Simsbury’s Deitz, Mills’ O’Donnell to receive Casey Courage award at Gold Key dinner

Danny Deitz, right, and his father Terry at the Valley Gridiron Classic between Avon and Simsbury in November.

Two exceptional Farmington Valley athletes will be honored for their courage at the upcoming 75th annual Gold Key banquet in April.

Simsbury High junior Danny Deitz and Lewis Mills senior Nicole O’Donnell have been selected to receive the Bob Casey Courage Award from the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance.

Deitz, a football and lacrosse player at Simsbury, was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, enlargement of the heart, and received a heart transplant this fall. O’Donnell, a midfielder on Lewis Mills’ 2014 Class S state championship field hockey team, is recovering from major injuries sustained in an automobile accident in August 2015.

The Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance’s annual Gold Key banquet will be Sunday, April 24, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Aqua Turf in Southington.

Former welterweight boxing world champion Marlon Starling, Hartford Whalers owner and founder Howard Baldwin, 1960 U.S. Hockey Olympic gold medalist Bob McVey, Trinity College squash coach Paul Assaiante and longtime Greenwich High boys swimming coach Terry Lowe will receive Gold Keys at the dinner.

Tickets are on sale now for $75. You can purchase your ticket now from the Hartford Courant’s Matthew Conyers, president of the CSWA, at 860-874-4166 or by email at [email protected] or from the Patch’s Tim Jensen, vice president of the CSWA at [email protected]. Tickets can also be obtained by sending a check with your order to the Connecticut Sports Writers Alliance, P.O. Box 70, Unionville, CT 06085.

To recognize extraordinary courage, the Alliance presents the Bob Casey Courage Award in honor of the former New Haven Register sportswriter and public relations director for the NHL’s Hartford Whalers, who passed away due to cancer in 1994.

In June 2015, Deitz couldn’t shake the constant weariness and shortness of breath he was experiencing. After several rounds of tests, he was diagnosed with enlargement of the heart and put on a waiting list for a heart transplant. He received a transplant from Boston Children’s Hospital in September and spent more than 80 days in the hospital.

During the process to diagnose Deitz, it was discovered that he had a genetic mutation that causes the protein in his heart to attack itself. “And it would never stop attacking my heart,” Deitz told The Hartford Courant’s Jeff Jacobs in September. “A transplant was going to happen no matter.”

Last summer, Deitz was sent home with a drug to increase his heart’s contractility, but it didn’t work.  After a few weeks he had to return to Boston Children’s for another 28 days because of kidney and liver trouble. He also had fluid in his lungs. During his second stay at Boston Children’s, Deitz underwent open heart surgery and a left ventricular assist device called LVAD was implanted.

About three weeks later, Deitz returned to Boston Children’s Hospital and received a new heart on Sept. 10.

Throughout the year, the Simsbury community rallied behind the Deitz family. “Danny Strong” t-shirts were seen throughout the town and the Farmington Valley supporting Danny.

Proceeds from the first Valley Gridiron Classic game between the Simsbury and Avon High football teams on Thanksgiving Eve went to benefit the Deitz family. A check for $2,500 was presented to the family at the end of the third quarter.

O’Donnell is recovering from major injuries sustained in an automobile accident on August 19, 2015. She was airlifted to Hartford Hospital after suffering a fractured pelvis, a lacerated liver, a collapsed lung and a concussion.

She spent the next 10 days in the hospital and underwent two surgeries to deal with her injuries, After her time at Hartford Hospital, she spent two more weeks at Gaylord Specialty Hospital in Wallingford.

O’Donnell fractured her pelvis on both sides (in the ball joint of her hips and in her left femur). During surgery, she had plates and screws inserted to stabilize the pelvis and tighten attached ligaments. O’Donnell also had a rod inserted in her left femur.

O’Donnell didn’t stand for 48 days because she couldn’t bear any weight on her hips or her thighs, but in October she took her took her first steps again. She attended her first game in mid-October to root on her Spartan teammates.