Will Sandel plays football, has a summer job and can now say he saved a life.

The Sandel family was taking their annual vacation to Perdido Beach in Alabama with their friends the Webbers.

It was June 29, the sky was cloudy, the winds high and the waters were choppy.

Will, 17, was floating with a small raft in the water with his sister Ashley, 19, and his friend Evan Webber, 17.

The teenagers heard a young boy around the age of 10 yelling, Ashley said.

Ashley said she yelled out asking if the boy needed help, and before he could respond Will was swimming to help him.

Ashley said the group did not notice anyone else going to help the child.

“That’s what’s weird,” Will said.  “We weren’t really close to him, we were like 30 yards away.”

Will reached the child, and tried to pull him above the waves. The water was deep enough that he could not stand up and keep them both above water.

“The undertow was really, really, bad,” Will said. “I started taking deep breaths and holding myself under the water so I could carry him.”

Will said he tried walking underwater to land, but the current was too strong for him to make any progress.

Ashley and Evan began moving toward Will with the raft to help.

“All I saw was Will’s hands and that kid above water,” Evan said.

The pair made it to Will and helped put the child onto the raft.

Ashley said the child was in shock, and he just whispered “thank you” all the way to shore.

Will said he had gone through lifeguard training a month before his family went on this trip before becoming the lifeguard at the Stanton Hall pool. “He was yelling ‘help’ and no one else was doing anything,” Will said. “So it kicked in for me to go save him.”

When the group made it to shore, the child’s friends met him. Will said he did not see his parents.

The teenagers didn’t even learn the child’s name.

The whole incident was over in a few minutes. Adrian and Lisa Sandel, Will and Ashley’s parents, were there and did not understand what was happening until events were already in motion.

“You really don’t know if it’s real or not real,” Adrian said. “Kids yell all the time in the water.”

Adrian said Will was already swimming for the child before he could tell him to do it.

“I am beyond proud of all of them,” Lisa said.