Carl Williams is joined by Xavier McDaniel (left) and Tyrone Corbin (right).
There were many great high school basketball coaches in Columbia during the 1980s. Among those was Carl Williams, who coached at Booker T. Washington, A.C. Flora, and Lower Richland High Schools.
Williams passed away Sunday, July 14 at the age of 80.
During his more than three decades of coaching high school basketball he coached some of the most legendary players to come from South Carolina like Xavier McDaniel, Tyrone Corbin, Rodney Taylor, and Ed Scott.
“It is a tremendous loss,” Corbin said. “He was a great man. I have a lot of respect for him. He was a father figure for a long time, especially in high school. He touched so many lives, especially his players.”
McDaniel shared some of those same sentiments.
“He took care of me when I was in high school and college,” McDaniel said. “He helped me with my algebra every day at lunch. It often took the whole period until I got it.”
While his career is legendary, his entry into coaching was anything but. He started as a junior varsity coach for Booker T. Washington High School, at the intersection of Marion and Blossom Streets. In 1969, he ascended to the varsity head coach’s position when he took over for William Partlow, who left for Benedict College. It was an opportunity for Williams to keep coaching his players from the junior varsity team, and it came at a good time for the Booker T. Washington program as 13 players from the previous team had graduated. One of the few returning players was Leon Benbow, who would go on to play in the N.B.A. for the Chicago Bulls. Benbow led Booker T. Washington to a state championship in Williams’s first season.
Williams would spend five more seasons at Booker T. Washington, winning 85 games before moving on to A.C. Flora High School. His first six seasons with the Falcons was as an assistant coach. Prior to the 1980-1981 season, Williams was promoted to head coach. He would earn a second state championship not long after that.
It was during those early years at A.C. Flora Williams coached McDaniel and Corbin. His work ethic, attention to detail, accountability, and preparation made an impression on a group of players who needed it at that stage in their lives.
“Me going to college is a tribute to him, because at the time, I was not a very good student,” McDaniel said. “When he became the head coach, one of the things he stressed was education. He said there is a difference when you do the work and when you don’t. If it weren’t for Coach Williams I don’t know what I’d be doing. I owe my success to him.”
Corbin remembered a vital lesson he learned from Williams.
“You can’t expect to be given anything. You have to work and be ready for a lot of things coming to you in life. You have to be ready for the obstacles that come up or be able to take advantage of the good times and better yourself.”
While A.C. Flora enjoyed plenty of success during Williams’s tenure, it was the practices that left the biggest impression on the players.
“You’d think we were in the military the way the practices were,” McDaniel said. “They were mapped out to the second. He expected us to pay attention. Coach wasn’t real loud and he never fussed at you in public, but once we got into practice it could be tough sometimes.”
The journey to his second state championship was especially memorable to Williams, because of the teams A.C. Flora had to battle night in and night out.
“It wasn’t a picnic; I’ll tell you that,” Williams told The Columbia Star in a 2017 interview. “Each year, you played all District One teams in your non-conference schedule, and everybody had an abundance of talent. You had to be at the top of your game to be competitive during those days. There were a lot of gifted athletes in all of the programs.”
It wasn’t just the athletes that made Columbiaarea teams good, it was also coaches like George Glymph at Eau Claire or Jim Childers at Lower Richland. While they faced each other during the week, Williams said they would meet on Saturday mornings to help their players and players from other teams. They also participated in offseason programs together.
After claiming the 1981-1982 state championship, Williams ascended to the top of the mountain again four years later. This time Taylor led the Falcons to the title.
Williams left A.C. Flora for Richland Northeast in 1992 after winning 220 games with the Falcons. He spent four seasons with the Cavaliers’ boys’ basketball program, getting them ranked as high as No. 4, nationally.
That season, the Cavaliers took on Rice High School from New York, the No.1 team in the nation, in the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach. Richland Northeast held a one-point lead in the closing seconds when a block for the Cavaliers was called for goaltending. Rice escaped with a one-point win.
After four seasons with Richland Northeast and 51 wins, Williams returned to Richland District One in 1995 to take over at Lower Richland. Several years removed from the state championship runs with Jojo English and Stanley Roberts, the expectations from the fans were the same as in the late 1980s.
“I knew what I was getting into because I had experienced that before at A.C. Flora and Booker T. Washington,” Williams said. “It was something I grew accustomed to. I wanted to be a part of something successful. When you enter into those situations, there are demands to be met.”
Immediately, Williams was introduced to a player who would make an impact on the Diamond Hornets’ program in Ed Scott.
Scott began his varsity career as a freshman. Rolando Howell joined the team a year later.
With the two stars, the Lower Richland boys’ basketball team became one of the best in the state.
During the 1997- 1998 season, the Diamond Hornets made it to the semifinals of the 4A playoffs but lost to Socastee. A year later, Lower Richland claimed its first state championship since the 1987-1988 season. It would be Williams’s last.
He would coach three more seasons before retiring after the 2001-2002 campaign, winning 145 games.
He finished with a 501-194 record, winning ten region championships and four state titles. He won three Midlands Coach of the Year awards and was named 3A Coach of the Year three times. He was also named State Coach of the Year.
He was selected to coach in the S.C. North/South All-Star game, the S.C. vs. N.C. All- Star game, the ACC vs. SEC All-Stars, and the Nike Louisville Derby Classic.
Despite the banners and trophies he helped win as a coach, Williams said his best accomplishment was seeing the success of his players.
“The most rewarding thing was the opportunity to see young people in the program move on to the next level and perform well,” Williams said. “In each of the schools, we had a considerable amount of players go on and participate in college. About 99.9 percent of them stayed for the duration. That’s my biggest gratification.”
Corbin said Williams stayed in contact with his former players even after they left high school. He said his former coach even attended his graduation from DePaul University.
“He cared about his people,” Corbin said. “We respected and loved him for that.”
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