Updated August 28, 2024 at 18:13 PM ET
Cohen Craddock's family and loved ones are mourning the loss of the friendly eighth-grader who loved being on the football team at Madison Middle School in West Virginia, days after Cohen suffered a head injury during practice.
Cohen died over the weekend, in the latest tragedy involving a young football player. At least six other school athletes have died this month — at practices, games or after a practice.
"You're in disbelief," Cohen's father, Ryan Craddock, told local TV station WSAZ. "You wish it was a bad dream you could wake up from. It's agony inside. I can't put words to. It's terrible."
Cohen, 13, was playing defense during practice drills this past Friday when he took a bad hit involving another player and fell. The Coal Valley News reports that Cohen was wearing a helmet at the time — but his father says he wants players to have more protection.
Ryan Craddock is working with others to provide Guardian Caps to players. The padded headgear aims to add an extra, lightweight layer of cushioning protection when it's attached to football helmets. Craddock says his son died on Saturday, after experiencing brain bleeding and swelling.
"I want to take the loss of my boy to try to protect the other guys," Craddock told WSAZ. "I don't want anybody else to go through what we are going through currently."
Cohen is being mourned at his school in Madison, W.Va., and beyond, according to Boone County Superintendent of Schools Matt Riggs.
"As a Redhawk, Cohen was loved by his classmates, his teachers, his administrators, and the entire Madison Middle School staff," Riggs said in a statement to NPR. He asked the community to help the Craddock family "find healing, comfort, protection and strength."
News of Cohen’s death emerged in parallel with the loss of Caden Tellier, 16, who also suffered a severe head injury on Friday — while playing quarterback in the opening game for John T. Morgan Academy in Selma, Ala. Like Cohen, his death was announced the next day.
A tragic toll of young football players dying in August
Over and over, tragedies have hit families just as they were celebrating a new school year and the start of football season. While the two most recent examples involve head injuries — a known risk of traumatic injury — other cases involve suspected heatstroke, as players participated in practices in the high heat indexes of August.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reported 16 football-related deaths in all of last year, nine of them in middle and high school programs. Out of the 16 deaths, three were directly related to football participation, while 10 were indirectly related, according to NCCSIR.
In addition to Cohen and Caden, at least five other young football players have died this month:
Aug. 5: At Hopewell High School in central Virginia, 10th grader Javion Taylor, 15, collapsed during a drill session with the junior varsity team and died in an afternoon practice. Coaches performed CPR and called 911, but Taylor died at a nearby hospital. The high temperature that day was around 90 degrees.
Aug. 13: Semaj Wilkins, 14, died after having a medical emergency during a practice at New Brockton High School, near Enterprise, Ala. He collapsed during an afternoon practice on a day with a reported high of 96 degrees.
Aug. 13: Palatka High School football player Robert James Gillon III, 15, died at his home in Palatka, Fla., the morning after a practice. Local TV station News 4 Jax reports that police believe he apparently died of natural causes but that they also "earned that Gillon complained of chest pains on Monday, Aug. 12, before going to football practice. He still went to practice and returned home."
Aug. 14: Junior Leslie Noble, a 16-year-old lineman at Franklin High School near Baltimore, Md., collapsed on the field during practice and was later pronounced dead. A police dispatcher noted that the player had heatstroke.
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