Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
High School
Ashton Janke of Dollar Bay-Tamarack City has been named the Upper Peninsula Division Four Boys Basketball Player of the Year. The Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association also named the Blue Bolts as the Division Four Team of the Year.
Iron Mountain’s Foster Wonders was named “Mr. U.P. Basketball,” and Divisions One through Three Player of the Year. The Mountaineers were named Division Three Team of the Year. Marquette was honored as Division One and Two Team of the Year.
This year’s Dream Team includes Janke and Houghton’s Brad Simonson. Pablo Salgado of the Gremlins made the Divisions One through Three Second Team. Jaden Borseth from Ewen-Trout Creek earned Division Four First Team honors. Davin Hill and Connor LeClaire of Dollar Bay-Tamarack City were placed on the Division Four Second Team. Logan Latvis of Ontonagon and Bill Rautiola of Chassell collected Honorable Mention votes.
NFL
Former NFL placekicker Tom Dempsey has died. On November 8th, 1970, Dempsey set a league record by booting a last-second, 63-yard field goal to give his New Orleans Saints a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions. Dempsey kicked with a special shoe, because he was born with no toes on his kicking foot. The loss to the lowly Saints was considered an embarrassment for the Lions. In his book Even Big Guys Cry, Detroit lineman Alex Karras confessed the team thought the attempt was so futile, they barely mounted a defense against it, and didn’t stop laughing until it cleared the crossbar by a foot. Dempsey was 73 years old. He had been battling Alzheimer’s disease, but died from a COVID-19 infection.
The NFL continues with plans to hold its amateur draft on schedule later this month. The league has issued orders that team officials must remain in their own homes for the event. Players anticipating being selected for the draft must remain in their own homes, as well. There have been calls to delay the draft, so teams can complete the evaluation process, but the dates are still set for April 23rd through 25th.
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