By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer 2:53 PM

Friday, May 27, 2011

WEST CARROLLTON — By middle school, West Carrollton High School senior Brandon Craig knew football was his game.

His mom, Christy Stacy, had urged him to go out for basketball in grade school, but he soon found, “I was more a physical person,” he said.

“I think that my mom always thought if I were in a school activity it would help me keep my grades up for school,” he said. “When I was younger, I couldn’t sit still or pay attention.” He had a combination of dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and auditory processing disorder, which made it difficult for him to read, to write and to comprehend.

A tutor in grade school and linguistics classes helped him learn phonics and read words by sounding them out. “I kept trying. I kept pushing until I got it,” he said. Still, progress was slow.

Going out for football put a different spin on the game of life.

“The first day of middle school, I went out for football and fell in love with it, though I wasn’t really good until my junior year,” he said. He was named the Edward Jones Athlete of the Month that September.

“It did help out for school,” he said. “I couldn’t go out and had to go to bed early. I had to work out.”

He credits his mom for keeping him on track.

“My mom made sure I got to school every day and got in bed at the right time and made sure I got my work done,” he said.

His high school counselor, Alicia Soich, praised Craig’s “never give up” attitude in presenting him with the Most Outstanding Male Student Award for the Class of 2011 at the school awards assembly on May 20.

“I got that from my mother,” Craig said. “I saw her be a single mother raising four kids. She just never gave up on us, and I didn’t want to give up for her.” His dad left when he was young, he said. His stepdad, Michael Craig, later added a stepbrother and stepsister to the family of four boys.

West Carrollton principal Fred Gehron calls Craig a “great kid” who “takes on the challenge,” whatever it is. “We’re proud to call him a Pirate,” he said.

Soich said she witnessed Craig go from reading at a third-grade level as a freshman in high school to reading at a 12th-grade level as a senior. “He has battled, fought and found strategies to assist him in overcoming and coping with his obstacles in life,” she said.

It is important that the students she works with not view themselves as being different she said.

“They just learn differently,” she said.

Craig gives credit to all his special education tutors, who “helped me out a lot. They are pretty much the people who got me through school.”

Now, with three local scholarships in hand and a full-time summer job ahead working with a local landscaping business to earn money for college, Craig plans to head to Anderson University in Indiana in the fall. He will play Division III football while studying sports medicine.

“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I was little,” he said. “I was always hurt, and I had to play through injuries. I think it will be cool to actually learn about it.”

“He’s an amazing young man,” Soich said. “He’s really going to be missed by all his coaches. He’s special. He’s just a caring kid.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@Dayton

DailyNews.com.