I strive to be a positive leader for my community. I graduated from Cleveland Central Catholic and I give back in many ways for the youth.

Gaddis Guidance is a non-profit organization that I’ve started. The focal point is to motivate the kids to go off to college.

And not only attend college but actually graduate. I want a higher graduation rate from all of the students I come across.

I want to install the guidance that I didn’t have or ignored when I was in high school. I am the oldest of my siblings, so I learned everything on the fly.

After high school, I attended school at Maryland University. I wasn’t focused nor prepared for what was ahead.

My grades and my experience wasn’t the best but I learned from my mistakes. I’m taking what I went through and I’m making a difference in other lives.

I’m striving to prevent the kids in my community from having the same obstacles that I faced.

I received a second chance at Townson University. I became more organized. I put everything extra away. I began to put my all into family, school and football.

There’s no magical secret or formula to the turn around I had. I just had a simple wake up call and had the discipline and desire to strive for greatness.

I currently play football overseas in Poland. I have plans of coming back to Ohio at CCC and becoming the running back coach.

I want to be more than a coach. I want to be a mentor, a role model, a friend to the children in my community.

I want to go all over the state, uplifting student athletes and just making them aware of the real world.

Allow them to know about the journey and also letting them know that there’s so much to life that they must get out and see and experience.

The sky is the limit, you just have to want it.

And my number one dream is to have a school named after me and I don’t plan on stopping at all until this is achieved.

– Monte Gaddis