GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In 2022, the University Athletic Association first invited the Alachua County Teacher of the Year to join the celebrity “Two Bits” pregame football tradition. Call it an honor that honors the honorable, if you will. 
 
Monica Benson fits the bill. 
 
In 2016, Benson was closing in on completing her Florida master’s degree in special education. Already with a UF undergrad degree in elementary ed, she’d done a handful of internships at schools across the county, but for her last one specifically asked to be placed at Sydney Lanier School, which serves students with significant disabilities. 
 
“They asked me, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Benson recalled, with both she and her colleagues well aware of the challenges. “I never thought twice about it. Sydney Lanier was my place.” 
 
And still is. Now in her 10^th year at the school at Main Street and 16^th Avenue in Gainesville, Benson has given a decade to students ages kindergarten to 22 years old who need specialized attention and care. If you’re there for Benson’s pregame “Two Bits” turn Saturday when No. 15 Florida (1-0) squares off against South Florida at Spurrier/Florida Field, let her know you care, as well. 

Benson was chosen as the county’s secondary ToY honoree when the awards were announced last January. Also recognized were elementary-school finalist Vanessa Lind, a second-grade teacher at Glen Springs, and middle-school finalist Natalie Watkins, a seventh-grade teacher at Fort Clarke.
 
“It’s all about love. It’s all about being there with the children,” Benson said. “I’ve watched them grow so much and be able to achieve so many different goals that no one had imagined they could achieve; loving life, being happy. And it’s all individualized, where everybody has their own goals they achieve and we move on. We’re very lucky to have our students to the age of 22 and help them transition to adulthood.”
 
Some of those young adults, as well as their younger co-students, might very well be on hand when Benson, a lifelong Gator fan from Middleburg, Florida, gets to live out a kid-like fantasy in front of close to 90,000 in what will mark the 14^th consecutive sellout in “The Swamp.”
 
“I remember the original,” Benson said of icon George Edmundson, famous father of the chant. “I was raised in a household where the Florida Gators were the star on Saturday. They were everything. We didn’t care about any other football, so this will be very nostalgic and exciting for me. Very near and dear to my heart.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu