Chants’ Williams serves as inspiration to team in return from cancer

When coach Jaida Williams came across Di’janai Williams late in the recruiting process, she thought she’d found a steal for the Coastal Carolina women’s basketball program, a player who belonged at a Power 5 school but had slipped through the cracks.

The talented freshman hasn’t contributed any points or rebounds for the Chanticleers this season, though. She hasn’t played in a game or really even practiced with the team.

That is still to come, but in the meantime, her impact has been through inspiration.

After being diagnosed with a form of cancer – a teratoma on her ovary – just before the start of preseason practice in September and enduring the chemotherapy treatments that followed, “DJ” Williams rejoined the team in January and has been the Chants’ biggest supporter throughout this unexpectedly trying year.

While the Chants were struggling on the court, the younger Williams – who is not related to Jaida Williams – was struggling through three months of intense chemo treatments. As the team showed marked improvement down the stretch of the season, she could only watch and wonder how much of a difference she might have made.

And as the Coastal Carolina women open Big South tournament play Thursday in Asheville, N.C., Williams will be stuck watching from afar and hoping the season continues for her team.

All the while knowing how much more she’s going to appreciate the opportunity that awaits next season.

“It’s made me more humble because I know you can have something and then it can all just disappear within seconds,” DJ Williams said. “Whether it’s a car accident or chemo, anything can happen. It made me appreciate the opportunity to be here times a million. … It just made me really realize how lucky I am.”

In the meantime, she hasn’t had to be on the court to endear herself to her Coastal Carolina teammates and coaches.

That was going to happen regardless.

“She’s a phenomenal kid who you just want to root for to succeed,” Jaida Williams said.

The bad news

The Chants were already in the midst of assembling a large recruiting class they would announce last May when one of Jaida Williams’ former assistant coaches heard from a friend in the AAU circuits out in California that DJ Williams was available and looking for a potential landing spot.

She initially had been set on attending Cal-Santa Barbara before a coaching change there altered her plans.

“When we saw her and did research on her, we were like, ‘Oh my God, she could be a steal. She’s a BCS-level athlete,’ ” Jaida Williams recalls.

But just before she was to leave her home in Moreno Valley, Calif., and head to school, DJ Williams came down with a pain that wouldn’t go away. It was bad enough that she eventually went to the hospital, where it was found that she had a cyst on her ovary.

By the time she had gotten to Coastal Carolina, the cyst had grown significantly and the Chants’ doctors told her she needed to return to California to have it removed by her doctor there.

Thinking everything was fine after the surgery, which she had on Sept. 1, she returned to campus awaiting the official pathology test results and preparing to start practice with the Chants.

That’s when the call came as the news was delivered by the doctor here with her coach in the room with her.

It was a rare teratoma and because there had been some leakage during the removal of the cyst during the surgery, it was imperative that she start chemotherapy as soon as possible, she was told.

“She cried one time and that was it, and that was when we initially got the news together,” Jaida Williams said. “She left all of her stuff here and was like, ‘I’ll be back, I’ll be back soon.’ There was no doubt in her mind that she was coming back. I’m proud of her for that because I don’t know if I could have been that same person if it were me.”

The coach and player joke now about who cried first, but it was a heavy moment at the time, one that took a while to sink in and process.

“It was like it was right there and then it all vanished for a minute,” DJ Williams said of her college basketball dreams. “And it was hard. There was a lot of tears, a lot of support from my family and the team. It was just a really tough time.”

Said Jaida Williams: “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through as a coach, period. I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do to protect her, to prevent her from it. I think I cried every day behind closed doors to my family, to my coaching staff. But for her I was really, really strong. In front of her I was like, ‘We’ve got it, we’re going to to do this.’ Actually her positivity radiated on me. …

“She made me believe that, ‘Yes, everything’s going to be OK, everything’s going to be all right.’ ”

The good news

Even while she was back home receiving the chemo treatments – which during particular weeks lasted from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday – DJ Williams didn’t want to feel too far away from her team.

She had been selected to the Chants’ leadership council, and so when that group met she would FaceTime in to join remotely.

“When she was feeling up to it she would FaceTime into some of our practices and whoever was on the sideline would hold up the phone to the court,” Jaida Williams said. “We did as much as we could to make her feel that she was a part of it.”

Then came the next significant phone call in the process, in December – this one bringing much happier news.

The checkup after her last round of chemo revealed she was clear to return to school while needing to go back for further tests every three months.

“That was the best feeling I’ve had in a while. Her mom was the one who made the call to me and she just said, ‘She came back from the doctor and she’s cleared,’ ” the coach recalled. “Screams and joy. DJ was like, ‘When can I come? Can I come tomorrow?’ I was like, ‘Just relax, DJ. We have a lot of paperwork and stuff we have to go through before you get in school.’”

She missed the first week of classes before returning to campus in January and surprising her teammates during practice as all of the players stopped what they were doing and ran over to her.

Since then, Williams was mostly been working with the team’s trainers to build up her strength while herself serving as a source of strength for the other Chanticleers.

“That was an amazing feeling,” junior point guard Ced Gibson said of her teammate’s return. “I told her she’s what keeps me going when I’m feeling down and I look over at the bench and she’s hyping me up. … I’m sure she keeps everyone else amped as well.”

The Chants’ season continues this week without its prized freshman, but everybody is again eager with anticipation for what the 5-foot-10 guard can bring to the court next season.

“I can’t wait,” DJ Williams said. “I’m excited. I talk about next season all the time.”

A nominee for the coveted McDonald’s All-American honor, she averaged 21 points and nine rebounds per game during his senior high school season and remains a key cog in the Chants’ rebuilding plans.

“She was the most decorated freshman we had coming in,” Jaida Williams said. “… I think that her body, her athleticism, what she brings defensively, what she brings for a team, she just makes everyone around her better because she has non-stop energy. I’m excited to have her on the court.”

And, for that matter, finally have everything back to normal.

“She’s going to have a great story at the end of it, I know she is,” the elder Williams said. “She’s a different kind of kid.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Chants’ Williams serves as inspiration to team in return from cancer."