Deerfield-Windsor’s Jake McCrae hospitalized

ALBANY — Jake McCrae learned something over the weekend that probably isn’t covered in many coaching manuals.

“Apparently you’re not supposed to coach football games in the rain with viral meningitis,” the Deerfield-Windsor head football coach joked.

Especially when you’ve already been sick for 10 days.

McCrae is recovering at Crisp Regional Hospital after doctors discovered Saturday that what initially appeared to be a stubborn flu-like illness was actually viral meningitis.

By then, McCrae had coached through two football games without knowing what was wrong.

It started the Thursday before Deerfield-Windsor’s game against Valwood when McCrae suddenly began suffering from chills and other flu-like symptoms.

He went to the doctor and was tested for influenza and COVID-19. Both tests were negative.

Doctors treated his symptoms, and McCrae improved enough to make it through the next several days.

He wasn’t completely himself, but he wasn’t sick enough to stay home, either.

“I felt better, got me through the next few days feeling better, but not quite all there,” McCrae said.

For nearly a week, that was the pattern.

Then last Thursday, it changed.

McCrae left work with essentially the same symptoms he had experienced a week earlier. He was back at the doctor’s office at 8:30 Friday morning, received medication and felt well enough to coach Deerfield-Windsor’s game against First Presbyterian Day Friday night.

So he coached.

The Knights battled FPD in a defensive struggle before falling 13-0.

By Saturday morning, McCrae knew something wasn’t right.

He wasn’t the only one.

“My doctor and my boss, who is my wife, suggested we go to the ER,” McCrae said.

This time, there would be no returning to work or heading to another football game.

McCrae said his condition steadily worsened while he was in the emergency room. Doctors performed additional testing and finally found the cause of an illness that had been dogging him for more than a week.

Viral meningitis.

“This is basically me having a fever for 10 days and it being low enough at some point to make it feel like it was going away and then peaking at the time it did, which there was no coming back from,” McCrae said.

Meningitis is inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Viral meningitis is generally less severe than bacterial meningitis, and most people with normal immune systems recover completely, although fatigue and other symptoms can persist during recovery.

For McCrae, simply knowing what he was fighting finally allowed doctors to address his symptoms while allowing him to stop trying to push through them.

He credited the staff at Crisp Regional with quickly taking control of the situation.

McCrae posted an update from the hospital saying he felt “10 times better” after his first 24 hours and thanked the players, students, parents, family and friends who had reached out to him.

He also thanked his coaching staff, saying knowing the Knights were in good hands allowed him to focus on getting well.

“This is just another bump in the road and I’m gonna come out on the other side better than ever,” McCrae wrote.

There is no timetable yet for when Deerfield-Windsor’s head coach will be back on the sideline.

For now, after spending 10 days trying to coach his way through an illness nobody could quite identify, McCrae is finally doing something football coaches aren’t particularly good at doing.

Resting.

And, he says, getting better.

“The doctors here at Crisp Regional jumped on it very quickly,” McCrae said, “and I have been feeling better every minute since I put my head down on the pillow after my first night here.”