ESCANABA — The Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame will present scholarships to its 2020 and 2021 recipients at the Induction Banquet August 15.

Among the 2021 recipients is Escanaba’s Bryant Maki, who has played at the varsity level for football — a sport he will play at the collegiate level at Michigan Tech — basketball and baseball.

Maki graduated in the top 10 of his class from Escanaba High School with a GPA of 4.2

In addition to his prowess in the classroom, Maki was awarded GNC All-Conference honors for football his senior year.

Following the 2021 basketball season, he was named teammate of the year at the Eskymos’ team banquet.

At Tech, he will be majoring in Civil Engineering.

Other 2021 honorees include Dante Basanese (Iron Mountain), Elise Besonen (Ewen-Trout Creek) and Melanie Wenzel (Kingsford). All three athletes graduated as valedictorians from their respective schools.

Basanese — who competed in football, basketball, track and golf — earned a total of 11 varsity letters. He will join Maki as a member of the Michigan Tech Huskies football team in the fall as he majors in Mechanical and Computer Engineering.

Besonen totaled 16 varsity letters through volleyball, track, cross country and — most notably — basketball where she was awarded All-State honors. She will be attending University Wisconsin-Superior to major in Music Education while competing as a member of the Yellow Jackets women’s basketball team.

Wenzel collected 11 varsity letters competing in basketball, track, volleyball and cross country.

She will be attending the University of Michigan, where she will major in molecular and cellular biology.

The 2020 scholarship recipients are Niklas Djerf (Calumet), Madelyn Koski (Westwood), Brooke Kriegl (Kingsford) and Jason Waterman (Negaunee).

Djerf — who played football, hockey, ran track and finished high school with a 3.96 GPA — is currently attending the Coast Guard Academy in New Haven, Connecticut.

Koski graduated valedictorian of her class with a 4.0 GPA and competed in basketball, tennis and softball.

She just wrapped up her freshman year at Ferris State University where she is majoring in Pharmacy and plays for the BUlldogs’ women’s basketball team.

Kriegl — currently a member of Northern Michigan University’s women’s basketball team where she is majoring in Nursing — was class valedictorian with a GPA of 4.1 and graduated with nine varsity letters from basketball, volleyball and track.

Waterman finished high school with a 4.1 GPA and 10 varsity letters from basketball, football, baseball and track.

He earned All-State and All-Conference honors for football and basketball.

Waterman is currently attending Michigan Tech where he is a member of the men’s basketball team. He is majoring in Biological Sciences (Pre-Med).