Diagnosed with MS, he had to relearn to walk
But Southland student is now running again, and spent senior year crossing finish lines
On Sept. 4 just as his senior year was beginning, Deontae Farrow finished 111th out of 111 high school cross country runners at the 49th Rich Dust Invitational.
All of the other runners left Farrow in their dust at the Dust.
But the Richton Park resident couldn’t have been happier.
His time of 31 minutes, 58.6 seconds was more than double that of race winner Marcellus Mines, from Joliet West High School.
Nonetheless, Farrow was thrilled. He was more than three minutes behind 110th-place finisher Leon DuBose, his teammate at Southland College Prep.
Between tears, Farrow was beaming with pride.
On that day at North Creek Meadow in Lansing, many people were celebrating Mines’ victory and Stagg’s team triumph, but a small group of people were ecstatic with Farrow’s finish.
During his freshman year, Farrow was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had to learn to walk again. His goal of running a meet was fulfilled that day, and he was emotional.
“I crossed that finish line bawling my eyes out,” Farrow said. “Just knowing that I was able to finish it meant that nothing could stop me any longer.”
Farrow is one of 115 members of Southland’s 2022 graduating class heading to college. He chose the University of Illinois to study psychology and estimates he picked up $1 million worth of scholarship offer money as the class set a record in earning more than $62 million in offers. All 115 seniors at the school are going to college.
It seems like a long time ago that Farrow was alarming people in the Richton Park school by passing out in the hallway. It seems like forever since he had to go into hospitals for weeks at a time. It seems like ancient history since his grades started slipping because of the effects of MS.
And it seems like a lifetime ago when he said he couldn’t walk two steps without falling.
His MS, plus the coronavirus pandemic forcing students to stay home and learn,
made for a rough stretch.
He wanted badly to go back to school. As a student, athlete and member of the choir, he said staying home was “a torturous time.”
Robert Lane, Southland Prep’s director of College Admissions, said there is a school tradition is for juniors and seniors to meet before school to discuss the issues of the day. Farrow did not want to see that tradition end and Lane said Farrow led the group remotely.
“He was at home in full uniform — a shirt, tie, blazer, pants, belt and shoes,” Lane said. “At 7:45 a.m. every single day he was in full uniform saying ‘Good morning juniors, how are you all
doing?’
“The rest of the kids were rolling around in bed and you saw a lot of ceiling fans. Teachers were wiping sleep out of their eyes. And Deontae is clean, brother, and leading his junior class. I don’t know of anyone in his class who has overcome and persevered and just become as glowingly successful over the last four years in so many layers and ways.”
After Farrow’s triumphant last-place finish at the Dust meet, Lane basked in Farrow’s accomplishment, but he originally had doubts.
“The moment we were back in school and in some way, shape or form of athletics, we didn’t expect to see him,” Lane said. “And there he was. When I saw him doing cross country again, I couldn’t believe it. He
pushed through and he ran he said he wanted to be there for his team.”
Hospitalization, rehab and medication helped get him walking again. As for running? That took some time but eventually was prepared to take on the 3-mile course in Lansing.
“Muscle memory kicked in,” Farrow said. “My body knew what to do and how to do it. I knew how to control my breathing. I just stayed on my pace. At that point, it didn’t matter if I passed someone, or someone passed me. I was just focused on the goal. The closer I got to it, that’s when I started tearing.
“I knew I was almost done, and my legs didn’t give out on me. I started breaking down because that was my biggest accomplishment of
the year. That’s all I wanted to do after basically learning how to walk again. That was really big for me.”
Farrow is philosophical about his ordeal.
“I was never mad that I got MS,” he said. “I’m really a go-with-the-flow type of guy, so when I had it I was like, ‘all right, I just have to take it day by day until we get the answers that we need.
“Yeah, there were certain times when I didn’t feel like talking to anyone because I just felt really irritated. But I always see something as a learning experience and to grow from it. That built my patience, my mental strain and it showed me how strong I was.”
While he can smile and joke about things now, he knows he was stubborn at some point during the
recovery. He thanks family, including his mother, Denise Davis, and friends for his comeback to the classroom and on the athletic fields.
He also remembers family members insisting that he use his walker.
Farrow said doctors said the worst-case scenario was that he would never walk normally again. They insisted he use the walker. His family insisted he use the walker.
Farrow didn’t care for using the walker.
“I didn’t like that at all,” he said. “Any chance when someone wasn’t looking at me, I was not using that walker even though I knew I was supposed to. That’s the stubborn part of me. I was wanted to do everything as I did previously. I complied, but it was just rubbing on my brain.”
He said that he tried to mentor many of the freshmen on the cross country and track teams pointing out to them that if he could get through something like this that they can reach their potential as well.
He said he hopes to someday be able to go to a state track or cross country meet and see Southland athletes competing as a team.
“Once I leave this school, I want the next set of students to be better than I was,” Farrow said. “Hopefully they can make it down state, and I could come back and visit and they would be excited to make it to state. That would be so wonderful.”