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A cancer diagnosis. A major surgery. An ongoing recovery.
Chris Williams, longtime head coach of cross country as well as track and field at Dublin High School, recounts many prayers and an outpouring of community support over the course of his fight with colon cancer this year.
Williams’ battle began in February, pumping the brakes on his coaching at DHS — where he has led teams since 2008 to win almost 30 athletic accolades including eight near-consecutive North Coast Section championships for boys’ cross country.
Currently, the coach is back on campus and on-the-mend from a surgery that looks to have successfully excised the cancer.
“I’m not really good at receiving or accepting support and I didn’t realize how much people really care about me,” Williams said of the athletic community’s response to his diagnosis.
“It’s made me realize how much of an impact I have on the community, but also how much the community has an impact on me,” he added.
Williams, who lives with his wife and three children in Dublin, originally began coaching cross country in 1999 at Oakland’s Skyline High School.
Within a couple years, he added track and field to his repertoire to ensure athletes were running year-round.
“I had phenomenal coaches when I was in school — when I played sports — and I wanted to have that same impact,” he said of his inspiration for becoming a coach.
While enjoying the work at Skyline, Williams began looking for opportunities elsewhere after failing to see eye-to-eye with Skyline’s previous school administration over his direction as a coach and teacher, he explained.
Williams later caught wind that Dublin Unified School District was a good place to work – a tip expressed by a close friend of Williams who worked as an assistant football coach within DUSD.
Now working at DHS, Williams agrees wholeheartedly with his friend’s analysis.
“I love coaching and teaching at Dublin High and I can’t imagine doing anything else right now,” he said.
“I’m very demanding as far as what my expectation levels are of the kids, both in the classroom and on the playing field,” Williams added. “By the time they’re done with running for us, they’re outstanding human beings in the community, but also they’re phenomenal students and also they become really good at their sports.”
Nearly 11 months ago, Williams would face an unexpected hurdle of his own. He received a diagnosis of colon cancer after visiting the doctor’s office in February for a kidney stone.
The news came by phone, Williams recalled, just minutes before he was planning to leave home to attend a track and field parent meeting. At the time, his wife was also scheduled to leave home for a church event.
Alerting his wife to the call, she knew Williams had cancer before he uttered the words.
“I didn’t get a real chance to process until later that night,” he explained.
The evening proceeded with prayer alongside his wife, their three children already asleep.
“By the next morning, I was ready to fight it,” Williams said.
Williams was recommended for immediate surgery out of concern that the cancer would spread to his liver, and within about two weeks he underwent the procedure.
In his absence from DHS, assistant coach Anne Ha took charge of track and field, with the cross country season having already ended.
The team dynamic shifted without Williams and upon his return for one of the season’s first meets, students were very happy to see him, she said.
“They were really excited to have their coach back,” Ha added.
While he is still healing from the surgical procedure — one usually requiring approximately 12 months to 18 months of recovery — he has not required additional treatment such as radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
Doctors continue to monitor Williams’ blood for any signs of the cancer’s return. If the tests were to come back irregular, the next step would be chemotherapy, Williams explained.
Reflecting on his run-in with colon cancer and the subsequent surgery, Williams offered thanks to his family, Ha, the Gaels community and his health care team of lead doctor Lindsey Bettisworth, gastroenterologist Prashant Kotwani and surgeon Mark Koransky.
Williams also urged men to get their colonoscopies with the goal of discovering any issue as early as possible.
In support of Williams’ battle with cancer, a GoFundMe for the coach was started in February with the goal of raising $60,000 for medical expenses, treatment and unforeseen costs. To date, more than $50,000 has been raised through the “Support Coach Williams’ Cancer Battle” page.
