Sports Illustrated HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE MONTH

Presented byTHE U.S. MARINE CORPS

Jack Cadigan, a 6'1" senior guard at Medfield (Mass.) High, has a mean jumper, a 3.63 GPA and a 12-inch scar on his chest. In October 2012 surgeons repaired a hole in his heart—a potentially fatal ostium primum defect—that went undetected until he volunteered at an orphanage and medical clinic in Haiti, where his father, Jack Cadigan III, a cardiologist, hooked him up to an old EKG machine to test it out. After his operation in Boston, Jack learned that a Haitian orphan named Lourdina Chery, 13, had been diagnosed with heart failure by the same machine. He lobbied to bring her to the U.S., and she too underwent surgery. Jack is now fully healthy and averaging 9.8 points, and has a lifelong friend in Lourdina, who has a scar to match his. "It's a miracle how everything turned out," Jack says. For more on his story and to nominate your own candidate, visit SI.com/HSathlete

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ALEXANDRA FENWICK/SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (CADIGAN)