Father of middle school football player who died speaks out

BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - The father of Cohen Craddock, the 13-year-old who died after suffering an injury during football practice last week, is hoping to take action that helps prevent other families from feeling this kind of loss.

“I can’t stress enough for the parents to hug their children,” Ryan Craddock, Cohen’s father, said.

Ryan says his son, an eighth-grader at Madison Middle School, had a heart of gold and liked to joke.

Student athlete dies after sustaining injury at football practice

He says Cohen had an outstanding personality and liked playing football as much for the camaraderie as for the game itself. This was his second year playing.

“He liked the social gathering part, just making buddies,” Ryan said.

The father says his understanding of what happened is while his son was playing defense during practice Friday, he was hit and knocked down and suffered an injury to the head that caused a brain bleed and brain swelling. He lost consciousness and was transported to a hospital, where he died Saturday. Ryan says lack of oxygen is ultimately what caused him to perish.

“You’re in disbelief,” the father said. “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.”

Ryan says he intends to work toward getting other players Guardian Caps, equipment that offers a further layer of protection for the head, not wanting any other parent to suffer the kind of heartache he and his family are experiencing.

“I want to take the loss of my boy to try to protect the other guys,” he said. “I don’t want anybody else to go through what we are going through currently.”