when a piece of the boat fell off

Police and firefighters are hailing Marco Island teenager Logan Gross as a hero after saving the life of his best friend, who had in turn jumped into the lake at Mackle Park to try to save a middle-aged man from drowning.

It was all the more courageous because Gross is wearing a medical support boot after injuring a leg in a soccer game.

Gross, 14, attributes SCUBA and free diving training to the successful rescue of his young friend.

The older man, according to Gross, had entered the chilly water of the lake to retrieve a section of a radio controlled boat he was operating that had come loose. He was later found by rescue personnel and airlifted out of the area after apparently not surfacing for about an hour.

Gross and his friend Tyler Melton, both 7th Grade students at Marco Island Charter Middle School, were hanging out at the lake Monday afternoon after school.

“We were playing on a Kindle Fire and my iPhone,” Gross said after the incident. “We then went down to the lake and were watching a (family) friend of Tyler testing out a remote controlled boat.”

Gross said when a piece of the boat fell off, the man said he wanted to find the piece, so he emptied his pockets, took off his shirt and shoes, and entered the water.

“I asked Tyler if he (the man) was a good swimmer,” Gross said, and Melton said yes, he was, and that he swims all the time.”

After a while, Gross noticed the man’s head “flopping a bit” in the water, and became worried he was drowning. He told Melton what he thought.

“Tyler went in, and was maybe 20 feet from him, but then he started turning pale, and asked me for help.

"I pulled my boot off, and and just ran and dived in,” Gross said. “I told Tyler ‘go on your back, go on your back.’ This was from my SCUBA experience. I turned him on his back and crossed his arms across his chest, and then began to swim back with him.”

Gross said all the time, he was thinking about is training.

“I didn’t even feel my leg,” he said.

After the ordeal, Gross spoke with police officers and firefighters. Later, Officer Matt Gordon of the Marco Police Department pulled him aside, told him what a great job he had done, and suggested that he go home to his family and try to relax.

Gross’ buddy Tyler Melton said simply of his friend: “I owe him, big time.”

In the meantime, the condition of the airlifted man remains unknown.