When the Put-In-Bay School girls and boys basketball teams played this past season, it was without one of their biggest fans.
A few months earlier, the community’s beloved announcer, Patrick Myers, took his own life.
“He’s the reason that we play so hard,” said Senior Hannah Lentz, who told Great Lakes Now about him during the second annual Great Lakes Islands Basketball Tournament, a competition between four small island schools.
“I can’t even imagine his smile up there looking down at us because he’s probably so proud of us right now,” she said as she held the tournament trophy that her team won for the second time.
After Myers death, the Lake Erie islands community raised funds, providing $45,000 for college scholarship and making donations to suicide prevention.
Here’s more:
API key not valid. Please pass a valid API key.Watch Great Lakes Now’s feature about the unique basketball tournament HERE.
Read more about Great Lakes islands on Great Lakes Now:
Hope and Resilience: Great Lakes islanders continue to adapt to COVID-19 conditions
Taking It in Stride: How Great Lakes islanders are weathering the COVID-19 storm
Growing Pains: Big crowds on a little island can bring out the darker side of Great Lakes tourism
Featured image: Put-in-Bay School sign honoring Patrick Myers (Great Lakes Now Episode 1017)