SYCAMORE – Matthew Ranken always let his 5-year-old cousin, Gavin, play football in the yard when the other kids told him he was too little.

That memory was among the stories Ranken’s friends and family shared Thursday, the day after the 11-year-old fifth-grader at North Elementary School in Sycamore died from injuries he suffered in a four-vehicle crash in Kane County. They also remembered him coming home from school to watch “SpongeBob SquarePants” on one TV while playing the “Call of Duty: Black Ops” video game on another.

“He was very sweet,” said his aunt, Tammy Dean.