ESCANABA -- Three Upper Peninsula high school athletes recently were named winners of the Gil Heard Courageous Athlete Award by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
All three also were recognized as winners of the TV6 Play of the Week during the fall and winter sports seasons.
They were honored because they've played sports while overcoming mental or physical obstacles.
Lake Linden-Hubbell's Brett Beauchamp was seriously injured in a car accident on May 21 of last year. He spent a month at Marquette General Health System recovering from head injuries.
Forest Park and the Lakes let Beauchamp score a touchdown in the last game of the football regular season. Beauchamp averaged more than eleven points on the Lakes' basketball court last season.
Watersmeet's Kody Caudill ended his junior basketball season with 19 points. Kody has Cerebral Palsy after a three-month premature birth at 2 pounds, 2.6 ounces. He stayed in neonatal intensive care for three months.
Ishpeming's Eric Dompierre also knows what to do with a basketball behind the three-point line...Eric has Down Syndrome. His story has been heard all over the country.
Eric will be 19 years old next year, too old to be an athlete on a varsity team according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association's rules. A ruling could come in the next few weeks on whether or not the rule should be changed or amended.
The late Gil Heard was an NMU Sports Information Director who battled diabetes for many years.
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