Braden Meints

My name is Braden Meints. I went to Garner-Hayfield-Ventura and graduated in 2014. Fun fact, my junior and senior year were the first years of GHV! I was a 4 sport athlete my high school years and played a 5th sport freshman and senior year. I played college football at Simpson College. I played all 4 years and was even named to the All-Decade Team for my contributions to the team. I was blessed with a couple of post-season bowl games that I got to play in, The Tazon De Estrellas Bowl and The Dream Bowl. For my efforts as part of the team in The Tazon De Estrellas Bowl, I was named the team MVP. After I was done playing, I spent a semester as a student assistant coach. I primarily handled the LB’s and was the Defensive Coordinator for the JV team. While I was doing all that, I was preparing for professional tryouts. I was able to participate in the Iowa State Pro Day thanks to Head Coach Matt Jeter and Coach Pete Traynor. I had a number of CFL tryouts that I went to and even tried out for the AAF. I eventually found my way to a Sioux City Bandits tryout and earned a contract because of my abilities. I went on to play for 5 years and made a name for myself as The Swiss Army Knife. My first season, I was named Mr. Bandit for all I did outside of the football games. Helping out in the community and participating in events was extremely fun! In my second to last season, I was named Team MVP for my contributions on offense, defense, and special teams.During that time, I was teaching and coaching at Ridge View High School where I was the JV Offensive Coordinator. I was able to help lead the JV team to winning records each season and helped my student athletes find ways to compete in every situation. I have now been at GHV for 2 years and I’m looking forward to helping this team!