By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            The diagnosis came early in the holiday season.

            Treatment began two days into the new year.

          The 51st birthday came in the first quarter of treatment.

          And Friday, Bert Williams stood in a hallway at the of Emory Winship Cancer Center, read from a plaque, and rang the bell.

Ring this bell
Three times well
Its toll to clearly say,

My treatment's done
This course is run
And I am on my way!

            With that, Williams turned, applauded the staff that was applauding him, and headed home to Milledgeville for a small celebration with wife Cathy and sons Parker and Zach after a tremendous milestone.

            Williams’ cancer was in full and official remission, and by this weekend, he’ll no longer to worry about taking medication.

            The longtime head football coach at Georgia Military College and junior college hall of famer has one simple final step to complete the six-cycle treatment for mantle cell lymphoma, the last batch of pills this weekend.

            “That’ll be the last actual day I’ll put (medicine) in me for the near future,” Williams said Sunday.

            Williams’ tale is a lesson and something of a wakeup call or reminder for normal health maintenance.

            He was going through an annual physical near the end of the 2019 season, and his doctor asked for a second deposit for blood work, since something looked odd.

            “I had zero symptoms,” Williams said. “It was kind of out of the blue.”

            He didn’t think much of the situation until the second visit regarding his blood work, and the hematologist had basically narrowed it down to two cancers.

            “And I’m like, ‘hoooly (bleep),’” Williams said with a laugh. “’Really?’ I wasn’t feeling bad. I wasn’t feeling tired. Nothing.”

            Williams said that had the diagnosis been earlier, like four months earlier when temperatures were in the 90s and football players were in full season-prep mode, he probably could have delayed treatment at least a little while.

            “Had I not gone for that annual (checkup), I could’ve gone for months before there was any noticeable (symptoms), probably,” he said. “I feel like we got in it kind of early.”

            His wife Cathy posted the first Caringbridge.com entry on Dec. 31, with preparation for treatment starting on Jan. 2, and the full regimen a day later. Williams spent three nights in the hospital, the routine then changing to a weekly trip to Atlanta for infusions and a new batch of pills.

            There are obviously more complicated aspects to treatment. But Williams had pretty much positive steps the entire way.

            The first major sign of official progress came in early April when tests showed no sign of the cancer. A few days later, the treatment adjusted. The process includes the harvesting of stem cells toward any possibility of a transplant down the line if needed, and it wasn’t fully executed in Williams’ case, the only real hiccup in his treatment.

            Williams knows how fortunate he was to go through with no exhaustion or debilitating reaction. And he’s familiar with that, having dealt with his brother Brian’s battles with cancer.

            Brian, who lives in Miami, is about 15 years into remission.

            “He fought it for 12, 13 years straight,” said Williams, noting his brother’s condition was much more complex. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, because my personal history with him was pretty rough.”

            Williams said there were times when he was tired or sluggish, but those instances were fairly few and far between.

            “I’m not saying it’s easy, because it’s not,” he said. “But it’s certainly a more targeted, precise effort in the vast majority of cases, in my understanding. As for my deal, I was able to pretty much stay on task with what I needed to do in my normal day to day life.”

            Indeed, it didn’t keep him from working.

            Other than the trips to Atlanta, Williams was able to maintain a moderately familiar work routine, which included signing day and recruiting. When things all but shut down with COVID-19, Williams was ready, already having started doing a little less work at the office.

            “COVID-19 and everybody going to telework, I missed less time,” he said. “I was able to work while I was on the road. I’d be sitting there getting my infusions on Thursday and following email, tuning in on Zoom meetings.”

            The Bulldogs finished 8-3, ending the season with a 37-30 loss at Lackawanna (Pa.) on Dec. 10. He was on hand for signing day, a double-duty event for GMC, which signs a couple dozen high school players and a few transfers while also celebrating the Bulldogs who are moving on from the junior college level.

            GMC sent players in December and February to Marshall, Georgia Southern, Louisville, and Appalachian State, among other places.

            Williams, an Augusta native and Davidson (N.C.) College grad, has been at GMC since the late 1990s and head coach since 2000. He owns a 157-57 record, and a national junior college championship.

            Naturally, Williams was overwhelmed with communiqués when he announced the start of cancer treatment back in January, and again over the weekend with the news that he was done. One of the most respected coaches in the college game on any level, he heard from national champions and longtime junior-college opponents, high school coaches and everybody in between, from near and far.

            Between that and ringing the bell at Emory, it’s been a pretty good weekend. Granted, not many folk will get a chance to congratulate him face to face for awhile, since he qualifies for Gov. Brian Kemp’s “medically fragile” category, and Williams will follow the mandate to shelter in place until June 12.

            But folks better be prepared. Williams isn’t as big a man as he used to be. Literally.

            “I’m down to my high school weight right now,” said Williams, a quarterback at Westside-Augusta back in the day. “You probably wouldn’t recognize me if I was walking down the street.”

            Williams said he was around 300 during the season and recruiting, on average, then down to 275 when time to work out presented itself. Then he went right back up when the season started.

            The new diet is carb-free, in large part because of how well it helps the battle against Williams’ form of cancer. The weight loss has been steady, and for the most part, Williams hasn’t had to adjust much. But …

            “Bread. And beer,” he said of the two major parts of his former diet that are now no-nos. “I just like sandwiches, a real sandwich with good bread. That, and beer. Just the basics.”

            Naturally, he said he feels so much – especially his ankles and knees – with less of him around. Williams said he’s had barely enough beers the last several months to count on one hand.

            So, we’re looking at a Bert Williams at 250 pounds or better from here on out?

            “I don’t think my wife will even allow 250,” he laughed. “She’s enjoyed regaining that part of the bed she thought she lost forever.”