Tragedy strikes beloved youth football coach

Updated
Georgia Coach Paralyzed While Celebrating With Team
Georgia Coach Paralyzed While Celebrating With Team


"Coach Magwood was a great coach. If we mess up, he'd always help you and always pick you back up."

A celebration took a tragic turn for a youth coach in Georgia.

Union City football coach Jonathan Magwood became paralyzed while jumping off a trampoline during a team end-of-season celebration.

A friend told WXIA, "Basically he jumped into a foam pit and landed incorrectly and broke two vertebrae in his back."

He's had surgery since the accident but remains in the hospital with a breathing tube.



"Everyone that you talk to they're still in shock, still in disbelief that something this tragic could happen to a fine young man."

His fiance told WSB-TV, "Hopefully with some rigorous rehabilitation, he will be able to move everything below his neck again. We're standing on God's faith for that."

Now families of his young players say it's their turn to help the man that's done so much for them.

A fundraising site was set up to help Magwood and his family with their medical expenses. And his friends are raising money to install ramps and other necessary equipment for long term care at his home.

Also on AOL:
Lawmakers rush to avert a gov't shutdown
Autopsy shows cause of college student's death
Northern Calif. braces for worst storm in 5 years
Obama on CIA report: 'That's not who we are'

Advertisement