Bob Jones Star Athlete Caden Rose Recovering After Serious Injury

MADISON- Caden Rose just completed his dinner and soon sat back and began to ponder his future as a student-athlete at Bob Jones High. The 17-year old junior is at home resting after a trying two weeks of injuries and an illness that have ended his 2019 baseball season for the No. 1 ranked Patriots.

The Alabama commitment and one of the leaders of the Patriots at shortstop and pitcher saw his season come to a close after spending the recent weekend in ICU at Huntsville Hospital after he suffered a one-inch laceration of his spleen during warmups for a game versus Grissom. Rose was struck by a ball on his left side while throwing batting practice, picked up the ball and kept pitching and later that day while in the dugout became ill. No one thought anything was serious. Rose even went through a workout after the game before he headed home where he had dinner thinking he needed something to eat. Soon afterwards he felt worse and was rushed to the emergency room where tests indicated he had a lacerated spleen and some internal bleeding.

For his family, including his father Kevin Rose, the head football coach at Bob Jones where the younger Rose is the starting quarterback for the Patriots, seeing the robust athlete fighting to stay alive and have a future in athletics was almost more than the family could take emotionally.

“That day we were helping him prepare for his junior/senior prom scheduled for that night then all of sudden we were looking at possible surgery and that was really scary,” said Kevin Rose. “We thought his condition may be something not very serious then we had a trauma surgeon talk about a blood transfusion and possible removal of Caden’s spleen.”

The recent trials and tribulations for the elite two-sport athlete began two weeks ago when he came down with mononucleosis, which include symptoms of an enlarged spleen. He was also treated for an injury in which he needed stiches in his throwing hand that was scheduled to sideline the All-State player for at least a week.

“I had taken my antibiotics that morning without eating and I thought my stomach hurt from that, but it got worse and my stomach began to cramp as the day went on,” said Rose while recuperating at home. “We first went to a walk-in clinic and received fluids, but then went to Madison Hospital and got a CAT scan completed.”

“He’s the toughest kid I’ve ever coached as he played through pain many times,” said Jared Smith head coach of the Bob Jones baseball team. “This is a big loss for us and you can’t replace someone like Caden by just one player. We’ll move up our lineup to try and adjust. Our players hope to regroup and continuing playing just like Caden has for us all-season long.”

Through his playing time this season, Rose was the best offensive player for the Patriots hitting. 433 with 18 doubles, three triples, seven homeruns and 31 RBIs. He was near perfect in the field at shortstop and was 3-0 with four saves on the mound while sporting a 0.89 ERA.

“I had well-wishes coming in from all over the place and the support was crazy,” said Rose. “The coaches at Alabama called to check on me. The experience at the hospital was great as the people there were all first-class. I was in the best situation I could have been in.”

“He soon began to improve a day after arriving at the hospital as they found the bleeding had stopped,” said Kevin Rose. “Our least concern was his playing athletics. He handled the situation well. We received prayers from all across Alabama and we’re thankful he’s home and safe. If it was God’s plan for him not to play the remainder of the season I’m good with it.”

Upon his return to the program, the ever positive Rose will become an un-official assistant coach for Smith. “He should be back for summer baseball and fall football,” added Smith. “He’ll certainly bounce back.”

“It will be a tough two months for me not to be playing, but I will be out there helping my teammates however I can,” said the ever-positive Rose. “The worst part due to me not having any type of full contact is the fact I won’t be able to be on the dog-pile when we win the state championship.”