Batavia honoring one of its finest in Corey Williams

When Corey Williams makes his homecoming to Batavia this weekend, culminating Saturday night when he becomes the second player in 102 years of Bulldog basketball to have his jersey retired, you'd think his former teammates would be the happiest to see him.

And they certainly will be thrilled to welcome back Batavia's all-time leading scorer, the player who led the Bulldogs to the Elite Eight at the Assembly Hall in Champaign in 1991 before a college career for Lute Olson at Arizona and a 12-year professional career in Asia and Europe.

But Williams' impact on Batavia reaches further back than his high school teammates. A phenom with Williams' talent doesn't come along every year - or every 50 - and it was at an awfully young age when Batavians realized what this gifted 6-foot-6 player could become.

"He was a guy that when I was a young assistant when we were 1-19 allowed a young assistant to dream a little," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said of first seeing Williams play in fifth grade.

Former Batavia player Thad Tousana, a 1986 graduate six years older than Williams, has even earlier memories.

"I can't remember not having Corey around," Tousana said. "I used to beat the daylights out of him every day. He would take it and keep on coming back. That was our relationship. He was like the little brother I never had.

"He was just a natural athlete, probably could have played football, probably could have played a few more sports and been successful at that. He was just a natural born athlete and very competitive too."

Current Batavia girls coach Tim DeBruycker graduated a year after Tousana in 1987.

He played against Williams a lot in open gyms - while DeBruycker was in high school and Williams was in middle school.

"You could tell right away he was going to be something special," DeBruycker said. "It was a lot of fun to see him progress. I hope I had a little bit to do with it. We beat him up a lot, We didn't take it easy on him, because we knew he could be that good. If you can make him good early on, make him realize what it's like to play at the varsity level, then when gets there he dominates."

That's just what Williams did. He earned unanimous all-Little Seven Conference honors all four years at Batavia, starting in 1989.

By his junior year, Williams was a first team All-State selection, an honor he received again in 1992. He also won the first slam dunk contest that year and finished third in the Mr. Basketball voting.

Gettting to Champaign

It was that junior year, in 1991, that culminated in a trip to state in Champaign. Batavia beat Prospect 61-48 in the supersectional behind 20 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots from Williams. Lamarr Justice scored 18 points and Eric Chock 11.

Justice, who went on to play at Notre Dame and now lives in Montgomery, said beating West Aurora on its homecourt in the sectional finals was the highlight of the season.

"We were not a favorite and we won decisively, we gained confidence we needed from that point forward, we had that aura of confidence we could make our goal and make it downstate," Justice said.

Marshall ended Batavia's dream season in the quarterfinals, 56-46. The Bulldogs led going into the fourth quarter 36-31 but couldn't hold on despite 20 more points from Williams. They finished 27-2.

In Williams' senior year, Naperville North ended Batavia's season in the sectionals. Williams scored over 2,000 points in his high school career, including a single-game record of 49 against Glenbard South in the 1991 regional championship game.

"Corey was obviously gifted, he literally could do essentially anything on the basketball court," Justice said. "He could rebound, I remember he'd get a rebound and lead the fast break and as a guard I wouldn't have to worry about getting the ball back. That made the game easy, free flowing and fun. He was able to do it all. I think I saw Corey play at least three different positions depending on our personnel."

It was much more than the basketball success that Justice remembers.

"Corey and I played together for three years, some of the fondest memories I have are outside of our on-the-court success," Justice said. "It was the joy of playing in high school, and off the court and hanging out. To me that was the most fun I ever had playing basketball. It became a lot more work at Notre Dame. At Batavia it was just a lot of fun, we enjoyed practice, we enjoyed playing games."

At Arizona, Williams played on two Pac-Ten championship teams and the Wildcats' Final Four team in 1994 and their Elite Eight team in 1996. Coach Roberts said one of his regrets is never watching Williams play live during his college career.

Success off the court

Williams' professional career followed, and now he is back in Tuscon where he runs the Tuscon Summer Pro League that features a number of former and current Arizona stars, among other players.

It's no surprise to area players and coaches who remember watching Williams play at Batavia that he went on to so much success.

"He was an outstanding player," West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman said. "He was very gifted from the standpoint of athleticism and basketball skill. We probably faced him more than I care to remember. I didn't know him that well but to me I always felt like he conducted himself very well and was an outstanding young man."

"Corey is a great kid," DeBruycker said. "Even as great as he was he never acted cocky or acted like he was better than anybody. He just went out there and let his game talk for him. He was always very respectful and I think that has shown what he has been doing throughout his post-Batavia career."

Williams joins Dan Issel as the only players to have their jerseys retired. Issel's No. 44 and Williams' No. 32 will hang in the trophy case. The ceremony will take place before the varsity game against Yorkville at 6 p.m. Saturday.

And the memories will bring smiles to everyone's faces, not just Williams but so many people who played with him.

"Them retiring his number is kind of a piece of me going up in the rafters too," Tousana said. "I spent so much time with him coming up. I can't say I taught everything he knows but I challenged every thing he learned."

"He was a guy that had a great love to play, great love for his teammates, and was a good person," Roberts said.