun's Preview Show, a pre and post-game studio magazine devoted to the NBA's Phoenix Suns.Having "aged out" of on-camera work, Montgomery turned to writing. She was on the staff or freelanced for six publications: the Ahwatukee Foothills News, the West Valley View, the Arizona Republic, Sports Arizona Magazine, Referee Magazine and Arizona Highways, where she primarily wrote archeological pieces. Montgomery published her first novel - The Jerusalem Syndrome: The Wreck of the Sunset Limited - in 2004. The book took second place honors in fiction at the Writer's Digest 13th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards.Montgomery earned a teaching certificate, a Masters Degree in Education Curriculum, and a Reading Specialist Certificate from the University of Phoenix. She currently teaches reading and is the faculty advisor for the student newspaper at South Mountain High School in Phoenix.Over the years Montgomery has served various volunteer organizations. She was a Girl Scout leader and a board member of the Arizona chapters of the National Football Foundation & College Football Hall of Fame and the March of Dimes. She also served on the board of the Phoenix Film Foundation. Montgomery was also a member of the Public Health Emergency Management Team, a volunteer group of first responders who assist in the event of public emergencies.When she can, Montgomery indulges in her passions: rock collecting and scuba diving. She lives in Phoenix with an odd assortment of stray dogs and cats.