‘Live Like Caden’: Family shares message after NC teen football player’s death

Three rows of well-wishers and mourners stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the quarter-mile track at Northwest Guilford High School's Billings Stadium in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The North Carolina community had gathered to celebrate the life of Caden Sorrell, 13, who died on Sunday, Aug. 30, after suffering a cardiac arrest at his middle school football practice on Friday, Aug. 28.

Northwest Middle School principal CeCe Matson announced the death of a student — later identified by family as Caden — in a post on Facebook on Aug. 30.

“Today, our Northwest Middle School family is grieving the loss of one of our students," Matson wrote. "There are no easy words to make sense of losing a child, and our hearts are with the family, friends, classmates, and all who loved him."

The family estimates that about 500 people from the community, including his family and teammates, were in attendance at Wednesday's celebration of life.

"I knew he touched people, but I didn't know it was to that extent," Caden's mother, Laura Sorrell, told USA TODAY Sports.

The outpouring of support, which includes a GoFundMe that has raised more than $48,000 as of Thursday afternoon, goes to show how…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/