Scores honor high school senior Anthony Williams at memorial

A crowd of more than 200 attended the celebration of life for high school senior Anthony Williams, 18, at the Youth Basketball Academy facility in Rocklin on Sunday afternoon. Williams died from his injuries at Sutter Roseville Medical Center on March 19 after a vehicle hit him while he was walking in the roadway on Lonetree Boulevard and Adams Drive in Rocklin at about 8:30 p.m., according to Rocklin Police. The driver cooperated with officers and the investigation is ongoing, Sgt. Neil Costa said last week. Williams, an Inderkum High School senior in Sacramento, attended Whitney High School in Rocklin for his first three years of high school and attended elementary school in the Rocklin Unified School District. He played on the basketball teams at Whitney and Inderkum, and for the Youth Basketball Academy outside of school. Ken Gee, who was Williams' coach at the Youth Basketball Academy and his guardian for three-and-a-half years, helped organize the memorial with his wife, Christina. By the age he was 8, both Williams' mother and father had passed away, Gee said at the memorial. Williams' older sister, Queenisha Wade, brought them both to the Rocklin area looking for a better life, Gee said. At age 14, Williams asked to stay with Gee and his wife, Gee said. "With his sister's blessing, we welcomed him into our family," Gee said about Williams. "We raised and mentored him with a village of people along his basketball journey. That village included family, coaches, teachers, moms, dads, even friends, to try to help mentor him and help him become a man." During Sunday's memorial, Gee played a video he made for Williams' 18th birthday last year and a slideshow video that both included photos and videos of Williams playing basketball, hanging out with family and friends, laughing and goofing around. In one clip, a foreign- exchange student played a practical joke on Williams for his 17th birthday by waking him up with a leaf blower and Williams didn't even remember hours later, Gee said. The videos were set to music by Michael Jackson and songs by Michael Jackson and Prince played before and after the memorial. Gee said Williams would play Michael Jackson and Prince in his room every time he missed his mother because she would often play their music. In addition to Gee, friends and family of Williams, including his older sister, Queenisha Wade, friends Boston Graf and Ahrray Young, family friend Tami Okuma, coach Nick French, coach and guardian Chris Collins and coach Mike Shaw spoke at the memorial. Wade, Williams' sister, said she had to take care of her brother when she was 15 years old and earned custody of him when she turned 18. Wade said she is nervous about speaking in front of people but she wanted to give a voice for Williams. "My brother could fly really high, y'all," Wade said. "Now he's going up with our mom, who he loved so much. He always wanted to be the next Michael Jordan. He loved Michael Jordan; that was his role model." Williams' friend and former teammate, Graf, said he first met Williams in seventh-grade at basketball tryouts at Spring View Middle School. "Anthony, he walks in with that swagger that he has, that overconfident swagger he always walked in with," Graf said about when he first saw Williams. Graf said he and Williams both thought they were the best players there and the defining part of their relationship was that they pushed each other to be better. Williams grew to be like a second brother to Graf. Williams always made people laugh even when he wasn't supposed to, said Young, a friend who played on the same Youth Basketball Academy team as Williams since sixth-grade. He even joked around after his coach just finished yelling at the team, Young said. Young said she will attend the University of Tulsa next year on a full-ride scholarship for basketball. "Every time I step on that court, I'll be playing for him," Young said. French, Williams' basketball coach at Whitney High School, said Williams was like a son to him. French said the other day, his secretary handed him Williams' senior letter that he wrote to himself as a freshman and it sat on French's desk for three days until he decided to look at it. The letter was a bulleted list of everything Williams wanted to accomplish, French said. The first bullet read "graduate high school" and the second read "play for international." "He knew what he wanted," French said. The winners of the Anthony Williams Scholarship, created with the help of Whitney High and Inderkum High School to go to five senior student athletes, were announced at the memorial. The scholarship recipients include Whitney High students Graf and Sydney Berry, Davis High student Kendra Burns, Laguna Creek High student Young and Inderkum High student Gary Joseph. Gee said the funds for the Anthony Williams Scholarship from donations are fast-approaching $4,000 to be split between the five recipients. Gee said his goal is to reach $5,000 to award each senior $1,000. Those who want to donate to the scholarship fund can send money to Gee's Venmo, "KenGeeYBA." Donations for the scholarship can also be made to Williams' Youth Basketball Academy coach Chris Collins through Venmo to "CoachCCollins," through Cash App to "$phenixfitness23," through Zelle to phenixfitness23@gmail.com or through PayPal to sonics082@gmail.com.