Friday, November 13, 2009

Georgia HS Football Coach Fights ALS


Those of us at OSG HQ have followed this story for a while this football season, but we figured with the playoffs starting tonight- we'd tell this one again.

It's worth it...

Jeremy Williams ((pictured, thanks Curtis Compton/AJC)) is the head coach at Greenville High School. Greenville is about an hour southwest of Atlanta and it's one of those small southern towns that may or may not have a stop light that you pass through on your way to somewhere.

Just not to Greenville...

Three years ago, Williams starting having pain in his thumb after breaking up a skirmish at practice. The pain never went away. He was initially diagnosed with Multifocal Motor Neuropathy and underwent a year's worth of chemotherapy.

Didn't help...

A trip to Johns Hopkins, later confirmed by physicians at Emory Hospital, gave a different diagnosis- ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease...

Williams has refused to let it stop him coaching for Greenville this year. The team ran through the regular season undefeated and starts the playoffs tonight.

Understandably, the kids on the team want to win a title for their coach and "second father."

They're five wins away...
Here's FOSG Buck Lanford's piece on Williams and Greenville...
((HT: WAGA-TV/MyFoxAtlanta))


Michael Carvell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is following the team this post-season. His first story is here...

Lisa Weiss' story from the "Prep Sports+" program on Georgia Public Broadcasting is here...

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