School mourns football player who drowned in Ely lake

Vermilion Community College says an 18-year-old man who drowned Monday in a lake nearly Ely was one of its students.

Sean Westly Giles, Jr., of Detroit was a second-year student at the college. He was a multiple-academic scholarship recipient from the Vermilion Community College Foundation and played defensive end for the school's Ironmen football team, according to school provost Shawn Bina.

Giles lived in Ely year round, and was a "happy, confident and outgoing young man who always had a smile on his face," said Bina. "His tragic death leaves an unimaginable hole in our tight-knit student community."

Authorities say they were called to a boat landing on the north side of Miners Lake just before 4 p.m. Monday. A group of friends told police they had been swimming together when Giles disappeared under the water, rescuers found Giles after a 20-minute search. He was taken to the hospital in Ely, and pronounced dead there.