Courageous Athletes-12/8/2025

The winners of the Gil Heard Courageous Athlete Award for the winter sports season are:

Jack Kriegl – Junior season on Wednesday prior to our week 9 Marquette game, Jack was involved in a collision during practice. We could tell something was wrong right away with Jack. He was taken to the hospital with a spleen injury.  He was airlifted to Green Bay due to the nature of the laceration of his spleen. Jack missed our playoff game but was able to return for the basketball and baseball seasons.

Senior season, Jack was off to an incredible start to the year. He is a leader on our team in every facet of the game. During our week 3 against Gladstone, Jack was hit on his side during a run. Jack returned to the game for a couple more plays and was removed for what we thought was a rib injury. The pain did not get any better and he was taken to the hospital and we found out that he had another spleen injury. He was told that his football season was most likely done with him being sidelined for 6 weeks.

During his time away from playing, Jack remained a constant positive presence at practice. Helping out whenever possible and encouraging his teammates to be the best they possibly could. Eventually Jack felt better and better and started throwing during practice. His updates from the doctors were positive which led to him being cleared for play in our first playoff game.

Jack’s love for football and his teammates were the driving force for him to return to the field. His dedication is unmatched and we are fortunate to have him on our team. As great of an athlete Jack is, he’s even a better person. As a coach, I could not be more proud of Jack. He is exactly what a Flivver athlete should be. He’s a winner in the classroom, community and on the field.

SAULT STE. MARIE – For some people, courage is being in the same room as a spider; for others, it might
be speaking in public. For Gabe Litzner, it runs a little deeper than that.
Litzner is one of the most dominant cross-country and long-distance track runners in the history of the
Upper Peninsula and is one of only four cross-country runners in the entire state to win individual state
titles all four years.
That feat was almost cut short a little over 18 months ago.
On March 5, 2024, Litzner, a sophomore at the time, was hit by a car as he crossed a street in downtown
Sault Ste. Marie while running home from a workout at the Sault High track.
“Everything went dark,” he recalls of the accident. “I hadn’t been feeling great that day, and I was
crossing the road, and I don’t remember anything after that. I went unconscious. I woke up in the
hospital. I don’t remember getting hit or any of that. I remember waking up and seeing blood all over
me and and I didn’t really know what happened at that time. It was just shocking.”
His father, Aaron, was shocked as well.
“He had so many cuts all over him,” he recalled. “All the cuts and the road rash were hard to get past, as
well as all the blood.”
Litzner was rushed to Devos Children’s Hospital after the severity of his injuries was discovered. He
suffered a fractured skull, four fractured vertebrae, lacerations to his kidneys, liver, and spleen, and also
experienced blood clots in both legs. It was also discovered that he was dealing with a punctured lung.
Litzner ended up staying in the hospital for six days before being allowed to come home.
Doctors weren’t sure what Litzner’s future looked like as a runner, but told him that there wasn’t going
to be any physical activity for a minimum of six months, with a re-evaluation after that.
Once the immediate danger had passed, Litzner’s thoughts began to turn back to running.
“I thought about running almost immediately,” he said. “And it didn’t hit me for a little bit that I wasn’t
going to be running for a long time. I told dad in the hospital, ‘I think I’m going to have to take today off.’
Once I figured out how serious my injuries were, I figured it was going to be a little bit.”
On April 1 st , Litzner laced up his shoes and went to Lake Superior State with his dad and got on a
stationary bike. He had been walking for five minutes a day to help with the blood clots.
“The first day I ran, I went about a mile, and it was slow,” Litzner said. “After that, I started going a little
further, but in the back of my head, I’m thinking that I’m not going to be fast at all this track season.”
With the track season already underway, Litzner got back into competitive running and made the
decision that he was going to try and run in the Upper Peninsula finals.
“I was at the point where I felt fit enough to run ok,” he said. I had gotten beat by a Marquette kid the
week before in Grand Rapids, and I decided to just go out and see what I could do. I wasn’t very

confident in myself, but I finished second in the mile by a second, and at that point, I thought that I
should probably win the two-mile. Winning that felt really good and gave me a lot of confidence back.”
Litzner didn’t just win the two-mile; he set the U.P. state record.
Courage is being afraid of something and going out and conquering that fear. Litzner didn’t know if he
was going to be able to run again at one point, much less be competitive. As it turns out, Litzner was not
only able to show the kind of courage he carries around within him, but is now confident that things are
going to be just fine.

The Gil Heard award is presented by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.