Summit Academy principal receives special thank you from former student
When Daniel Demand sat down with his former Summit Academy principal, Dawn Presley, the 6’3”, 30-year-old founder and general manager of the Cuyahoga Falls Rapids pro football advancement team paused to collect his emotions. Cupping his eyes then gradually raising his head, his words spilled.
“A student can tell when a teacher gives up on you. She never did. There were a lot of times anyone would have given up on me and my situation,” Demand says.
Demand explains how impulsive behavior defined much of his youth. Explosive episodes landed him in Presley’s office and detention regularly. One incident, involving a slammed classroom door and shattered glass, led to his suspension. Some teachers wanted Demand expelled. Amid the chaos, however, there was a place of order.
Pacing, venting, deescalating, Demand describes his times sent to Presley’s office as those of peace finding.
“It helped me regulate myself and my emotions,” he says. “If you were the maddest you’d ever been, you were leaving Mrs. Presley’s office calm. Singlehandedly…this was one of the most impactful things in my life.”
Presley, whom Demand often referred to as ‘mom,’ looked beyond Demand’s veneer.
“He didn’t have a bad heart. He had impulse control issues. He would blow up and be apologetic,” she recalls.
Demand says the internal and social growth he experienced at Summit Academy, much on Presley’s watch, has carried him into a successful adulthood. After high school, Demand played semi-professional football as a defensive tackle for the Ohio Gladiators. His desire to offer serious football players an NCAA-compliant team in the PAFL (Premiere Amateur Football League) evolved into the Rapids.
“What if we were to take a semi-pro team and turn it into a legitimate organization with fans, in a city? What if we were able to take the Browns and shrink it down?” says Demand, describing the thought process from which the Cuyahoga Falls Rapids transpired.
Now in its second year, the team boasts a 70-man roster, 14 coaches, 13 media members, 11 leadership staff members and one intern. The team finished 7-5 in its first season. Highlights of that season included two games played at The University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium. An upcoming highlight for this season is the team’s April 25 Cuyahoga Cup match against 2025 PAFL 2A Champions, the Cleveland Broncos, formerly the Ohio Broncos. The game will take place at 5 p.m. at Cleveland Central Catholic.
Demand says he applies life lessons he learned at Summit Academy to mentoring his Rapids players, some of whom have scarred pasts. He also has used Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) techniques he acquired at Summit Academy in his previous work as a camp counselor with the Salvation Army. For example, Demand created a color board to help campers chart their progress with activities and tasks throughout the day. “They crushed it,” he says.
Demand and his brother, Sampson, who also attended Summit Academy, were active in the Salvation Army’s weekly youth programs and summer camp and also played in the band. Demand sports a tattoo of a canoe as a homage to his pivotal era with the Salvation Army program and Camp NEOSA, in particular, where he served as a counselor.
Since those foundational years, Demand, a Verizon sales manager, husband to wife, Anna, and father of four, says he continues to use skills he learned at Summit Academy. He may tap is finger ring to self-regulate when emotions become overwhelming or “white knuckle” through a stressful conversation.
“A lot of fundamental parts of myself came from Summit Academy. When I get to a point I can’t control, I don’t need to stop it. I need to disperse it and make sure it’s through the right door,” describes Demand, expressing his gratitude, not just for the wisdom of the lesson, but for the compassionate person from whom he learned it.
“No matter what situation I was in,” he says, “Mrs. Presley always led with acceptance, grace and understanding.”
Demand says he looks forward to establishing a future relationship between the Cuyahoga Falls Rapids and Summit Academy – one as transformative as his own.