Ny’Ques’ biggest fan making sure his memory lives
When he was a little guy, Ny’Ques Farlow-Davis enjoyed watching New Orleans Saints and LSU football with his grandfather, Kyle, whom he called dad.
One day, Ny’Ques told Kyle he wanted to play football at LSU, where Kyle had attended college. Ny’Ques wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“He would say to me, ‘Dad, I want to go to LSU’ and I would say to him, ‘Man, you can go anywhere you want,’” Kyle Davis recently said in a phone conversation with the Daily Times.
“He was the man, he was ‘that guy.’ Whether it was football or basketball, he had it all.”
Ny’Ques Farlow-Davis was gunned down in Chester last month. He was 13. Chester police arrested four adults in connection with the case earlier this month.
Born and raised in Chester, Ny’Ques was raised under the loving care of grandparents Kyle and Rosalyn. Ny’Ques spent his seventh-grade year at Chester Charter Scholars Academy. He played football for the Chester Panthers and honed his basketball skills in the Chester Biddy League, where he won MVP awards on several occasions.
The next stop for Ny’Ques would have been Chester High School next year. Kyle said that his son would’ve attended STEM Academy, a specialty school within the Chester-Upland School District that is designed to prepare students for careers in the sciences and engineering.
“He was 6-years-old when he put on his first football uniform, and just joking with him I said to him, ‘Bruh, I’m going to make you famous,’” Kyle Davis said. “I asked him about it maybe six months ago to see if he remembered. I said to him, ‘Do you remember what I told you on those steps?’ and he said to me, ‘Dad, you told me you were going to make me famous.’ I said, ‘Well, this is it. This is what I’ve been grooming you mentally for your whole life, ever since you were little, because you’ve been that guy the whole time.’
“He said to me, ‘Dad, but I look up to you.’ And I said, ‘Bruh, you look up to me and I love it. But I’ve been looking up to you since you were a baby.’
“He was a well-rounded kid. I’m not saying he was perfect, but he was a good kid, man. That was one thing I loved about him was that he relished in the moment of being a kid.”
Ny’Ques Farlow-Davis had the entire world in front of him. Those who watched him throw a football or make a nasty crossover move on the basketball court saw it, too.
He was a remarkable athlete with limitless potential.
“I’ve been telling people for years, just bragging about him, and people who knew him saw it right away. But I would say to them, wait until he gets a little older, a little stronger, because he was going to take off,” Davis said.
The pressure of being the best at every sport he played weighed heavily on Ny’Ques’ mind as he was growing up. Ever since he played organized sports, Ny’Ques received praise. Coaches and peers told him repeatedly how special a talent he was. Kids his age wanted to be like him.
“As good as he was, he lacked self-confidence, I would tell him, ‘You are that once-in-a-generation kid.’ He was too young to understand what comes with being ‘that guy’ ... and I knew it was troubling him,” Kyle Davis said. “I transferred him out of St. Aloysius and put him in Chester Charter (Scholars Academy) and I wanted to put him on a plan . ... He wanted to represent Chester High. He wanted to play for the High’s basketball and football teams. The way they work their programs, he was going to be a four-year starter in football and basketball. He was going to go to STEM.”
With the Delco Elite 7-on-7 organization, Ny’Ques competed in a tournament earlier this year in South Carolina. Kyle said that his son was nervous competing against kids of similar caliber from across the country, but he eventually settled in and gave an awesome performance.
“He threw two picks his first two passes. After that, he threw 13 touchdowns. He had everything, but he just had to wrap his mind around it. And I wanted him to understand that, and it took a while,” Kyle said. “I would talk to him about it all the time. Finally, he said, ‘Dad, I got what you’re saying. I’ve got to get my mentality to catch up with my body and I’ll be good.’ And all I would tell him is, ‘You’ve got to concentrate and focus more on what you need to do to become what you’re truly to become.’ And what he was going to become was greatness.”
In basketball, Ny’Ques terrified the opposition with his immense set of skills. Kids in his age group stood no chance defending him. In his final year in the Chester Biddy League, playing in the 13-and-under division, Ny’Ques averaged a ridiculous 30.7 points per game.
“That was nothing. It got to be so easy for him that it didn’t t even look fair,” Kyle said. “It was that way from the start. I sponsored the Biddy team (K.C. Electric). The feeling was, everyone wants to beat us and they would say, ‘Well, you got Ny’Ques.’ Well, you know, he ain’t by himself. He was two-time Mr. Biddy (most valuable player) but he had other great kids around him, too.”
Whether it was on the court or gridiron, Ny’Ques simply wanted to spread the love. His idea of greatness was to make the players around him better.
“He was a giving kid. If schools were coming to see him, that was good for him because in his mind then some of his friends might get to be seen, and then maybe they’d have a chance to go to college,” Davis said. “It was never all about him. He wanted others to do good, too.”
The Chester community will have several commemorations for Ny’Ques when school resumes in the fall. The Chester Panthers and Chester Biddy League will name MVP awards in his honor.
His memory will stay alive for a long time.
“We’re going to name a street at the park Ny’Ques Davis Way. There’s a couple of other things. I think the school has a resolution to put a statue up in his honor,” Kyle said.
“Even for a 13-year-old, he has a story that resonates and impacts so many people. It’s something that I can’t let go. I told him I was going to make him famous and I’m never going to stop. I’m going to do that because he deserves it.”