He can’t talk. He can’t use facial expressions to convey his thoughts. Not in a giant fuzzy mascot costume.

Yet somehow Rob Montepare’s personality still comes through.

It’s not hard to imagine that quick and wide grin, that gregarious and honest attitude even when it’s hiding beneath plastic and fake fur.

Perhaps it takes someone with so much personality to give an inanimate character life.

Montepare didn’t come to the Gwinnett Gladiators seven years ago with dreams of becoming a mascot. He was just doing research for a program through Collins Hill High School.

A couple months later, Montepare was hired as an intern by director of community relations Jim Hall. Soon he was doing appearances as Maximus the lion.

The same verve and hard work that got Montepare the job with the Gladiators, and then as Chopper for the Gwinnett Braves, has earned him a major league opportunity.

Montepare, still just 23, was hired by the Kansas City Royals two weeks ago as their mascot coordinator and performer.

“He’s going to take an extraordinary amount of passion for the trade to Kansas City,” Hall said. “He has a huge desire to do it right. He’s on a head-spinning adventure and of all the kids I know his age, he’s ready for it. It’s really remarkable.”

It’s a bittersweet move for Montepare. And for a lot of people in Gwinnett.

“I’m going to miss that kid,” Hall said quietly as he looked out onto the ice during a Gladiators game at the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Valentine’s Day.

Montepare was out on the ice, officiating his last game as an ECHL linesman that Sunday. The team that gave Montepare a chance as a high schooler didn’t miss the opportunity to spotlight him during the third period, quite literally, and wish him luck in his new job.

“Not that I’m a sentimental person, but I was thinking in the second period how much of my time was spent in that rink, whether it was being a mascot or refereeing,” Montepare said. “The reality of it is, if I never had the opportunity with the Gladiators, I’d never have this position now.

“When I got the (Royals) job, I sent the people that were still there with the organization a ‘thank you.’ A very sincere thank you.”

Montepare spent the majority of three seasons crafting the character of Maximus for the Gladiators.

“Even back then, he was way ahead of his years,” Hall said. “The most amazing thing is he climbed into the Maximus suit and really developed the Maxisms, if that can be a word, that we still use. He took it upon himself to develop the extraordinary personality that Maximus has.”

One hot summer day early in Montepare’s Maximus days, Hall booked him at four different events over a span of more than seven hours.

The two of them started with the dedication of Bay Creek Park in Grayson, which features the county’s first special-needs field.

Hall distinctly remembers Montepare, in costume, kneeling down and taking the hand of a child sitting in a wheelchair.

“It looked like love at first sight,” said Hall, who still calls Montepare “Junior” because when he started with the team, there was another Rob on staff.

From Grayson, they went to Taylor Elementary in Lawrenceville and then to another school appearance in Suwanee. They finished with a stop at a business near The Forum in Norcross.

“By the end, Rob had gotten in and out of that suit eight or nine times,” Hall said with a chuckle. “He was sweating profusely and I thought I’d killed him. We’d traipsed the width and breadth of the county and he just kept going.”

Another memory is a little more irreverent.

The Gladiators were invited to bring Maximus to the Special Olympics Georgia Winter Games opening ceremony in Marietta. Several of Atlanta’s other pro mascots were there, including Thrash and Harry the Hawk.

The organization’s president, Georgia Milton-Sheats, was making her keynote speech when one of the mascots — not Maximus — decided to run and slide across the stage on its stomach. Harry the Hawk followed that up with a strutting dance across the stage.

“Junior figures he’s got to get in on this,” Hall said, already chortling a little in the retelling. “So, mid-speech, he starts messing with (Milton-Sheat’s) hair like she’s in a beauty shop.

“We were laughing so hard and let it ride because the athletes and parents responded in such a positive manner. It was a shade on the disrespectful side, but really one of the most brilliantly humorous moments. It’s one of those great moments I can remember for a long, long time.

“And it was all ad-libbed. In that profession, having that knack and that timing is crucial. I’m going to miss him.”

Montepare hasn’t been with the Gladiators for several years, since he was hired by the ECHL as a linesman.

But his continued connection to the team opened up another door. When the Atlanta Braves relocated their Class AAA team to Gwinnett, a new mascot was created and they needed someone to fill it.

G-Braves Community and Public Affairs Manager Courtney Lawson called Hall and asked if he could recommend anyone.

“Mmm, yeah,” Hall said with a knowing laugh.

Hall put Lawson in touch with Montepare. A few days later he was Chopper.

“I was probably a year and a half, two years out of costume, wanting to get back in but not knowing where the opportunity would show up,” Montepare said. “It was two days before they were going to unveil their mascot to the community, I got called.”

Montepare was Chopper for all of the G-Braves’ inaugural season and had no plans to leave in the near future.

He’s lived in Gwinnett for 13 years, since moving with his family from New York. He’s planning his wedding to fiancee Danielle Lamour, who also grew up here and teaches at Blessed Trinity.

“I always thought I would do Chopper for three years,” Montepare said. “I’d take three years and really develop this character. I really did put my heart and soul in it.

“I thought after three years, I’ll have honed my performance, honed my knowledge that I’ll either get it out of my system and I’ll never see it again or I’ll make something out of it.”

Instead he’s leaving today for America’s heartland, planning to live at an extended-stay hotel and starting a new job on Monday.

“I loved the set-up in Gwinnett,” Montepare said. “Beautiful facility. I love that character — I took care of it like it was my child. And I had a lot of fun. The fans were really awesome. The support was great.

“I could stay here and I could do the Gwinnett Braves thing, but the down-the-road big picture wasn’t as set in stone and as concrete as what Kansas City has to offer. And, bottom line, it’s Major League Baseball.”

The Royals job was advertised for on an industry-specific Web site last October. Montepare wanted to apply, but because the G-Braves’ media room was being renovated, he couldn’t put together a highlight video in time.

“So I just let the job go by the wayside,” he said.

The job was reposted in January.

Montepare applied on a Monday and the Royals called the next day to set up a phone interview for Friday. What was supposed to be a 20-minute interview turned into an hour.

“I know it’s because I’m a long-winded person,” Montepare laughed, “but we had a really good conversation.”

Out of more than 100 applicants, Montepare said he was one of 15 interviewed and among just three invited to fly to Kansas City to meet with the team.

He arrived Feb. 4, a Thursday, and was home again the next day when the Royals called to offer him the job.

“The interview on the phone painted a great picture of just really nice people, very focused, very family-oriented,” Montepare said. “I got up there and it was exactly that. We all got on the same page as to what was being expected, what I could do, what they wanted.”

He and Danielle talked about it over the weekend.

“It was definitely like a ‘her and I’ decision and not just a ‘me’ decision,” Montepare said. “The opportunity is too good to pass up.”

Lamour is going to finish out the school year here and then, after the wedding, move up to Kansas City.

“Her perfect job is the job she has now,” Montepare said. “So how do you present this opportunity to someone that has their perfect job? I guess that’s what a successful relationship is all about, the give and take.

“Sacrifice is a big part of risk. But all the people that I’ve been around have a part in this, have helped me get to this. You carry that with you for the rest of your life.”