It was the Roughnecks vs. the Skinny Bricks during backyard football and if either team needed a warm-up, the Karate Kids were a block over on Maplewood Avenue.

Monty Madaris, redshirt junior wide receiver and defensive back at MSU, played for the Skinny Bricks alongside his cousin Rodriguez Coleman.

Lined up across the backyard on the roughnecks were the boys’ other cousins, Greg Madaris and Michael Means Jr. While also in the Eastside of Cincinnati, their cousin Isaiah Gentry was growing up a few years behind the six-year-olds’ makeshift league.

These cousins, especially Means Jr. and Madaris, would prove to be the most important people in each others’ lives.

“Honestly, to put it in perspective, if someone was to shoot at one of my cousins I would jump in the way for them,” Madaris said. “I would die for them, that is how I feel about anyone in my family. I care, it is family over everything in my life ­­-— God and family.”

Saving Grace

Michael Means Sr., uncle to Madaris and older brother to Madaris’ father, said “I love you” to Madaris for the first time when he was in the fifth grade.

Madaris didn’t quite understand it yet, Means Sr. said, but this family comfort came at a time when Madaris’ father had been sent to prison for the remainder of his childhood and teenage years.

“And at that time when his daddy was sent away, he moved in with me and also stayed with a Mr. Stofko, which was his little league coach,” Means Sr. said.

Balance was found for Madaris between these two loving homes and his cousin turned brother.

“It was awesome just having my cousin there,” Madaris said. “Whatever happens in my life, he knows. Whatever happens in his life, I know.”

“We lived together, it was fun going out there every day for practice with him, knowing my cousin was on the other side of the field,” Means Jr. said. “We made each other better, too, going up against each other.

“I am thankful for them being in my life.”

Throughout the next three years of living with his family, Madaris was able to realize what his uncle’s three words meant to him as he matured into a young adult and prepared to play high school football.

“It’s okay to tell your uncle, tell your dad, you can tell a male that you love them, and he told me in the ninth grade how he appreciated me saying that,” Means Sr. said. “We grew up in the city of Cincinnati and it is pretty rough, and our upbringing with his dad and myself was a rough upbringing. We wanted to make sure they didn’t have to go through any of that. We didn’t want them to have to worry about a lot of shooting, drug and gang activity going on in our neighborhood.”

Means Sr. used the word “sacrifice” to describe the effort he and the Stofko family put toward raising Madaris the right way, but his emotional tone made that sacrifice sound more like a blessing.

“This is not me just trying to say this,” Means Sr. said. “I get chill marks every time I think of them kids doing something that we wanted to do and we didn’t have our father there to encourage us to do it.”

The Crusaders

Madaris attended Archbishop Moeller High School for four years, 2007-11, while Means Jr. transferred in after his sophomore year, 2009-11.

“We really thought we had two good wide receivers in Mike and Monty,” Moeller High School head coach John Rodenberg said. “Both a little bit different, I would say Monty was a more physical wide receiver and Mike was a little more finesse.”

Madaris pulled in 121 passes and amassed 2,024 yards with 25 touchdowns during his career as a Crusader. During his senior year, Madaris was named first-team All-Ohio by the Associated Press. Means Jr. was an all-league honorable mention.

“Man, we were so close to making it to the state semifinals that year, and Monty was so electrifying,” Rodenberg said. “Monty became a true leader. I’ll tell you what, Monty almost single-handedly won a couple of games for us in the playoffs. Matter of fact, the game we lost he scored a big touchdown to tie it up and Monty was just like a superman his senior year. When he wanted to turn it on he was pretty much unstoppable.”

Gentry would begin his freshman year at Moeller High School in 2009, and Rodenberg said this younger cousin might have had the most athletic build.

“Isaiah really got a slow start, he really didn’t spark until his senior year which would have been two years after Monty and Mike were gone,” Rodenberg said. “But I’ll tell you what, Isaiah’s senior year was just absolutely spectacular.

“He was just on fire.”

Gentry finished his senior season with 44 receptions, 1,104 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. The Crusaders won the state championship and finished 14-1, while Gentry was named first-team All-District and special mention All-State.

“I probably wouldn’t have won that state championship without them,” Gentry said. “You know, they kept me involved in my school, told me to keep my head up, helped me in my classes and they were kind of like my role models.”

A Family Of Leaders

When Madaris and Means Jr. departed for college, Gentry was without his cousins for the first time.

“It was a bittersweet moment because they are leaving and they’re your family, but now they’re gone and this is your opportunity,” Gentry said. “It was like my role models were gone, but they already set the path for me to go down.”

And what a path it was for these once inseparable cousins, who now wake up hundreds of miles apart.

“Just thinking that they are doing so good right now and that they are going to be some good adults when they get older,” Means Sr. said. “I get thrilled just thinking about it. ‘Wow, look at my son, look at my nephews doing this.’”

“That is our mentality,” Madaris said. “We basically say if one of us makes it, we all make it. We actually always use to talk about that at Moeller and sometimes even now.”

Madaris has seen an increased role on the team this season and, after being converted to a defensive back, he changed his jersey number to match Means Jr.’s No. 21.

And as Madaris, Means Jr. and Gentry work toward their diplomas, a new group of younger cousins are starting to bring the family full circle.

“We have a lot of little cousins — one in particular, my little cousin Roberto, is really good at football,” Madaris said. “Whenever I can go back and teach my little cousins or go back to Moeller and just help out I do that.”

Helping out when you can, such a telling value Madaris has learned. Because when his father Montanez Madaris Sr. was forced to leave, he also left 32 siblings knowing their nephew needed a home, and it was Means Sr. who wanted to help out when he could.

“They mean the world to me,” Means Sr. said. “(Those) boys right there, it’s hard to put into words.”