Shooting star: the passing of 18-year-old Redondo Union student and basketball player Ryse Williams  leaves the Sea Hawk community in shock

Redondo Union #0 Ryse Williams

Redondo Union #0, Ryse Williams. Photo

Shooting star

Thursday June 22 was a long-awaited day of pride and joy for many high school basketball coaches as they watched young men they had coached get drafted into the NBA. Congratulations flowed on social media like confetti raining down on a parade.

But for Redondo basketball coach Vic Martin June 22 was a day of heartbreak and grief that spread on social media like a raging brushfire in the High Sierras.

He had to tell his team that their undisputed star, their natural leader, their captain — Ryse Williams — had died that morning from renal medullary carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that had been diagnosed less than a week earlier. There was an hour long break between finals, so he gathered the team in their locker room at Sea Hawk Pavillion —  the place the kids had experienced so much together, from the triumphs of Bay League titles to heartbreaking losses. The locker room was like the team’s family room.

It was Martin’s last assignment as the departing head coach of the Redondo boys basketball team.

And it was the last thing in the world that he wanted to do.

But as painful as it was, he did it.

The reaction was just as he feared and expected.

“The kids were devastated, heartbroken and confused,” Martin told the Easy Reader. “It all happened so fast. Ryse was scrimmaging with them less than two weeks ago.”

Quinn Collins, the Sea Hawks 6-foot-9 starting center this past season, had visited Williams at the hospital a few days earlier and thought he was suffering from a cold or the flu or some kind of respiratory problem. He said the atmosphere in the team’s locker room turned somber even before Martin could bring himself to break the news.

“Just by the way Coach Martin was talking, how he was leading up to it, I could just tell Ryse had passed away,” Collins said. “I kinda knew he was about to tell us something awful.”

And once Martin did break the awful news, he said, the scene in the locker room was the most emotional one he had ever seen, far more emotional than any that had ever followed a thrilling win or a last-second loss.          

“Everyone was just shocked and devastated. One of the kids went outside the locker room crying his eyes out and fell to the ground,” Collins said. “I followed him out and had to hold him up and tell him it was going to be all right.”

Fortunately, the school administration had provided plenty of adult resources to help the students cope: Martin’s assistant Roy Walker was there, a senior guidance counselor was there, the school principal Jens Brandt was there, Athletic Director Andy Saltsman was there, and the new coach Ali Parvaz, who was named to succeed Martin two weeks ago, was there with some of his staff.

The stunning news quickly spread throughout the huge high school at the corner of Diamond and PCH and soon rippled out into the Redondo community and then to the basketball world at large. By Thursday afternoon there was a short story on the USA Today website and by Thursday night the local TV news was covering a vigil in Carson, where Williams lived with his parents. Elijah Nesbit, Williams’ teammate for three years and a close friend, was so distraught that Channel 4 ran footage of him crying a river of tears as he remembered his fallen teammate.

And Friday afternoon there was a small ceremony honoring Williams after the high school graduation. There was even a Williams basketball jersey with his number zero spread out on an empty chair in the front row so he would be represented at the graduation of more than 600 of his fellow seniors.

That’s the kind of teammate he was: never to be forgotten.

                                                 

“The best teammate I ever had”

This was the year everything Williams had worked so hard for started falling into place.         

Redondo won its fifth straight Bay League title.  Williams was named the Bay League Most Valuable Player. And he accepted a scholarship to play at Division 1 Loyola Marymount, where he had planned to join his long-time mentor, former Redondo Coach Reggie Morris, who was working there as an assistant coach until he recently resigned and took the head coaching job at Culver City High School.

This year’s Bay League title meant more than any of the others because the Redondo team had only one star player – Williams — and an interim coach in Martin, who had moved up from an assistant coach while Morris took a one-year leave of absence to see if he would enjoy being an assistant at the college level. By contrast, during the past four years the Hawks had five star players. Four of those players – uber-athlete Leland Green, floor general Elijah Nesbit, knock-down shooter Morgan Means and glue guy Cameron High – graduated a year ago and went on to play college ball. That left Williams all alone to carry on Redondo’s half-decade of hoops dominance.

“They all told Ryse OK, you gotta lead these guys the right way,” Martin recalled. “And he took it to heart. He was a great leader, always encouraging his teammates.”

Indeed, Collins, a first-time starter this year whose main job was to rebound, block shots and protect the rim, said Williams went out of his way to help and guide him. He was especially grateful because he was the only white player among Redondo’s top seven players, a situation that could have been awkward if Williams hadn’t been so pro-active about making sure Collins was accepted and valued.

“Ryse helped me through some difficult times in practice and in games,” Collins said. “He would give me scouting reports on guys I had to guard, what they can do and what they can’t do. He knew everybody because he played so much and for so long. He was like a big brother to me.”

And when Collins got too far out of his lane Williams helped gently guide him back into it.

“I remember once I took a 3-pointer and missed it. Ryse took me aside and told me I was trying to do too much, to just settle down and I’d be fine,” Collins said. “What I remember most was the way he did it quietly, so no one noticed, just encouraging me and reminding me to do my job on the court. He was the best teammate I ever had.”

Late last February Redondo upset a much taller and higher ranked Santa Margarita team to advance in the CIF southern Section playoffs. Williams, as usual, led the Sea Hawks with 27 points, almost all of it on his long-range bombing. Williams, as usual, was also the first player the media scrum asked to talk to after the game. He eventually came out of the locker room to answer a few questions, but quickly pivoted and said the media should instead talk to Zekiah Lovett, a substitute who had come off the bench to make the key play late in the game when he stole the ball and flew in for a ferocious dunk that stopped a late-game Santa Margarita rally in its tracks.

“Don’t talk to me tonight, talk to Zeke,” Williams said. “He was the man tonight. He saved us.”

So Lovett was summoned and talked to the media for the first and only time all season.

That’s the kind of teammate Williams was.

Photos . Click on arrow for full screen gallery. 

Five baller brothers

While the 6-foot-3 Williams was a star on the court, his friends and teammates recalled him as even more of a star off the court: a sharp dresser who emulated the funky/high-fashion style of NBA star Russell Westbrook, a great dancer who led the team huddle in pre-game dances to get them revved up and ready, and a jokester with a crazy, infectious sense of humor.

“He invented this dance called the Little Stacy, and he always broke it out just before the game started,” Nesbit said. “He was serious about the game of basketball but he also made sure we had a lot of fun too.”

Playing all those games together while winning so many Bay League titles and going deep into the playoffs every year created a close-knit bond between Williams and the four seniors who graduated last year.

“The five of us were like a family with him,” Nesbit said. “Ryse was my best friend.”

On days off the five of them would go to the mall, go somewhere for a bite to eat, and even go to places like Six Flags to make a fun day of it.

“We went on every ride they had,” Means recalled. “Ryse was the nicest, coolest dude. It’s unbelievable to think that he’s suddenly gone and I’ll never see him again.”

Green said Williams did more than make up dance moves to amuse his friends and teammates.

“He invented a secret language that cracked everybody up,” Green recalled. “It was just one more thing that helped us all bond, because we were the only ones that understood it. He had a huge Kool-Aid smile that stretched from cheek to cheek. I’ll never forget his smile.”

Green, who plays ball at the University of Hawaii, said he is already planning a tribute to honor Williams next season.

“I was going to change my uniform number to 2, but now I’m going to have the number zero so I’ll think of my boy Ryse every time I put it on,” Green said. “He was my best friend, my brother.”

That’s the kind of teammate Williams was.

 Extremely rare, very aggressive, and presents in an advanced stage

There was a strange incident during Redondo’s playoff victory over Crossroads of Santa Monica this year that looks different, indeed more ominous, in retrospect. That team featured 6-foot-11 Shareef O’Neal, Shaquille’s kid, and there was a lot of hype going into the game. Midway through the second half Williams nailed a corner three-pointer to give Redondo a narrow lead, ran down the court ready to play his usual ferocious defense, and suddenly veered toward the Sea Hawk’s bench. He grabbed a trash can, vomited into it, and was quickly back on the court before most in the crowd even realized what had happened.

“I thought it was just from the pressure and the hype of playing Shaq’s kid,” Collins recalled. “I thought it was just typical Ryse, playing hard and not wanting any extra attention.”

But Martin said he thought about that incident when he learned that Williams had Renal Medullary Carcinoma, a cancer of the kidney which affects less than 150 people a year – usually black men – and doesn’t show any obvious symptoms until its late stages, when it is untreatable.

Almost immediately after the season ended in March, Martin said, Williams began to complain of breathing difficulties. For two months he said it was just a cold that he would soon shake. But after a scrimmage on Friday, June 9, the coaching staff insisted he see a doctor, who referred him to a local hospital for tests.

When the tests came back indicating Renal Medullary Carcinoma, he was transferred to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. But by then there was nothing the doctors could do. In fact, research shows that almost all victims die within three months of the diagnosis, and usually much sooner.

“It’s just fate, just terrible fate and terrible luck,” Martin said. “There was nothing we could do, nothing the doctors could do, nothing anybody could do. Ryse is with the Lord now.”

                                                 

The unthinkable

Karen Collins, Quinn’s mother, said her daughter knew Ciara Smith, the 13-year-old Redondo girl who was hit and killed by a bus on PCH in early May. For the second time in less than two months she finds herself trying to explain the mysteries of life and death to teenagers who typically consider themselves – and their friends — invincible and immortal.

“The unthinkable has happened yet again. This amazing kid is gone seven weeks after that poor girl was killed by a bus,” she said. “I can’t believe it. It’s like I’m walking through a fog. And the kids can’t believe it either.”

She said all she can do to help them is to call on the beliefs of her religious faith.

“I believe in an afterlife,” she said. “So I let them know that the spirit inside of them goes on forever, always living. Just because your life here ends doesn’t mean it’s over.”

And she said the kindness Williams showed her son will also live on.

“Ryse just made it so much easier for Quinn,” she said. “Culturally, Quinn was different from most of the kids on the team, but Ryse was just very kind to him. As a mother I could sense it. Even watching from the bleachers, watching the interactions, you can tell who’s being nice to your kid.”

That’s the kind of teammate – and friend – that Ryse Williams was.

Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com, follow @paulteetor.

 

Ryse Williams with his girlfriend, Elena Hernandez, who has launched a fundraising campaign benefiting the rare form of cancer that claimed his life. Photo via GoFundMe

 

Ryse’s cause

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up by Ryse William’s girlfriend, Elena Hernandez, to help bring awareness to the rare form of cancer, Medullary Renal Carcinoma, that claimed his life. “I want to raise money to give to the Williams family to donate to research in memory of Ryse. He was the most loving , outgoing , sweet, athletic, humble, smartest guy I ever met,” Hernandez wrote on GoFundMe. “He was diagnosed with this cancer only about a week ago. Most individuals with this type of cancer have the sickle cell trait. If an individual has sickle cell trait, it means that he or she carries or has inherited a single copy of the gene that causes sickle cell disease. It is not a disease. In general, people with sickle cell trait enjoy normal life spans with no medical problems related to sickle cell trait, but for Ryse that wasn’t the case. There are many different foundations and medical facilities conducting research on breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer etc. but very little on kidney cancer and specifically renal medullary carcinoma. It is our hope and desire that individuals with the sickle cell trait will become aware of the potential risk of this cancer and begin to demand more extensive testing [and to] also bring more awareness to this cancer because it is aggressive and deadly to many young people, who haven’t even begun to start their lives. No one should ever have to suffer and go through this.” Go to GoFundMe.com and search Medullary Renal Carcinoma to find more information.

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