June 19, 2025
East Ridge High “Bulldozer” Gabriel Maldonado Gears Up for Dominant Senior Season
By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High “Bulldozer” Gabriel Maldonado Gears Up for Dominant Senior Season
East Ridge High School senior Gabriel Maldonado, known affectionately by teammates and coaches as “Bulldozer,” is ready to roll into the 2025 high school football season with momentum.
Standing 6-foot-1 and weighing in at 280 pounds, Gabriel is an anchor on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Knights. After a stellar junior campaign in which he didn’t surrender a single sack, Gabriel was named First-Team All-District as an offensive lineman and selected to the prestigious All-District All-Star team.
(Gabriel was named Defensive Line MVP at a recent FHS 7V7A 5v5 Lineman Camp.
To date, Gabriel has never allowed a sack in his high school career a feat that underscores his nickname. It’s just a very difficult task to get through this young man and it’s a statistic that many lineman can’t say they have ever accomplished this deep into their high school career.
Beyond his strength, Gabriel is known for his surprising quickness. One of the area’s fastest pulling guards, he regularly paves the way for East Ridge running backs with his downhill power and footwork. Last season, he notched 12 pancake blocks, a stat linemen take great pride in.
For Gabriel, it’s all about leverage. At 6-1, he can get low and drive guys off their feet. That’s how you win in the trenches.
(Gabriel is coming into 2025 as one of the top senior lineman to watch in Lake County.)
This offseason, he has been relentless in his preparation. He’s attended multiple elite lineman camps across the country and was recently named Defensive Line MVP at the FHS 7V7A 5v5 Lineman Camp.
“Baby steps lead into big steps,” Gabriel says. “Just gotta keep grinding and moving forward.”
He’s also making gains in the weight room. Currently benching over 350 pounds, Maldonado has set a summer goal to hit 405 pounds. Off the field, he maintains a 3.6 GPA and brings a student-athlete mentality to everything he does.
(Not only is Gabriel a good football player but he works in the off season competing for East Ridge High School’s weightlifting team.)
Maldonado’s future aspirations are clear and uncompromising: “If I don’t go NCAA D1, I’m striving for D2. If I don’t go D2, I’m striving for D3. If I don’t go D3, I’m striving for Junior College. I just wanna play ball.”
This season, Maldonado will learn from new offensive line coach Dicunto known widely as “Coach Sauce” who joins East Ridge alongside head coach Frank Scott, both formerly of Leesburg High. The experienced coaching staff is expected to bring a physical identity to the Knights’ program, and Gabriel is already considered a foundational piece of that transformation.
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Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
He is just my favorite cute fluffy Man XOXO