Metro Atlanta principal honored at softball game after saving coach’s life

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A principal in Gwinnett County hailed a hero after saving a coach's life. The North Gwinnett Lady Bulldogs honored him at a softball game, where he threw out the first pitch to that coach’s daughter.

Level Creek Elementary School Principal Daniel Skelton says he doesn’t really like the word hero, but what he did was pretty heroic. After he realized his friend was having a heart attack, he immediately began CPR and likely saved his life. Here at the softball game, he was honored by throwing out the first pitch.

Skelton was honored at Wednesday night’s game, weeks after he saved the life of softball Coach Matt Senn after they got back from a fishing trip on Labor Day. The coach went into cardiac arrest after they had just got back to his house.

"We started rescue breathing and chest compressions, we got him down on the floor," Skelton said.

The quick-thinking principal used his CPR training he got as an educator to keep him alive until the ambulance got there. 

"It took a while because he wasn’t out of the woods for a good bit after the paramedics came. All credit to them because they got him to the hospital, they got him to the doctor," Skelton said.

At Wednesday night’s Lady Bulldogs softball game against Mill Creek, Skelton had the honor of throwing out the first pitch.

Behind home plate, the daughter of the coach he saved, a former player on the team, now a University of Georgia student.

"The recognition is great, we’re just Matt’s OK," said Skelton.

Skelton credits Senn’s wife as well as his own for lending a hand until medics got there.

A tragedy averted thanks to Skelton’s CPR training. 

"I don’t use the word miracle lightly, but that was a miracle," said Skelton

Senn is understandably really shaken up by all of this, but he was very grateful for his quick-thinking actions.