Former Bay High School boys basketball coach Rob Williams was among three people who died in a boating accident near the Mid-Bay Bridge in Choctawhatchee Bay the weekend of Dec. 7.
The only coach to lead the Tornadoes to the state Final Four in boys basketball, Williams died at age 47 when the boat he owned struck the bridge. Also killed in the accident were Taylor M. Evanoff, 18, and Jamilia Beltz, 21.
Williams was a Niceville resident. He is survived by four children.
He was born in Port St. Joe and a graduate of Wewahitchka High School and Gulf Coast Community College. Williams made his mark as a head coach at Bay over five seasons, where he amassed a 110-45 record with regional appearances in each season. The Tornadoes reached the pinnacle under Williams with the school’s first state Final Four berth in 2003.
In doing so, they produce a last-second 58-56 victory at Baker County on a shot by Andre Reed to reach the 3A semifinals in Lakeland. The Tornadoes fell to Orlando Jones 59-57 in their state tournament appearance.
Williams left Bay in 2004 and also coached at Lowndes and Lanier County high schools in Georgia. He was an assistant coach at Chipola College and head coach at Alabama Southern for one season. He was to be hired at Mosley in 2007, but instead took a position at Lanier County a month after a verbal agreement to take over the Dolphins’program.
His unexpected death released an outpouring of emotion from Williams’ many friends and coaching colleagues in Bay and Gulf counties.
Among those who knew Williams extremely well was Rutherford boys basketball coach Rhondie Ross, who first met Williams when they were teammates on the men’s basketball team at Gulf Coast in 1989.
Ross later was an assistant coach at Bay under Williams before taking the heading coaching position at Rutherford. He said that Williams, who had been out of coaching for a few years and was in private business, told him that he lived vicariously through him.
“He still had the coaching bug,” Ross said. “He’d give me pointers and I’d bounce things off of him.
“He had a tremendous impact on me. He taught me a lot about defense, game planning and strategy. He was a tireless worker and showed me a work ethic.”
GarySpeights, a teacher at Mowat Middle School, was Williams’ high school coach at Wewahitchka and remained in close contact with his former protégé throughout the years.
“He had a vision that he told me he would play college basketball one day, which he did,” Speights recalled. “He said one day he would be a coach like me, and he did. He wanted to put (his players) in position to go to the next level. That was his goal.”
Port St. Joe head basketball coach Derek Kurnitsky said he’d known Williams since they were managers in the men’s basketball program at Florida State University during the mid-1990s.
Later, Kurnitsky said, Williams was instrumental in Kurnitsky gaining an interview for the head coaching position at Port St. Joe.
“He got me the job at St. Joe,” Williams said. “When the job came open I knew he was at Bay High. Even though he played at Wewa he was a St. Joe guy. He got me hooked up. He got my foot in the door.”
Williams’ funeral was held Dec. 15 in Port St. Joe.
