Deas, who primarily played JV that season, had a smile on his face. He always did.
That’s why it’s so hard to digest the fact that he’s no longer with us.
Deas committed suicide two weeks ago. It came as a shock to everyone who knew him.
He’s the last person on the planet you’d expect to take his own life.
Always happy, always polite, always funny. That’s how I remember Deas. There was never a hint that something was wrong.
He transferred to Fleming Island over the winter – part of life in a military family – and seemed to be doing well if you look at the posts on his Twitter account.
He posted about his success in track and the hard work he was putting in over the offseason for football.
No one expected his life to end in the blink of an eye. Just like that, Deas is gone.
It’s a sad story on a lot of levels. He had just turned 16 in April. He had so much potential in athletics and was a good student, too. He even told one writer in the Fleming Island area that he’d be writing about him next season.
Every time I hear a story like this, I shake my head in disbelief. You wonder what it is inside a person that drives him or her to the point where suicide is the only answer. I know I did when one of my best friends committed suicide on Christmas night of our senior year.
Like Deas, there were no hints on the surface that something was wrong.
I wish we had the answer. If we had it, suicide would no longer be a problem in this country.
I hope the young people out there learn from this, that they realize there isn’t a problem in this world that is worth taking your own life over.
Ask for help. It’s not a weakness. It’s a strength and a sign of courage. There are resources to help you through whatever difficult time you feel trapped in with seemingly no end in sight.
If you are the friend of someone you know is dealing with a difficult time, someone who appears they may be on the brink of doing something as drastic as suicide, say something.
Tell your parents, tell the school. Just tell someone. Put the wheels in motion to get that person help.
No one is immune to mental health issues. We might think young athletes have their lives made, that there can’t be possibly anything wrong with them, but that just isn’t true. They face a lot of the same real-world problems non-athletes do.
We all fall sometimes. And sometimes we need a little help to get back up.
My hope is that Deas has found eternal peace. My wish is that you never have to read another story about a kid gone far too soon because suicide seemed to be the only option.
