The death of a 19-year-old football player from New Jersey, who collapsed after just one practice at his Kansas college, was an act of God, his coach said a year after the tragic incident.

Braeden Bradforth, of Neptune, attended his first day of conditioning practice at Garden City Community College on Aug. 1, 2018, when the players were required to run 50-yard sprints 36 times, local outlet KCUR reported.

It was something of a “do-or-die” drill, one sports medicine expert told the station.

Bradforth was doing the exercises at a much higher altitude than he was used to in his hometown, according to the report.

His teammates found him slumped against an outside dorm wall after practice.

Jeff Sims, former head coach at the community college, who left after the 2018 season to take the head coaching job at Missouri Southern University in Joplin, discussed Bradforth’s death during a media gathering at the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in Kansas City.

“It’s unfortunate what happened, but God has a plan,” Sims said, according to the local outlet. “We’ve had two investigations, and everybody knows what happened that day. It didn’t happen at football practice; it happened after football practice.”

Since the death, the school has hired two more trainers as well as a conditioning coach, according to the report. It also conducted an internal investigation, and is paying $100,000 for an external investigation.

Multiple players had told KCUR and other outlets that Sims refused to allow players to drink during practice, but Sims echoed a determination from the internal investigation that there were “60 gallons of water available.” He would not say, however, when the players were allowed to drink it.

Greg McVey, who started as the community college’s athletic director in April, told the local station at a trustees meeting that the school would not work players so hard that they would be in danger.

“I can assure you, from my leadership, we will ensure that everybody we put on that field is sound enough to be out there,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bradforth’s mom, Joanne Atkins-Ingram, commemorated the tragic anniversary by gathering at the field where her son played as a boy — joined by friends and many of the kids Braeden played football with.

“I know that he’s given me the strength to do this,” she told the station. “I know he’s looking down saying, you know, ‘You can do this, you have to do this because nobody else should suffer. Not another parent or kid.’”