West Virginia middle school football player dies from head injury at practice

A 13-year-old in West Virginia died over the weekend after suffering a head injury at a middle school football practice. 

Eighth grader Cohen Craddock, who played defensive line for Madison Middle School in Madison, suffered severe brain bleeding and swelling after making a tackle Friday. 

After the initial play, he got up but then collapsed after taking just a few steps. He was rushed to a hospital, and his father said his oxygen levels were low while they rode in the ambulance.

"You wish it was a bad dream you could wake up from," his father Ryan Craddock said.

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Craddock said he now plans to work toward getting other players soft-shell helmet covers known as Guardian Caps.

"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."

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Madison Middle School Principal Shann Elkins said the eighth grader "was a wonderful, polite, and smart young man who was an important part of our school family."

Craddock's death came the same weekend as a similar incident involving a high school quarterback in southern Alabama and is the latest in a recent string of football-related deaths of teenagers.

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Morgan Academy junior quarterback Caden Tellier died Saturday after suffering a head injury in the third quarter of his team's opening night win in Alabama.

Just nine days before that, 14-year-old New Brockton High School freshman Semaj Wilkins died Aug. 15 after collapsing during a practice in Alabama.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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