Pisco named 2025 Emrick/Mielcarek Male Athlete of the Year
WHITE PIGEON — Jordan Pisco has dreams of someday owning his own business.
He feels it will be something important to him, something he has a passion for at this point in his life. He will get a chance to get a good look into that future soon when he is taking classes at Glen Oaks Community College beginning in the fall, there he plans to major in business.
Pisco will also play basketball for Mike Elliott and the Viking program. But first, following his graduation from White Pigeon, Pisco earned one final award for his time while in high school.
Pisco has been named the Corky Emrick/Tom Mielcarek Male Athlete of the Year for 2025. The requirements for the award are to be a graduating senior at a school the Sturgis Journal covers in addition to competing in a sport during the fall, winter and spring sports for their respective schools as a senior as well.
"I'm excited for my future, for sure," Pisco said on Friday afternoon. "I'm a little nervous about school and all that, but I'm also looking forward to it."
The annual award is named after longtime Journal sports editor Corky Emrick, who passed away in 2019 and Tom Mielcarek, Journal sports writer for decades, who passed away in 2022.
Sports Editor Brandon Watson gives out the award yearly to both a male and female. In addition to earning a plaque for being the athlete of the year, each winner receives a $1,000 scholarship to use as they see fit. A panel of more than a dozen voters from communities in the Journal coverage area are appointed each year. If those voters represent a school in any way, they cannot vote a student-athlete from that school as the winner, they must vote for one from a different school.
Pisco excelled on the basketball court, football field and track during his time at White Pigeon. For track and field, he had a strong ending to his senior season. Pisco earned the prestigious Tim Baker MVP award at the 40th annual U.A.W. St. Joseph County All-Star track and field meet. There, he won the 110 hurdles and the high jump, plus finished second in the long jump as well as finishing inside the top five spots in a relay event.
Then, at the Division 4 MHSAA state finals, Pisco earned a handful of Top 10 finishes as well. He ran to sixth place overall in the 110 hurdles, was part of the eighth-place finishing 400 relay and claimed eighth overall in the high jump.
Not bad.
But when it came to his future in athletics, the round ball was the way to go.
"It (basketball) was the sport I grew up playing, knowing all about and I love it more than anything, really," he said. "Football, track they were both fun but basketball has really always been my thing."
Pisco said dedicating himself to continuing to get better as he got older was an important part of where he is now.
"When I saw you could do good things if you put the work in, that showed me something," he said.
Pisco will live at home and commute to GOCC for his classes and hoops career. It's not too far, obviously, and it works out just fine for him. He'll miss his time spent at White Pigeon with his friends and teammates, but knows he could be off to some special things at the next level as well.
The Corky Emrick/Tom Mielcarek athletes of the year awards are given annually to a graduating senior who played three sports as a senior for their high school. Past winners of the male award include Brandon Crawford of Colon in 2021, Tyler Swanwick of Centreville in 2022, Simon Vinson of Colon in 2023 and Bennett VandenBerg of Constantine in 2024.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Pisco voted as male athlete of the year by Watson, panel
Category: General Sports
