Lely Super-Student Heading to University of Florida

When Marco Island’s Nicole Geddis reflects on her career at Lely High School, it’s the Friday Night Lights she remembers most. And that’s part of the reason why the high achieving valedictorian is heading to the University of Florida this fall.

"When I look back at my experience at Lely,” Nicole Geddis said, "I see myself cheering on the sideline every Friday night. That was definitely the highlight of my high school experience. Sports is one of my passions and one of the reasons I’m going to University of Florida. I definitely gained that passion at Lely. My favorite sport is football, 100 percent. I love basketball, but nothing compares to football.”

When she wasn’t cheering, Geddis was achieving a 3.98 unweighted GPA and a staggering 6.0861 weighted GPA. She seems to have found a way to find a balance between sports and studies. She was captain of her cheerleading team during her junior and senior years. She was also instrumental in bringing diving back to Lely High.

“I think sports is probably my favorite,” Geddis said. "I’ve been a part of the varsity cheerleading team for the past four years.”

She takes some exception to those who don’t consider cheerleading as a sport.

" I definitely believe it’s a sport,” Geddis said, "because of the amount of physical activity you put into it. A lot of us are tumbling, doing stunts. It takes a lot of practice and strength to do some of the stunts we’re doing. The average person couldn’t do it. We’re athletes, too. Statistically cheerleading has one of the highest injury rates.”

Geddis feels it’s unfair that cheerleading isn’t recognized as a sport by the state.

"The state doesn’t recognize cheerleading as a sport,” Geddis said. “I think that’s a shame because it gives people the assumption that it’s not athletic. That it’s not hard to do. I put a lot of work into it. I would do it again, even if it wasn’t a sport because of my passion for it. But I think things should change. It is frustrating.”

Geddis is also proud of her diving career at Lely. She and Emma Needles were instrumental in bringing diving back to the Lely swim team.

"Lely used to have a diving team,” she said, "but they haven’t in a number of years. One day I was thinking how similar cheerleading and tumbling is to diving. So, Emma Needles and I talked to Mr. Adam Peterson and asked him if we could re-start the diving team with a couple of our cheerleader friends. That helped the swim team win a lot of meets that they otherwise wouldn’t have, because divers give them additional points that other schools didn’t have.”

Adam Peterson remembers how it unfolded.

“Three years ago, Nicole Geddis and Emma Needles expressed an interest in joining the Lely Swimming and Diving team,” Adam Person recalled. "They were the first divers that have participated for Lely in some time. Their participation in diving has sparked interest from other students in diving and now Lely will continue to have a diving team for years to come."

The DECA program, which Peterson oversees, was also an important part of Geddis’ Lely career. DECA is a student-centered organization whose program of leadership and personal development is designed specifically for students enrolled in marketing education classes.

"Nicole was a founding member of the DECA club at Lely High School when she was a freshman,” Peterson said. "During her four years as a DECA member she qualified for the state competition multiple times and in her senior year she qualified for the international DECA competition. She has been instrumental in furthering the DECA club at Lely.”

“I was lucky enough to be a founding member,” Geddis said. "One of my favorite things we did with our DECA program was hurricane Irma relief. We partnered with Lely High School’s aviation program. Lely High School is the only school in Collier County that has an aviation program. We had one of our students fly to the Bahamas and deliver the supplies we collected. It was awesome. We also recently did our Collier Closet. With that we collected clothing items and we set up a clothing rack at Lely for any student who needs clothes. That went really well. I was aware that there were a lot of students in need at Lely. That’s why we wanted to start that and give back to our community.”

Geddis has decided education is going to be her primary career path. She may just end up back at Tommie Barfield, the elementary school she attended as a child.

"One of my future goals is to be a teacher,” Geddis said. "I definitely want to teach elementary school, that’s the age group I would like to work with. I could see myself coming back to Marco Island. I love it here. That’s one of the reasons I chose University of Florida. I love Florida. At University of Florida, I plan on double majoring, in elementary education and communications sciences and disorders. I also plan on minoring in marketing. And then going on to receive my Master of Arts in education.”

Geddis is well on her way to her bachelor’s degree in education, thanks to her hard work in the dual enrollment program at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“I have 65 hours going in,” Geddis said, "I’m more than halfway. With those degrees I plan on being a teacher. I’m also interested in speech pathology.”

Sports is such a big part of Geddis’ life that she applied to schools with rich sports traditions, in addition to their academic reputations. 

"I got into every school I applied to,” she said. "University of Miami - and I got a scholarship there. University of Georgia, FSU, and Auburn. But I chose UF. It’s top for my program, a top five national university, and the sports. I love it there.”

Geddis received a number of scholarships, including the Bright Futures academic scholars award, which covers her entire tuition at University of Florida. But there’s one award that she’s most proud of. 

"The award I’m most proud of,” Geddis said, "is the Principal Award and Scholarship. That really showed me how hard I’ve worked the past four years.”

Another favorite award for Geddis came from the United States Marines. Winning it with classmate Mia Witthoff made it even more special.

"I got the United States Marine Corps Scholastic Excellence award,” Geddis said, "which was exciting. It was a surprise. I believe I got that because of my class rank. Mia Witthoff also got it. I was really excited that we both got it. We’re involved in a lot of the same activities at Lely: swim, DECA, National Honor Society.”

Another source of pride for Geddis is her class rank. It’s something she planned and worked for.

“It’s definitely something I set as a goal,” Geddis said. "I push myself to do the best that I can. I knew that by going to FGCU and having the opportunity to take dual enrollment courses, I would have a higher weighted GPA. At FGCU I was sure to take the maximum courses I could each semester. I actually took five courses each semester there. I had an amazing experience at FGCU."