MIA Student Lands $10K Adventure Scholarship 

Marco Island Academy junior Sam Montgomery was 10 years old when he served as ballboy for his dad’s Marco Island Academy (MIA) Rays football team. But back then, all young Sam wanted to do was talk about the fish he caught that day, or the ones he was going to catch as soon as practice was over. So it seems only fitting that Montgomery’s love of fishing landed him a big one. On Friday, March 27, Montgomery was announced as the winner of a $10,000 Gene Doyle Adventure Scholarship.

The Gene Doyle Memorial Foundation was created in memory of Naples youth Robert Eugene “Gene” Doyle, III (1976-1996), to help deserving Collier County students undertake the adventures of their dreams. The foundation awards three scholarships a year. According to Robert Doyle II, the late Gene Doyle’s father, Montgomery’s scholarship was No. 200 in the Foundation’s history.

"I would say it just comes down to Sam's sense of adventure,” said Brad Marshall, who manages the scholarship arm of the Foundation. "That's the primary thing that the scholarship is based on. And he certainly exhibits that with his extracurricular activities and things that he's done, his fishing, and just the adventures that he engages in around Southwest Florida. We thought he was a very good candidate. And his essay and his interview exhibited what we were looking for.”

No one was happier than Montgomery’s teacher at MIA, Rachel Ganser.

"Sam is such a great person,” Ganser gushed. "He's responsible. He's funny. He cares about other people. He's a leader. He's gone through so much and he is so resilient. And for me, resiliency in teenagers is probably the most important indicator of success as an adult. I just love his resiliency. That's really what draws me to him."

MIA Dean of Students Kevin Ray is proud of Montgomery, too.

"Sam earned every ounce of this opportunity,” Ray said proudly. "He is so focused on being outdoors and being part of the environment. And I know his love for fishing is not just a love; it’s extreme. I don't think he's ever too far from a fishing pole. So we’re really excited for Sam. What a wonderful opportunity. Can't wait to hear what his adventures are like. Sam comes in and handles his business in the classroom. He's been focused on athletics as well. If you can't find him on the athletic field or in the classroom, you're going to find him somewhere where there's a fishing hole.”

Montgomery is a standout on the football and lacrosse fields at MIA, even though his dad is no longer the school’s football coach. One of his football coaches, Luke Evangelista, was part of the MIA family who guided Montgomery through the extensive application process for the scholarship.

"One of the things they wanted him to do was come up with a spreadsheet of the costs and things like the boots and the equipment he would need,” Ganser said. "Coach Luke really helped him with the budget. 

Sam's so busy between working and sports and school that we had to make a calendar to schedule in times where he could work on the application. We spread it around. I helped him with the writing part and the interviewing part, and Coach Luke did the spreadsheet for the expenses and also helped with the interviewing part. So it was a team effort. But we couldn't have done it for a better kid."

Montgomery is excited to begin his adventure.

“The money goes towards my trip to Alaska in June,” Montgomery said. “It pays for my food, my airfare, and all the equipment I need to do this."

“He’s going to do eight nights of camping and backpacking with other kids his age,” Ganser said. “He's going to learn a lot of survival skills, plus see a whole new ecosystem, which is very interesting and exciting. One of the things that Gene Doyle did was he worked in Alaska during the summer on a fishing boat, then he would come back here. You know that could possibly be a career for Sam, going up there for the summers to work and then coming down here to do the same thing here during season. We're kind of exploring careers for him."

The scholarship is available to any Collier County high school junior, senior, or first-year college student with a warm genuine smile, a dream, a sense of adventure, and an idea for a living, learning experience, according to the Foundation’s website, genedoyle.org.

“The one thing that’s different about this scholarship,” Marshall said, "is that it's not based on your scholastic aptitudes. It's all based on your sense of adventure. We don't ask what your GPA is or what classes you're taking. Teacher references are ideally best received when they reflect the student's non-academic goals."

Montgomery’s childhood on Marco Island meant a lot of fishing with friends.

“Growing up on Marco, there's not much to do besides fishing and going to the beach,” said Montgomery. “And that's where all my friends fished. And it's just the way I grew up, being outdoors and being in the wild. Then I started going into the Everglades, learning about birds, snakes, and all these different reptiles, different plants, and just evolving from there. I’ve pretty much almost grown out of Southwest Florida and I’m trying to explore a little bit more. I'm planning to do a lot of fly fishing when I'm in Alaska." 

Ganser is happy Montgomery didn’t wait until his senior year to apply for the scholarship.

"I'm excited that he's going the summer going into his senior year rather than the summer after he graduates,” she said. “Because this way, he can really kind of make some connections. I told him not only is it great that he's going to have this experience, but he's going to make networking connections, like the people on the board of this scholarship. They're always going to be in his corner, so he'll have a lot more connections for networking and things. I’m pretty excited for him."

"Miss Ganser really helped me out through this,” Montgomery said. "And she's been with me since I've been here at MIA, and she's always been there for me, helping me out with class, pulling me out of class, giving me extra help. She really brought this scholarship up to me last year at the end of my sophomore year.  She said if I really want to do this, we should go for it. And we did, and it was very successful. She helped me strategize, plan it out, and really helped me get where I am today. And she's one of the main reasons why I won the scholarship.”