An eighth grader in West Virginia died Saturday due to football practice injuries, just three days after the first day of school.
Cohen Craddock, a 13-year-old student at Madison Middle School, had sustained a head injury during practice with his team, the Redhawks, Friday and was transported to a hospital, where he tragically passed away the following day, the Boone County Ambulance Authority said.
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Ryan Craddock, Cohen’s father, told NBC News on Tuesday that his son collided with some other kids, fell and hit his head on his way down.
"That created brain swelling which started a snowball effect, which ultimately led to him passing away," Craddock said.
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Now Craddock wants to raise awareness about better safety protocol for young athletes and would like to have his son's teammates use Guardian Caps — which are billed as “impact reducing soft-shell helmet covers” that offer an extra layer of protection for the head.
“I think with the Guardian Cap it could have been a little bit of a different outcome,” Craddock said. “And I would like to at least protect any and all the other kids that I can, starting at the county level, if I can move it on to the state or national level, to push for these kids to start wearing Guardian Caps at least in practice or however far they want to take it.”
He said he’s been in contact with the founders of Guardian Caps and they’re willing to help.
“I’m just thinking if it saves one other family from the heartache that my family’s experiencing at the moment, it’ll all be worth it,” Craddock said. “I know Cohen would want this too. And he wouldn’t want me to wait or delay this.”
Craddock remembered his son as “Mr. Personality,” with a “heart of gold” who was loved by everyone around him and loved going to church.
“He was very, very smart, he excelled at math, loved technology stuff, very smart with electronics and computers,” the father said, noting Cohen had hopes of becoming a computer engineer.
“As a father, I couldn’t have been more proud,” he added.
Boone County Superintendent Matthew Riggs said in a statement to NBC affiliate WSAZ of Huntington: “As a Redhawk, Cohen was loved by his classmates, his teachers, his administrators, and the entire Madison Middle School staff.”
“Cohen was also a member and leader of the Redhawks’ Football Team... Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cohen’s family, friends, teammates, classmates, and the entire MMS staff. As our thoughts and prayers go out to Cohen’s family, we would ask that same from the community in that his family may find healing, comfort, protection and strength.”
Cohen's passing is a loss felt across the entire community, with nearby counties sharing social media statements of condolences.
Shann Elkins, the principal of Madison Middle School, which serves 450 students from grades 6 through 8, in a statement thanked the public for the “outpouring of love, support, kindness and caring that has been expressed from so many across the state, region, and nation.”
“It has been overwhelming and comforting in this time of heartbreak. We would like everyone to know that Cohen was a wonderful, polite, and smart young man who was an important part of our school family,” Elkins added.
The Boone County Sheriff said in a statement Saturday: “Today we’re all Madison Middle School Redhawks and our hearts are heavy with the unimaginable loss of a bright young athlete in our community.
Craddock called the support his family has received “mind-blowing.”
“I was unaware he had actually touched as many people as he had. Just his presence, just the way he conducted himself, his personality. It just made everybody happy,” he said. “It’s very humbling that my 13-year-old kid has got the acknowledgement that he has.”
Cohen’s death is the latest tragedy to strike a young student athlete.
In Alabama, high school quarterback Caden Tellier, 16, died after he was tackled and hit his head during a football game Friday. In that case, the state medical examiner will rule on cause of death, but Dallas County Coroner William Dailey said the preliminary finding is that internal bleeding in the brain, caused by that fall, led to Tellier’s passing.
This month alone there’s been a slew of other football-related fatalities.
In Virginia, Jayvion Taylor collapsed during football practice on Aug. 5, at Hopewell High School, about 24 miles south of downtown Richmond before dying, authorities said. Meanwhile in Missouri, sophomore Ovet Gomez-Regalado died on Aug. 16 during a preseason workout at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, which is about 12 miles southwest of downtown Kansas City.
— David K. Li contributed.
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