The Red Raiders are more than a baseball team. Starting at young ages, Ziegler impresses the meaning of family on everyone in the Coatesville program. If one member of the Red Raider family is in need, everyone feels the pain.

The Red Raider family is hurting now. On Oct. 12, Brandon McCool, 17, a second baseman for the Red Raiders, lost a tough fight with cancer. McCool died at his grandmother's house. He would have turned 18 Monday.

McCool, like many other Red Raider players, had glowing baseball statistics. The slender second baseman batted .477 with 21 hits and a slugging percentage of .591 for the 1999 Red Raiders.

But, more importantly, what Ziegler and other members of the Coatesville family will remember about McCool is his humanity and the dogged determination he put into all areas of his short life.

"Brandon was a special kid," Ziegler said a few days after McCool's death. "You live to coach kids like Brandon. He did anything we asked him to do. He would stay late and ask to get more hitting practice all the time."

McCool's love for baseball goes back a long way. His father, William McCool, said it goes all the way back to when his boy was two years old.

"Brandon lived for baseball," William said. "When Kim's (Brandon's mother) father was in the hospital battling cancer, we used to visit him. My mom would watch Brandon for us and she would pitch to him. It started there."

Kim McCool also tells of her son's love for the game.

"He absolutely lived for the sport," she says. "It kept him going."

Brandon was a special young man for many reasons. He was unique not only in his resolve not to let his illness consume him with self pity, but his innate goodness is not something readily seen in people.

Ziegler and assistant coach Chris Newton, who coached Brandon when he was 10 years old, both remember Brandon as someone who cared about other peoples' feelings before his own.

"Brandon never wanted us to take it easy on him," Newton said. "Even when he went for treatment. He was a great kid. I remember we went to Florida before the 1999 season. We had all these fields backed up to each other. Well, Brandon smoked this ball and came charging and puffing around third base for an inside the park home run.

"After he got to the dugout, he laughed and said, 'I was hoping coach Gill (assistant Rob) would hold me up. I was out of breath.'"

"He would come back from his chemotherapy treatments and just get going at practice," Ziegler recalled. "He got mad at me one day because I sent the guys home early."

Adversity is no stranger to the McCool household. Kim and William McCool's other son, Ryan, is wheelchair bound and mentally challenged. Ryan can neither walk or talk. The bond between Brandon and his brother is an exercise in character we all should emulate.

Ryan Doods, star first baseman for the West Chester East Vikings, grew up with Brandon in Coatesville. Dodds clearly remembers the warmth between the McCool boys.

"Brandon was a special guy," Dodds said. "I remember we went to a clinic and Brandon just stayed with Ryan and his wheelchair the whole day. He was with his brother all the time."

Dodds also remembers how easy it was to be a friend of Brandon's.

"Brandon was a real nice person," Dodds said. "Super nice. He was the type of kid if you did something dumb he would never laugh at you."

You might think the laughter would have stopped when Ziegler noticed something was wrong with Brandon a couple of years back.

"One day at practice, he looked real sluggish," Ziegler said. "He was not doing some of the things I knew he could do."

A tumor was found in Brandon's nose and treatment was started right away.

"He never felt sorry for himself," Kim McCool recalls as tears welled up in her eyes. "He never complained or wanted anybody to feel sorry for him."

No one had to let up for Brandon. A very tough out at the plate, McCool would do anything to get on base. Ziegler used to kid Brandon that he must have metal on his uniform and the ball was a magnet.

"I remember one game against Conestoga," William McCool said. "Brandon had three doubles in a row and the fourth time up he gets hit by a pitch. Brandon did not get mad. He just got up and went to first base."

The McCools are trying to raise money to provide lights for a baseball stadium in Brandon's honor. This is something the McCools are passionate about.

"I said to Brandon after he passed away, 'You always made me proud as a son,'" William McCool says. "Now it is our turn to make you proud. When those kids are playing under those lights I know Brandon will be smiling at them."

The death of Brandon McCool invoked a supreme outpouring of emotion among the Coatesville family. Brandon was buried in his uniform with the entire baseball team on hand. Four of his teammates were pallbearers. One of them, Rich Pugh, says it will not be easy without Brandon.

"He handled his illness like he handled everything else in his life, with a smile and very upbeat." Pugh recalls. "He had an incredible desire. You would see it at practice. He was a part of our team and family. We were like brothers, all the guys."

Even though Brandon was buried on a rainy, miserable day, the entire Coatesville baseball team went to Caln Park after services and ran the bases together one last time in Brandon's honor.

"The day Brandon was buried was the saddest day of my life," Ziegler said. "My baseball team turned into men that day."

The upcoming season will be dedicated to Brandon. No one will ever wear his number six. And the Red Raiders will raise a banner bearing his name at all home and away games. The loss of Brandon McCool has had a profound effect on many people.

His parents and brother for one. The McCools are remarkable people. It is not hard to see where Brandon got his immense character.

Ziegler, Newton, Gill and the entire Red Raider family have been rocked to the core. Ziegler has a saying about playing for Coatesville --"You don't put on the red and black to play. You put it on to win."

Brandon McCool knew how special it was to wear the red and black. He wore his uniform with the same pride and dignity he lived his life.

He touched everyone he came to know. And some who have only heard about him. Brandon McCool was a true Red Raider. He will be missed, but never forgotten.

- end of Daily Local News article

Posted July 2001

Brandon McCool was a member of the Comcast SportsNet Team.

Brandon's parents were invited, by Comcast SportsNet, to attend the 4th Annual Richie Ashburn Memorial Home Runs for Heart at the Vets Stadium to honor Brandon -- the year before Brandon joined the Comcast SportsNet Team. Please visit the Comcast SportsNet website (select "Community") to read how they have honored Brandon.

Personal Poem about Brandon McCool

About the "Brandon McCool Memorial Lighting Fund"