Fort Worth, Texas – Darrent Williams was a short, feisty youngster when O.D. Wyatt High School’s head football coach caught his first glimpse of him.
But it was only a glimpse.
Anthony Criss, who was coach at the time, had gone to scout the eighth-graders who would be trying out for his team when he saw a blur of a football player named Darrent go by during 40-yard dashes – 4.41, 4.41 and 4.0 seconds, three stopwatches recorded.
“I was like, ‘Who is that kid? We need to get that kid,”‘ Criss, now assistant athletic director for the Arlington (Texas) School District, said Thursday.
Williams predicted to Criss that he would be his starting quarterback, an unheard-of notion for a freshman in football-crazy northern Texas, especially given that Williams was only about 5 feet 8 inches tall, and Criss had two other QBs who were over 6 feet.
“That’s a big statement, sir,” Criss told Williams.
“You’ll see. You’ll see,” Wil liams answered.
Well, Williams did play a little quarterback. And his resolve to be the best brought him to the Denver Broncos and turned him into one of the most promising young defensive backs in the NFL before he was fatally shot in Denver early New Year’s Day, barely 24 years into his life.
People who knew Williams in his formative years in Fort Worth – coaches, teachers, family and friends – talked about a person who would have an impact on their lives forever.
“I went to the doughnut shop this morning, and they were talking about it,” Wyatt High School principal Steven Johnson said Thursday.
In his southwest Fort Worth neighborhood, most knew Wil liams just as “Dee.”
Johnson said he recently talked to Williams about starting a football camp for area teens. There was also discussion of a Dee Williams Day at the school to honor its most prolific athlete.
“I let him know I was proud of him,” Johnson said Thursday, recalling a conversation with Williams about a month ago.
Williams grew up in a part of town that was known for football and, in the mid-1990s, gangs. Williams tried to steer clear of their influence, and with the help of his coaches, family and others, he pretty much did. But the gangs were there, and Williams was on the fringes, those close to him say.
Criss recalled that once during Williams’ freshman year, he did not show up at school on a Friday before a game. The rule was, if you weren’t in class on that Friday, you couldn’t play. So Criss and other coaches drove around looking for him.
He finally spotted Williams walking around a few blocks from school. Williams told Criss that he was just walking to the store to get something to eat. But Criss knew better. He wasn’t sure what Williams was up to, but he wasn’t in school. Criss brought him back.
“It’s true,” Criss said of Wil liams being on the edges of gang activity. “But he listened and learned how to separate from that.”
It was that personal growth off the football field that turned Williams away from trouble and toward the life he always dreamed of, people here say.
Daisy Sadberry, one of Wil liams’ teachers, said Williams became a student of hers in a child-development class. At 17, Williams fathered his first child, Darius, forcing him to balance schoolwork, at which he earned A’s and B’s, with sports.
“He seemed to handle it well,” Sadberry said. “He was learning how to be a father. He seemed to enjoy the class.”
She echoed others who said Williams was a driven young man.
“I remember the smile on his face and the willingness to always strive to do better,” Sadberry said.
His old track coach at Wyatt, Lee Williams, tried to keep him grounded and focused. He constantly reminded him that there was life outside of Wyatt.
“I was always talking to him to get him to see that there was a lot more to the world than the segment he lived in, that there were other things out there that could be special,” Lee Williams said Thursday.
On the track team, Darrent Williams was as proficient as he was on the football field. He was part of the state-championship 4×100-meters relay team and was one of two alternates on a relay team that set a national record.
After starring at Wyatt, Wil liams wasn’t heavily recruited in football, Criss said. But Criss got in touch with Oklahoma State University, where coaches questioned whether Wil liams could make it in big-time college ball.
Criss told the OSU coaching staff that if Williams wasn’t good enough to start as a true freshman, Criss would pay for his entire four years of college.
“Send me the bill,” Criss told them.
He never got one.
Staff writer Carlos Illescas can be reached at 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com.
