November 13, 2009

Mike Forman
Special to TheOldCoach.com

Gordon Wood wasn't always right.

The legendary high school football coach knew how to win state championships, but marriage counseling was another matter.

Wood hired Vollie Williams as an assistant coach at Victoria High after he graduated from Southwest Texas State in 1958.

Wood took one look at Williams' wife, Sue, and predicted to his wife "that teenage wife of Vollie's is not going to ever make it as a coach's wife."

The Williams' marriage has lasted 53 years and has not only outlived Woods, it will also surpass Williams' coaching career.

Williams hasn't made an official announcement, which isn't his style, but he will retire from coaching when St. Joseph's playoff run comes to an end.

Williams has coached for five decades sans a brief furlough into private business. He enjoyed professional triumphs and endured personal tragedy, but through it all, Williams never lost perspective.

"The kids," Williams said. "It's all about them. It means so much in later life. It just blooms right through. There's not a day that goes by that I don't use some kind football or athletic experience to make a decision or in my thought process."

Williams coached at Victoria High until 1972 when he moved to Calhoun for two seasons.

He left Port Lavaca after his oldest son, Michael, died in a hunting accident, and became a head coach for the first and only time at Rockport-Fulton in 1977.

Williams joined St. Joseph coach John Mares in the combine business before returning to coaching at Victoria High in 1981. Williams became a member of the Memorial staff when the schools were consolidated in 2000.

"He's always done a great job of doing things that a lot of people don't want to do," said Cuero coach Mark Reeve, who had Williams on his staff when he was the head coach at Victoria High. "He's always a real good special teams coach. He did a great job with the punters and the kickers.

"He's a very, very hard worker. He's just one of those guys that puts everything that he has into the job. He's always been a great father figure for the kids. The parents love him. All the coaches love him. He's just a great, great person."

Mares lured Williams to St. Joseph when he left Memorial after the 2002 season for what was supposed to be a one-year stay.

"I came over here to help coach Mares and I was going to help one year because he had lost five coaches," Williams said. "This is my seventh year because we've got great kids over here. They've got a very special place in my heart."

Mares had no doubt Williams would be a perfect fit on his staff.

"He knows the secondary exceptionally well and he works real well with the kids," Mares said. "He can jump in within a bunch of kids and within 10 minutes they're going to love him and respect him."

Williams jokes that because he coaches the secondary and kickers he's "42 but looks 74."

But defensive back Hayden Vesely, who has played for Williams his entire career at St. Joseph and leads the area with nine interceptions this season argues it's the opposite.

"He's right there joking around with us," Vesely said. "He has a lot of energy every day and he's a lot of fun to be around."

Williams admits he isn't much fun to be around on game day and will be that way when the Flyers take on Houston Northland Christian in a TAPPS Division II bi-district playoff game Friday night at Patti Welder Stadium.

"The palms of my hands still sweat before games," Williams said. "I always tell these kids when they're kind of horsing around or something, 'I can't believe that ya'll aren't nervous. I'm nervous and I'm not even playing.' I've tried for 50 years to figure out if a team is ready to play before a kickoff and I have never done it."

Coaching has been Williams' passion, but he's hardly a one-dimensional person.

He was a national champion hurdler on Victoria College's national champion track team, and he played football and ran track at Southwest Texas State. Reeve will tell you Williams is an incredible handyman who can "fix anything," and he has become an artist or sorts.

Williams started drawing pictures of plants and animals for overhead projection slides in his biology class. Williams went on to draw the cover sheets for scouting reports that included a caricature of the opposing team's mascot.

Williams won't have any trouble staying busy. He currently takes care of the fields at the St. Joseph Athletic Complex and he'll have more time to spend with Sue, sons David and Mark, and their five grandchildren.

The hardest part of retirement for Williams will be going without the day-to-day interaction with the players.

"I like the camaraderie with the kids, working with the kickers on a one-on-one basis," Williams said. "Seeing the kids improve whatever skill they have. Seeing the excitement on their face whenever they're doing well and I guess their face when it doesn't look very good."