Florida high school football player dies after game, becoming the school year’s latest tragedy

By Amanda Musa, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 5:45 PM EDT, Sat September 7, 2024


Port St. Joe High School football player Chance Gainer turned 18 about three weeks before his death. Kolbie Jones Photography, LLC

(CNN) — A beloved Florida high school football player died after he collapsed during a game Friday night, school officials say, bringing the number of recent known deaths among high school athletes to seven.

Chance Gainer, a senior at Port St. Joe High School on Florida’s panhandle, was playing cornerback during an away game at Liberty County High School when he fell to the ground right before halftime, Gulf District Schools Superintendent Jim Norton told CNN on Saturday. … Cohen Craddock “loved going to church and was a big part of the youth group,” his father said.

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“He is an exceptional young man that you can make a hero out of,” Norton said. “I would call Chance a friend.” … Less than a month after celebrating his 18th birthday, Gainer was pronounced dead at an area hospital, Norton said, leaving his parents and siblings behind to contend with a future without him.

The National Federation of State High School Associations said last week that six high school student athletes died within the past month, four of them from heart issues and two from being hit, according to the Associated Press. Gainer’s death brings that number to seven. … Those deaths include at least three student football players in the US who have died since the start of the new school year, as CNN previously reported.

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