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North Texan Returns to Coaching After Battling Multiple Sclerosis

Within a span of just a few years, North Texan Sam Harrell went from fighting for state football titles to fighting for his livelihood.

"It went really fast," he said. "From 2005 to 2010, I went from 'you can’t tell anything, but you have it' to 'now you can't even walk.'"

In 2004, Harrell’s Ennis High School Lions had grown into a powerhouse. Their spread attack was virtually unstoppable, powering them to 4A state championships in 2000, 2001 and 2004.

But in 2005, Harrell’s coaching future — and his life — drastically changed with a doctor’s visit when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a condition where the immune system attacks the central nervous system and disrupts communication between the brain and body.

"He said, 'You aren’t going to coach much longer.' It was a blow," he said. "The only people I knew had MS were in wheelchairs. I wasn’t showing any signs. It took about a year for it to start showing up."

The Diagnosis

It started with a limp. Then it progressed to the point where Harrell used a golf cart when coaching. By the third year, it was obvious something was wrong.

"We told the boys. I told assistant coaches," he said. "I knew I couldn’t do it anymore."

By 2010, MS had taken a toll on the 55-year-old Harrell. He was forced to retire from coaching. His son Graham, the highly-decorated former Texas Tech quarterback, said his father had trouble simply moving between his chair and bed.

"He had always been the patriarch of the family. Seeing him in that kind of shape, it took a toll on the family," Graham said. "They weren’t giving him any hope of improving."

Harrell and his family went to Green Bay to see Graham, who was with the Packers at the time. A woman with the team met him with a wheelchair in the parking lot and wheeled him into the stadium.

"It was not fun," he said. "There was no way I could walk through a stadium or parking lot."

But when Harrell went back to Green Bay to see Graham the next year, the same woman — whom Harrell calls "Green Bay Sherry" — was shocked when she saw him.

"I come walking in there, seeing that lady, she couldn’t believe it," he said. "She said, 'Last year we had to get in in a wheelchair and now you're walking everywhere.'"

Treatment

Between visits to Green Bay, Harrell's health and hope were quickly waning. He was reaching the point of desperation when a friend told him about a new stem cell procedure — that has not been approved by the FDA — for MS patients being performed in Panama.

"What do I have to lose?" he recalled thinking. "I was going to give it a shot."

Until he saw how much the procedure cost. Harrell knew he couldn't afford the treatment, but it turned out that he didn't have to.

"The people of Ennis were so great. The coaches too," he said. "They set up a fund for me."

Harrell went to the Stem Cell Institute in Panama, where doctors injected stem cells harvested from donated umbilical cords into his body. The treatment is designed to prevent further damage to neurons and even repair them.

Harrell underwent the procedure twice and saw no improvement.

"It’s not a guarantee to work," he said. "A lot of people don’t get better. They’re open about it -- [a] 60 percent chance of working."

The third time turned out to be the charm. Or as Harrell said, "A blessing from God."

First he could lift his leg. Then he could keep himself from falling. Then he could walk to the mailbox.

"Now I can do what I love," he thought.

Returning to Football

Now, Harrell walks without a limp. He also jumps rope, runs stairs and even went back to "work."

Harrell returns as the offensive coordinator at Fort Worth Christian School. In 2015, he helped lead the Cardinals to their first state championship in more than 20 years.

"That was really a fun night," Harrell said. "I was just so thankful. To be in that moment was truly unbelievable."

He's back to feeling healthy and, just as importantly, happy.

"I hear people say, 'Retire and do what you love.' I say that’s what I’m doing," he said. "I love football. I’ll probably die on this field or some other field, and I’ll have a big smile on my face when I do."

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