Football coach with ALS to get ‘Extreme Makover’ home
Inspiring high school football coach Jeremy Williams and his family just got a pleasant surprise.
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" will team up with volunteers, including NFL player Michael Oher, to build them a new house this week, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Monday.
Williams is the coach who led Greenville High to the second round of the state playoffs while battling ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Greenville is a school of 380 students in Meriweather County.
Oher is the football player whose story is told in the film "The Blind Side."
The new home will be built while Williams and his family vacation at the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte, Colo., the Ledger-Enquirer reported. Williams' son, Jacob, was born with spina bifida and likely will remain in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
The family's current home isn't suited to people with disabilities, according to a statement the show released to the newspaper, and the home has a cracked foundation and mold-infected walls.
The Ledger-Enquirer reported crews will unveil the new home Saturday.
The upbeat Williams plans to coach in 2010 despite the irreversible effects of his illness. ALS has sapped his hand and arm muscles, makes him walk with a limp and causes him to slur some words.
“I don’t think there could be a better deserving family to get something this great,” Brookstone coach Blair Harrison told the newspaper. “I just hope that whatever construction is done enables the family not to worry about their living conditions at all.”
Remembering Coach Jeremy Williams
Jeremy Williams, the former Greenville High football coach who battled ALS for almost 15 years, died March 13, 2022. Here is a link to read and sign an online guestbook.
Read more of his story:
Fourth Down: ALS has ravaged the coach’s body. But it has not broken his spirit. An AJC Personal Journeys story from 2013. Reporter Steve Hummer’s indepth update on Coach Jeremy Williams.
2009: Greenville coach a rock — and so’s his wife
2010: Greenville’s Williams named National High School Coach of the Year
2011: Documenting a coach’s fight
2014: ALS-stricken coach still gets message across
Photos: Extreme Makeover presents new house to Jeremy Williams in 2010
2020: Jeremy Williams and family still living with ALS, still inspiring others
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
