Naples' Montinar gets football scholarship

Naples High senior strong safety Jacklin Montinar always knew that once his desire to do well on the ACT matched his purposed-driven pursuit of football excellence, it would eventually lead to a great opportunity.

Montinar said he finally gained that perspective after three years and Southwest Baptist University, a Division II school located in Bolivar, Mo., honored his commitment with a football scholarship.

“It means a lot to me just because it’s a school that’s happy to have me and willing to pay more than half my education,” Montinar said. “That makes me want to work even harder.”

Day in and day out, Montinar said he was on top of anything involved with football, constantly brushing aside the notion of taking the ACT.

Naples High football coach Bill Kramer, however, kept encouraging Montinar and even gave him strategies on how to perform well on the standardized test.

Montinar received a qualifying score on his second try and said he took it a third time just to test himself.

“A lot of it was my fault, basically,” he said. “I waited until my senior year ... but at the same time Coach (Kramer) was always on me about taking the test.”

This past football season, Montinar recorded 27 tackles, one sack and one fumble recovery while helping the Golden Eagles go 5-4.

GULF COAST’S RUGER SIGNS WITH MOUNT UNION: Gulf Coast senior defensive tackle/fullback Joey Ruger will to continue his football career at Division III Mount Union College in Alliance, Oh.

Ruger, a two-year letterwinner on the football and wrestling teams, had 54 tackles and one fumble recovery as the Sharks finished with a 6-4 record in 2005. Ruger was Naples Daily News All-Area and Collier County All-Conference in wrestling.

Mount Union is the 2005 D-III National Champions, the school’s eighth football title in the past 13 years. Mount Union have the most wins and the best winning percentage in college football since 1990 with a 201-10-1 record.