TUSCOLA — For Tuscola track star Alyssa Williams, her team's Class 1A State Track championship came at the perfect time.
It was the first girls team state title for the Warriors in school history and it came just a month before celebrating the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Title IX legislation that began the equalization between female and male athletic competition.
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"I'm really happy with what we have accomplished and I'm so happy that we were able to do it on the 50th anniversary of Title IX," Williams said. "I think it is a great thing to invest in girls sports and Tuscola has really shown their support for us. It means a lot that we were able to give something back to them."
Williams has been unafraid to push traditional boundaries, playing as a a defensive back and wide receiver on the Warriors football team.
"I wouldn't call myself a traditional person. I believe that some tradition is meant to be broken and I believe that is necessary for progress," she said. "I believe every single step we can take forward we should take it. If I get to be that someone that does it, I feel blessed. For things to happen, someone has to do it first and people will follow."
Williams won three first-place medals (100-meter, 200-meter and 4x200 relay) and a third in the long jump at state this season to propel the Warriors to become state champions, earning her the Herald & Review's Girls Track Athlete of the Year honor for 2022.
"It is finally kind of setting in that we were state champions. It means the world to me," Williams said.
Larger leadership role
A key change from Williams' junior to senior season was her larger leadership role with the team that included leading team meetings and making sure any problems between athletes didn't fester.
"(Tuscola girls track coach Drew Sterkel) wanted me to step in and start pushing us forward. I had to prepare myself for that because I never really saw myself as a leader. I had to find ways to encourage everyone and getting people to want to join the track team," Williams said. "We sometimes have our problems but I wouldn't let those become big problems because I knew even the smallest issue left to simmer could be detrimental to the well-being and chemistry. We needed to be on the same page and I tried to figure things out and come up with ways to make sure that it didn't impact our performances."
The 4x200 experience
All season long, the Warriors 4x200 team — Williams, Mia Hausmann, Jillian Alexander and Lia Patterson — couldn't break 1:46. They were winning each of the meets they ran in together, including the CIC championship and the 1A Sullivan Sectional, but getting that time that could compete for a state title didn't happen until the starter's pistol fired at the state finals.
In that race, the Warriors ran their fastest time in program history at 1:44.11. Williams credits her teammates for never giving up on continuing the search for that record-breaking performance.
"I think Mia and Jillian both had a great year and Mia brought a lot of experience being on the 4x200 team last year. I really looked to her and I would call her the real brains behind the team," Williams said. "She always kept me on track and always made sure I was doing the right thing. She was a positive influence for me and I don't think I could have done this year without her. Jillian brought a energy to the relay and she's a very positive person. She's a future leader herself and I really appreciated that she got to run with us this year."
Williams' career individual state medal total of six golds, a bronze and a sixth-place medal could have larger had she not lost her sophomore season to COVID-19 cancellation and her freshman season to injury. But Williams has little doubt that her spot in Warriors history may soon be overshadowed by her teammate Patterson.
"I think Lia, very, very soon, will be the most decorated athlete in Tuscola sports history. I can definitely see her doing that and I have high hopes for her," Williams said. "She has the work ethic and the personality to make it happen. She wants to be better and wants to help other people be better as well."
Running with the Racers
In picking a place to run in college, Williams had several options to choose from, including smaller schools where she would be enter as the program's top runner. Instead, she choose Murray State, where she'll join a standout team that won both the Ohio Valley Conference indoor and outdoor championships last season.
"I did not want to go to a program where I was going to be the top athlete. That did not appeal to me whatsoever. There's no point in going somewhere where you are already right off the bat the fastest person," Williams said. "There is no challenge and no room for healthy competition. I wanted to go somewhere where I could develop myself and set clear goals for myself and make yearly progression. I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't have to feel the pressure of being the rock of the team."
As it gets closer to the time for Williams to head to Murray State, she'll miss the small town atmosphere of Tuscola and two locations she credits with powering her state performances: the Tuscola Taco Bell and Dairy Queen.
"I want to give a sincere thank you to the Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. They kept me fueled and that's where I ate before most of my races. I've been going there for a long time and they mean a lot to me," Williams said.
'Who's coming in second?'
Sterkel is the H&R's Girls Track Coach of the Year after returning to the team for the 2021 season following a coaching stint in 2012-2016. The bond he and Williams formed was like a family.
"He's like a second dad to me and he's a great guy. He cares about his students and his athletes so much," Williams said. "He's one of the best people I know and he's just amazing. He spends more time with the team than his own family during the season. He's willing to make sacrifices for us and we couldn't have gotten here without him."
Sterkel has rewatched the state meet broadcast and is struck by Williams' attitude during the 200, the last race of her high school career.
"If you go watch it, she is walking up to the 200-meter dash with the mentality like Larry Bird. It was like who is coming in second?," Sterkel said. "She had a swagger but it wasn't a cocky type of thing. It was like, I know I'm good and I'm just gonna go out and and do what I do."
Contact Matthew Flaten at (217) 421-6968. Follow him on Twitter: @MattFlaten
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be competing in the USATF Illinois Association Junior Olympic Championships, June 24-26 at Gary Wieneke Track for the Vipers Track Club! #OTV🐍 pic.twitter.com/G8CPtJHOvQ
— Alyssa Williams🇯🇲 (@WilliamsAlyssa0) June 23, 2022