BROOKLYN — Wes Leonard had one more thing to do the evening of March 3 after his buzzer beater gave Fennville an overtime win over Bridgman that capped the Blackhawks' undefeated regular season.

Leonard, a junior, had to finish a math project, which was due the next day, and which would have bumped up his grade from a C-plus to a B-minus.

“He was going to run home from the game and do this one last math project, it was like extra credit,” said his mother, Jocelyn Leonard. “We told him we weren’t going to let him drive his car for a month if he didn’t get the B.

"That's one of the things we had to put away — the assignment he didn't do."

Leonard, 16, collapsed on the basketball court while celebrating with teammates and classmates. He was pronounced dead later that evening at Holland Hospital An autopsy showed he had an enlarged heart.

When North Carolina-based Front Row Motorsports officials heard about Leonard's story, they wanted to do something special to honor him when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visited Michigan International Speedway for Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400.

FOUNDATION PLANS EVENT TUESDAY

Wes Leonard's family foundation — the Wes Leonard Heart Team — will be at Hope College on Tuesday to make an announcement regarding a significant contribution to the team, as well as to detail the organization's progress and its future plans.

The 3 p.m. announcement in DeVos Field House will include a video presentation of highlights from the athletic achievements of Leonard, the Fennville star who died moments after scoring the winning points in a March 3 basketball game.

The Tuesday event is being held to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest. Leonard's death due to an enlarged heart, the dramatic circumstances surrounding it and his team going on to win a state tournament district title received national attention.

Leonard’s parents, Gary and Jocelyn; Fennville basketball coach Ryan Klingler; and Leonard’s former teammates will attend the event.

The foundation will honor children who have lost their lives to sudden cardiac arrest and is committed to preventing other families and friends from suffering through the same fate.

The team, which is sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, decorated the rear quarterpanels of Travis Kvapil’s No. 38 Ford with the Wes Leonard Heart Foundation logo.

Front Row also invited Leonard’s parents, Jocelyn and Gary, brother Mitchell, Fennville athletic director Tony Petkus, and friends, teammates and foundation members to Sunday’s race. They watched the race in a suite provided by Gordon Food Services.

Kvapil, of Janesville, Wis., met the group of about 20 in front of the Front Row Motorsports race hauler in the MIS garage Sunday morning. Leonard’s parents and Kvapil talked for about 10 minutes before posing for photographs.

Jocelyn Leonard thanked Kvapil for the kind tribute, and she thanked him for giving her a national platform to share the foundation’s goals. Days like Sunday also help with the grieving process, too.

“I would be at football clinics right now. I would be at basketball clinics,” she said. “My son kept me so stinking busy, and now he’s not here. So what do you? You stay busy. We are going to go save a life.

“For us, it has been 13 weeks, and I’m still all over the place. I never know if it is going to be a bad day or a good day, but every time I work with the heart team, it’s better because at least I am doing something for him. (Sunday’s race) is huge. I can’t buy this type of coverage. I couldn’t afford it with the foundation.”

Kvapil finished 31st in Sunday’s race, which was won by Denny Hamlin. It really didn’t matter where Kvapil finished, however.

“What these groups have done, like Front Row Motorsports and Gordon Foods, reaching out to Joceyln, Gary and Mitch on Father’s Day, is hard to put into words,” said Leonard’s uncle, Jim Leonard, of Holland. “We are all here, happy and having a good time, and then we step back and take a look at why we are actually here, and then I spend 10 minutes crying.”

Next up for the Leonards is a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park. The Tigers are treating the Leonards and the foundation to a July 28 game against the Anaheim Angels.

Jocelyn Leonard said it will give her another opportunity to spread the foundation’s message. She isn’t going to rest until all public and private schools across Michigan are equipped with an Automated Electronic Defibrillator. That’s the foundation’s No. 1 goal.

“We want to be a voice for those who have passed, and we want to be prepared so we don’t have any more,” she said. “We have to change the law. Governor (Rick) Snyder has to know that our children can’t die because our schools don’t have AEDs. For $1,400, every school needs one. I would have paid $1,400 for my son’s life. It’s a cell phone bill for the year. Let’s do it.

“Every kid here that walked into the garage and saw (Leonard’s) name with the heart team on it started bawling. So we have a lot of healing left. But with every save that we can do, so that the kid doesn’t die and gets revived, I think that’s part of the healing process, too. There have been a lot more kids in this country who have died of sudden cardiac arrest in the last 13 weeks. All he needs is an electric shock. He may need a little bit of rehab, but he walks away.”

Sunday’s NASCAR race was the first for the Leonards, and Jocelyn Leonard said the sport has won over a bunch of new fans in Fennville.

“I even took pictures of the gas pumps,” she said.

E-mail the author of this story: sports@grpress.com