Ron Williams: Being A Coach On And Off The Playing Field
by Jeff Shapiro

Third grade football is the first year children get to experience full contact tackling. For parents and children alike the rough and tumble of tackle ball elicits fear for some and excitement for others.

Traditionally, most men can remember their “first real football coach” and how their first tackling drill went. This year Ron Williams became my son Isaac’s coach. Isaac unlike the rest of his teammates is diagnosed with atypical autism and attends Cherokee Bend Elementary. When Ron discovered that Isaac had a form of autism, he asked me many questions about Isaac’s capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. For those that have not met Ron, he looks the part of a college football player let alone youth football coach. While he looks like he could break any man in two, he has an inner warmth and calmness that contradicts his size.

I soon discovered that Ron had attended a seminar on autism so he could better understand my son and others with special needs. This is a characteristic that Andrea my wife and I found to be incredible to say the least.

Isaac did his best to perform on defense and special teams. Regardless of the competitive nature of each game, Ron headed up the defense and made sure that Isaac was able to experience the excitement of the game.

Recently, I organized a first ever fund raising campaign called Spartan Jam for Special Needs. This is a Mountain Brook city wide fund raiser designed to fund additional items and services not covered under the school budget for special education. When I set about to inform those on my email list about Spartan Jam for Special Needs and ask for donations, Ron and his wife Holly were quick to reply and offered a very generous donation of one thousand dollars in honor of Isaac.

People like Ron, and many others that have been so understanding to my son gives me confidence in the human spirit. Not only is Ron a coach of children, he is a coach among men, leading by example of what is the right thing to do. If you wonder if you should volunteer to be a part of Mountain Brook Athletics as a parent coach, you may never know how much impact you have on the community. What I can say is that as a parent, I will take all the help I can get from those in the community such as Ron that will have a positive influence on my son. Not everyone has the opportunity or the talent to be a coach, but everyone has a chance to make an impact on children. Please donate to Spartan Jam for Special Needs.