Winning 14 Coach of the Year awards in nine years is impressive by any standard. So are 14 MAIS cross country state titles in that same span.
Presbyterian Christian School (Hattiesburg, Miss.) volunteer cross country coach Wayne Williams has done that and more. In 2015, Williams led both the PCS boys and girls cross country teams to state titles in District AAAA Division I. As a result, he earned his 13th and 14th MAIS Coach of the Year awards, which are just the latest accolades in more than five decades of coaching track and cross country.
Williams, 74, ran track for Auburn University and has coached everywhere from high schools in Alabama and Florida to the University of Alabama and Southern Miss. Williams coached more than 30 Olympians — three of whom would go on to win Olympic gold — during his 21 seasons as an assistant track and field coach at Alabama. He was on hand at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles to see a pair of athletes he had coached at Alabama, Lillie Leatherwood and Calvin Smith, each earn gold medals with world record-setting performances in the 4x400m relay and the 4x100m relay, respectively.
Williams served as head coach for both cross country and track and field for the Golden Eagles from 1997-2007, earning Conference USA Women’s Coach of the Year and NCAA Region 9 Coach of the Year awards in the 1999-2000 season. After his retirement in 2007, a parent from PCS approached him about coaching the Bobcats. He has headed the boys and girls cross country teams, as well as the girls track and field team, ever since.
Despite his age — not to mention a double hip replacement — Williams remains active himself, swimming or playing basketball five days a week. Likewise, his love for coaching runners has not diminished with time.
“I keep saying, ‘This year may be my last (coaching),’ ” he said. “But I’ve been saying that for the last five, six, seven years, and it never seems to be my last. I don’t know how to stop.”
And with the success he’s overseen with the PCS cross country teams, the Bobcats hope he won’t stop anytime soon. The girls’ team has won the AAAA Division I state championship every year it has competed under Williams for nine straight titles, while the boys’ team has claimed five state titles over the same period. (The boys also tied for first another year, but came in second due to a tiebreaker rule.)
There’s little to worry about, however, as Williams seems just as happy to be coaching cross country at PCS as the Bobcats are to have him.
“It’s really been a good experience at PCS,” he said. “The kids are really fun to work with. The parents are very supportive and very cooperative about doing things that we need to do. I really enjoy it.”
A quiet encourager rather than a vocal motivator, Williams practices a coaching style that emphasizes consistency and a you-get-what-you-give attitude toward success. With his long list of accomplishments, there’s clearly something about his coaching that resonates with the runners under his tutelage.
Williams shows his athletes the way to success, but leaves it up to them to follow that path.
“I don’t yell and jump on them,” he said. “I’m pretty mild about talking to them, making them understand that this is what you have to do. If you want to be successful, you’ll do it. If you don’t want to be successful. you won’t do it. But they’re pretty good about understanding that.”
Ruth Anne Reeves, 17, joined the PCS cross country team as a junior in 2015 after competing against Williams’ teams previously as a homeschooler. Reeves, who has competed in paratriathlon events across the country and as far off as Japan and theNetherlands, says she’s benefited greatly from her first year under the veteran coach.
“He has a lot of experience, and he runs a really great program, obviously, with nine (girls) cross country championships,” she said. “He’s just an excellent coach, and it’s an honor to run with him knowing all the athletes that he’s coached. And he really helps me with my triathlon goals and just staying in shape for the run there.”
While the improbable run of championships during his tenure at PCS is certainly impressive, Williams gives much of the credit for his accolades to the Bobcat runners and their work ethic.
“It’s basically the kids’ accomplishment,” he said. “I come out here, I give them what to do, we work at it, I stay after them all summer. Most of them are pretty dedicated to keeping that (championship) legacy going.”