Over the past two years, the Clearwater High School football team has gone from gone 18-5 on the field, transforming from a perennial losing program into one of the best in the area.
But the Tornadoes’ biggest success story didn’t arrive until this winter.
“If it wasn’t for Clearwater, I don’t know where I’d be right now,” junior defensive end/linebacker Brandon Gary said. “My life has changed so much since I’ve been in this program.”
That path to Clearwater hasn't been easy for Gary, who has truly been a late Christmas gift to the Tornadoes football program since joining the team in January.
The Largo native has been in and out of Foster homes throughout his life, and he temporarily left the area to move to Upstate New York with his mother.
When things didn't work out there, Gary moved back to Florida and tried to enroll himself in school.
Eventually, a case worker helped him enroll at Clearwater High School and placed him in a stable home.
Ever since then, Gary has taken advantage of the opportunity for a fresh start.
“It’s really been on him,” Clearwater football head coach Don Mesick said. “He’s the one that’s to credit for all this. Because he could have still gone the other way and he just kind of chose the right path.”
Gary grew up in an environment filled with drugs and crime, with several family members serving significant jail time.
“My oldest brother, he’s doing 20 years to life right now,” Gary said. “My uncle just came home from doing 30 years. My cousin’s doing 15 (years). Everything’s just drugs or jail. That’s how my family’s been.”
But Gary has made an effort to escape from that atmosphere and live a positive lifestyle and be a great contributor to his local community.
“At the end of the day, my family- there’s a lot of people in my family that haven’t really gone anywhere,” Gary said. “I want to be the first one to go somewhere and do something. I just want to carry my family name on my back.”
After bouncing from Foster home to Foster home, Gary is finally in a good place.
And when he enrolled at Clearwater, he found incredible support from his coaches and teammates.
“One day, something just snapped in my head, and it’s just like, just do better,” Gary said. “You deserve better. I worked too hard for this.”
“He needed some positive attention,” Mesick said. “He needed some love. He needed to know that somebody cared about him. And that’s kind of what our program has provided for him. And he’s just thrived in that environment.”
“The coaches are trying to make us better men,” Gary said. “They’re trying to make us better in the community. It’s opened our eyes to more than just football.”
The football field has become like a sanctuary to Brandon.
It’s a place for some fun, a place to go to work, and most of all, a place with a purpose.
“That’s time where nothing else in the world matters to me,” Gary said. “Nothing else but that play at that second. That’s the only thing that matters to me, and I give it my all. Because this is my ticket out.”
Almost immediately, Gary’s colorful personality gushed out with positivity.
He’s now a straight-A student and one of the Tornadoes’ leaders.
And Gary has the skills to be an elite prospect.
“Once the third game of the season rolls around, I know that the college coaches are going to be down here because he does stand out,” Mesick said.
“I’m not going to boost myself up too much,” Gary said. “I’m going to let my actions speak more than my words. I don’t want to seem like a talker too much.”
So those actions are speaking loud and clear.
Gary says he'll never forget where he came from, and he's trying to be a good role model to kids- and adults- with similar backgrounds.
“Whatever I can do to help my friends who are still fighting that temptation, I’ll do it to help them,” Gary said. “I wasn’t always here. So you’ve just got to overcome it.”