By Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press
FENNVILLE, Mich. ? Wesley James Leonard is buried in a small country cemetery on the outskirts of this western Michigan town. The headstone is not in place yet, but a large wreath is propped above the grave.
By Jonathon Gruenke, AP
Fennville High players Xavier Grigg, left, Shane Bale and DeMarcus McGee react as Schoolcraft pulls away in the fourth quarter of the Michigan Class C regional semifinal Monday. After all that's transpired, getting eliminated wasn't as painful as it might have been to other teams.
By Jonathon Gruenke, AP
Fennville High players Xavier Grigg, left, Shane Bale and DeMarcus McGee react as Schoolcraft pulls away in the fourth quarter of the Michigan Class C regional semifinal Monday. After all that's transpired, getting eliminated wasn't as painful as it might have been to other teams.
Tuesday morning, the day this community tried to return to normal, the snow was melting and the birds chirped and black ribbons on the wreath flickered in the breeze: nephew, grandson, brother, son.
Across the street, about 150 yards away from Wes's grave, Adam Siegel sat on a couch watching television.
Adam was the Fennville basketball player who lifted Wes into the air March 3 after he made a game-winning shot that beat Bridgman and saved a perfect regular season for the Blackhawks. A photograph that captured the moment was broadcast around the nation. And in many ways, it was the iconic image of this tragedy.
A moment later, Wes collapsed and later died at a hospital from an enlarged heart.
Adam missed school Tuesday because he was sick. After all of the stress and emotion of the last 12 days ? Wes's death and the visitation, the funeral and the state tournament ? Adam was run down and exhausted. He became ill during Monday night's season-ending loss against Schoolcraft in the Class C regional semifinal in Vicksburg.
The next day, Adam was in his house, across the street from the cemetery, thinking about Wes.
"If I had one word to describe Wes, it would probably be amazing," he said. "Because that's what he was. He was amazing in everything he did."
After Monday night's game, the Blackhawks were on a bus, headed back to Fennville.
"Is anybody hungry?" asked Becky Klingler, an assistant coach. "Do you want to stop to eat?"
Hands went up.
They stopped at a Wendy's in Allegan, and she saw something that surprised her. About an hour after the season had ended, at a moment when most high school athletes would be angry and upset, the Blackhawks already had shrugged off the 86-62 loss.
"A lot of the guys were smiling," she said. "I was so proud that they had learned that it's just a game. They are young, and they already have that perspective. We were smiling, too."
Klingler says the players learned invaluable life lessons from the tragedy of Wes' death.
"Hopefully, this is one of the worst situations they will ever go through," she said. "And they did get through it. That will help them fight through any other adversity. Now, everything else is so small. It gives you more confidence. Marriage isn't easy. Parenting isn't easy. But you can get through it."
The team has grown together. The players have spent countless hours together, dealing with the loss as a group.
But what will happen now?
Will the players still hang out together or will they go their separate ways?
That's what the players were asking the coaches on the bus on the way home.
They were worried that everything is going to change now. They want to go bowling together. They want to set up a paint ball event together. They just want to hang out together.
And they will, the coaches promised.
"They feel better when they are together," Klingler said.
After the game, coach Ryan Klingler ? who also is a physical education teacher at Fennville High ? talked to his team. He urged the players to go to school Tuesday. He told them to walk into school with heads held high and shoulders back. He told them that it reveals a lot about character to show up after defeat.
And Klingler went to school, too, even though he felt miserable. He stayed for a while, but then went to a doctor. He has tonsillitis and strep throat.
"I think his body is broken down, from not enough sleep and the stress," Becky Klingler said, as her husband slept.
She thinks her husband is just starting the grieving process. "But I hate that term," she said.
Ryan Klingler hasn't been back in the gym where Wes died.
And the Blackhawks have not played in the gym yet, either.
"That will be the next stage," Becky Klingler said.
Adam's father, Bob Siegel, often crosses the street and walks through the Fennville Cemetery for exercise in the summer months.
"We'll be able to visit Wes regularly," he said. "It's a sad thought. But just like his T-shirts say: He won't be forgotten."
Siegel saw changes in his son during the tragedy. "I think all those boys had to do a little growing up, pretty quick," Bob Siegel said. "They went into the season as boys and I think they came out of there as young men."
At the high school, baseball practice started Tuesday morning, but Adam didn't feel well enough to go.
"I think everybody needs a little time to reflect on what happened," Bob Siegel said. "The boys lost last night, but they can all hold their heads high. They will move on to baseball now."
The baseball coach told the players who were on the basketball team to take a week off.
"But I guarantee you," Bob Siegel said, "those boys will be there in the next day or two."
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