A sleepy Ethan Williams is looking for the button to his alarm clock. It’s not yet 1:25 a.m.

It’s too early to be awake. But Ethan Williams is up anyway.

He and his dad, Brock, have work to do.

The air outside Ruidoso, N.M., is still. Soon, dogs will be barking as Ethan frantically tries to awaken his dad.

He has no pulse.

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“I remember the time,” recants Williams, a Southside senior. “I remember everything about that day.”

Within half an hour, Brock Marshall Williams will be pronounced deceased. He was only 45.

There are ebbs and flows in everyone’s life. There are good days, bad days, and forgotten days.

Then there is Ethan Williams’ life.

Just weeks before losing his dad, Ethan had signed up to play football. Not unlike other kids, Ethan had this vision of his dad cheering from Rowland Stadium as he scored a touchdown.

Cannons are being fired; the band is playing.

“That’s the whole reason I started out playing football — I wanted to see my dad in the stands cheering me on,” Williams said. “Even though he’s not here, I’d still like to believe he’s up in Heaven watching me play football.”

Mr. Punctual

It’s 12:12 on a sunny Tuesday. Southside football coach Jeff Williams is nibbling on a sandwich and strolling over his roster. He looks up.

Jeff Williams knows the routine.

Strolling through the field house, senior defensive back Ethan Williams opens the door to the coaches office.

Jeff Williams knows what’s next.

“He’ll come in here at lunch and ask for his girdle every day at the same time,” Jeff Williams said. “I’ll say, ‘Ethan, you’ll have time before practice?’ He says, ‘I know coach, but I just want to be ready.’

“You can set your watch by it.”

The punctual Ethan Williams will don his No. 29 jersey again on Friday when the Mavericks visit Conway. As was the case last week, and the one before that, there’s little chance the Wampus Cats will spend time game-planning to stop No. 29.

That No. 8 dude, Mason Gregory? They’ll be talking about him.

Ethan Williams?

At 5-foot-8 and roughly 136 pounds, Williams does everything defensive backs coach Jacob Cox ask of him.

But playing on Friday? That may not happen.

And as far as Williams is concerned, that’s fine with him.

Ethan Williams is the ultimate team player.

“It means I get to get out there and cheer on everybody,” he said. “It means I get to get out there and cheer on guys I practice with every day. It fills me with joy to see them play.

“Even if I can’t play, I’m glad I can be there to root them on.”

“He brings a lot to it,” Cox said. “He’s here every day; he works hard from a scout team standpoint. Anything you ask him to do, he’s here early. Whatever we ask him to do he does, and that’s the thing I like about him.”

Teammates

Southside quarterback Taye Gatewood may eclipse the rare double-double this season, passing and running for 1,000 yards. He’s one of the best athletes in school.

Gatewood will get his name in print. He’ll be on television.

He is Ethan Williams’ teammate.

“It means and says we have guys that are willing to come in everyday to do whatever it takes for our team to be prepared and be successful on Friday nights,” Gatewood said.

Others feel the same way.

“I have played with Ethan for all three seasons, and I even played with him a little defense when I played defense,” senior Brenden Ulrich said. “He has always been a super hard worker and took the coaches criticism to the head. In the weight room he works so hard and has gotten bigger over the years.

“He’s a super genuine kid and is always nice to everyone.”

“I try to be nice to everybody, so I hope they think of me as a good friend,” Williams said. “It doesn’t just feel like I’m part of a team, it feels like I’m part of a family. “It’s more than just a biological family — it’s like we’re all brothers.”

Williams has no regrets about signing on to play football. In fact, the only thing he repentant about is not signing up to play football when he was younger.

“I wish I had stuck with it when I went to try out in the boys and girls club,” Williams said. “As for playing, I wasn’t doing anything else. I was like, ‘I might as well give it a shot.’ “When I was younger, I never really got outside; I had never done anything. I decided in middle school that I wanted to be part of something. I think it’s really one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.

“I’m glad I made the decision I made, I just wish I had made it sooner.”

“To me, that’s what high school football is all about,” Southside coach Jeff Williams said. “It’s about being part of a team, being part of a unit. He gives maximum effort at whatever he does. “He’s going to be very successful after football.”

New player

Two-and-a-half years ago, as Jeff Williams and his staff were meticulously mapping out plans for the 2015 football season, Ethan Williams swung through the door in the coaches office to inquire about playing football. This isn’t something out of the ordinary.

Players quit in junior high and come back in high school.

But this would-be defensive back didn’t have a resume. Ethan Williams hadn’t put on a pair of shoulder pads since he was six.

Williams said he asked Ethan if he’d consider becoming a manager.

Ethan Williams politely declined.

“I felt great where I was; I wanted to be part of a group,” Ethan Williams said. “It didn’t matter if I got to play or not, I just wanted to be happy.

“I didn’t feel like being a manager would do that for me.”

Like everyone else, Ethan Williams shows up for practices. He’s part of the football team.

“He’s a Southside Maverick through and through,” Jeff Williams said. “He’s a great role model for our football team, and he’s a great role model for Southside High School.”

‘He was gone’

In June of 2015, 2½ months before he’d play his first football game, Williams and his dad, Brock, had gone to Ruidoso to help a relative clean up their deck before painting it. There is little humidity in New Mexico, and even in late June, it’s not very hot as compared to Fort Smith.

But the Williams’ had planned to rise early. So Ethan set the alarm for 1:24 a.m.

“We were supposed to go and help clean a deck. I got up at 1:24 a.m.,” Williams said. “I went in there and shook his foot and he wouldn’t wake up. I let the dogs out, because with their barking, I figured that would wake him up. He still didn’t wake up, so I felt his arm and it felt cold. I tried to push on him, and when I saw his face, how it was stuck, that’s when it hit me.

“I knew he was gone.”

Brock Williams, a veteran who had served in Desert Storm, was gone.

Ethan Williams, who had just turned 15 the previous March, didn’t know what to do.

“At first it was really hard to think about,” he said. “Every day, all I could think about was my father. I’d see him standing in front of me sometimes. But as time went on, instead of focusing with my last moments with him, I decided to focus on how much fun we had before we passed away.”

“He’s been through a lot personally. He’s been through some tough situations and doesn’t make excuses,” Jeff Williams said. “He’s the type of guy you love to see when you’re out there practicing when they come to say hello to you.

“Down the road in 10 years, he’ll be that guy.”

Life happens

For Williams, playing football is a respite from a life of curveballs. The loss of a father, daily life struggles, a good teammate.

Ethan Williams has lived it all.

Last December, as Williams and his teammates were enjoying their Christmas vacation, Williams’ mom, Lorraine Grimes, received a letter from North Carolina.

A daughter she had given up for adoption had written to her.

Julie Smith had a name. Now, she had a face.

“My mom told me she had to give her up when she was 16, to give her a better life, because she was struggling herself,” Williams said. “We went to visit her down in North Carolina and she’s happy. I was happy to see her; mom was happy to see her. She’s got kids of her own.
“She’s living a great life.”

Ethan and Lorraine, and older sister, Terri, they’ve connected with her via Facebook.

“We face-time with her and call her on the phone,” Williams said. “We want to stay in contact.”

Meanwhile, No. 29 trudges forward. His other family is with him every step of the way.

“He’s been through some stuff that not a lot of 17-year-olds have been through, and the perseverance to stick with it and keep going, that’s what you like to see as a coach,” Cox said. “He brings a lot to it.”

Ethan Williams is a Southside Maverick.
