Patch Whiz Kid Of The Week: Brian Fitzgerald Jr.

Each week, Sharon Patch will seek suggestions from readers for individual kids, youth groups, teens, and even sports teams that wow us with their accomplishments. We want to hear about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid.  Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to Michael.Gelbwasser@patch.com.

Here's our story on this week's Whiz Kid:

Brian Fitzgerald Jr., 16, Sharon

Junior at Sharon High School

Whiz Kid’s Accomplishment: Brian Fitzgerald Jr. wears an eagle image when playing sweeper for the junior varsity boys soccer team.

When discussing Sharon's Gavins Pond Road soccer fields, Fitzgerald wears his heart on his sleeve.

A new landscaped flagpole, benches and plaque dedicated to Sharon's 10 fallen World War II soldiers is the Sharon High junior's way of "giving something back to the fields," he says.

It's Fitzgerald's Eagle Scout project.

"I have a pretty strong attachment, having played here forever," says Fitzgerald, whose Sharon Boy Scout Troop 95 Eagle Court of Honor is in June.

"My little brothers come here, and they get to see the flagpole. I think it's wonderful."

The Sharon Soccer Association funded the plaque, which is dedicated to the 10 Sharon residents killed in action during World War II: Francis Cunningham, Edward Hare, Warren Hickey, James Keating, Harold O'Neil, John Penning, Nicholas Savino, Edward Stevenson, Horace Walter and Arthur White.

Fitzgerald said the project began in 2008, when soccer association Vice President Larry Goodman suggested the flagpole to him and his father.

"I found out after a little while that actually putting up the pole and putting up the benches really wasn't the hard part of the project," Fitzgerald says.

"The difficult part was talking to the Department of Public Works and the town of Sharon, making sure the zoning was correct."

Donations funded the project.

The soccer association funded the flagpole, which cost $1,200, Fitzgerald says.

"I'd walk into businesses, trying to get just about every business from Sharon to donate me a little money, anywhere from $1 to $10," he says.

The gave $300, his largest donation, which "paid for a whole bench," he says.

The soccer association also suggested the memorial plaque, he says.

Members of four of the 10 soldiers' families -- the Savinos, the Keatings, the Stevensons and the Cunninghams -- as well as the and the attended a flag ceremony last summer, Fitzgerald says.

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) donated a flag that had flown over the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Fitzgerald says.

Fitzgerald has since taught Goodman how to raise the flag, and Goodman has taught Sharon youth soccer coaches.

"It's put a patriotic element into the whole field," Fitzgerald says.