SELMA, Ala. (AP) – An Alabama high school football player, who died after being critically injured during a game, was remembered at a Monday memorial service as a caring and talented athlete who accomplished much in his 16 years.
Morgan Academy quarterback Caden Tellier died Saturday after being injured during the school’s Friday night game against Southern Academy in Selma. Tellier, a 16-year-old junior, suffered a brain injury, according to a statement from the Alabama Independent School Association.
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Students, parents and teachers, wearing school colors of maroon and gold, gathered at a memorial and prayer service held in the gym of the small private school. Members of his family sat in the first row of the memorial service.
“There has been an outpouring of love that we have received from everyone in this room, people across the country,” Jamie Tellier, the teen’s father, told the community that gathered in the gym.
“I could tell you a lot about who my son was, who my son is,” said Tellier. “My son was an exceptional athlete. But the thing he loved the most was to talk about Jesus.”
He told the school’s football players that he would still be around because, “Caden is not going to want me to stop doing things.”
“Caden was only here for 16 years. But my son accomplished so much. He accomplished so much. He loved,” said Tellier, though tears.
The second oldest of nine cousins, Tellier would always go out of his way to play with the youngest in the group, even when his peers were around, his grandmother, whom he called Mimi, said. Before he died, Caden was teaching his 4-year-old cousin how to throw a baseball, she said.
“We could call him and say, ‘Can you come help us’ and he was there,” his grandmother, Dale Dobbs, said. He would never accept money or allowance for the work he did for the family, she added.
Outside the school, flowers, balloons with his 17 jersey number, and notes were placed in the student parking lot in remembrance of Tellier. “Miss U Buddy,” was scrawled in chalk next to a heart.
Tackle football, at the professional, school and youth league level, can cause injuries that damage the brain, leaving parents and families to balance the risks against the opportunities and benefits.
Tellier’s parents indicated in a social media post that announced their son’s death that he would save lives through organ donation. Morgan Academy Headmaster Bryan Oliver confirmed to al.com that Tellier was an organ donor.
“Everyone who knows Caden has known kindness, generosity and love, and true to his nature, he is giving of himself one more time. Lives have been touched by the way he lived and now lives will be saved through his passing,” his parents wrote in a social media post that announced his death.
The school is canceling all sports activities for the coming week, including this Friday’s scheduled football game at Wilcox Academy.
“The story is not about an injury on the field, the story is that we loved Caden, and he loved the lord,” Oliver said.