After coach suffers stroke, mother makes sure league has final game

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A mother in south Charlotte is making sure her adult son’s league completes the season after he had a stroke.

Melanie Baldwin witnessed her only son almost lose his life after suffering a stroke while he was coaching a youth football team over the weekend.

“If I wasn’t there, no one would have known that he was having a stroke,” Baldwin said.

Her son, James Johnson, founded the South Charlotte Rams Youth Football league about 10 years ago.

“It's just something that he just loves, football,” Baldwin said.

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Johnson has been nonverbal since the stroke and has limited movement, Baldwin said.

The swelling in his brain was so extensive, doctors also removed a part of his skull.

“If they didn’t remove part of his bone, he wouldn't be alive today,” Baldwin said.

She figured that Johnson’s livelihood is in her hands as he fights for his life.

Baldwin got on a conference call with the rest of the coaches in the league from Johnson’s room in the ICU at a hospital.

There is one more regular season game in the league and Baldwin said she will not cancel it.

“He doesn’t want to let the children down, so I'm helping him and they're helping us to keep that going,” Baldwin said.

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