By Patrick Osborne
Blake Williams, pictured above, is looking forward to his senior season at Mustang High School and the chance to finally showoff his abilities on the field. COURTESY OF TAMMY WILLIAMS
On the outside, he’s an ideal high school football player. He’s 6-4 and weighs 225 pounds, a tight end and can bench press 350 pounds. He’s being recruited by 11 NCAA Division I football programs, including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Missouri even though he only played a few downs of football his junior year.
His football history and appearance wouldn’t lead you to believe anything is different about Williams, but sometimes looks can be deceiving.
“People say I’m built like a Greek God,” he said. “They don’t understand why I can’t (play) because with my illness, it doesn’t affect the outside.”
What people can’t see is Williams had been diagnosed with Dysautonomia, a disease that threatened to do more than keep him out of football. According to the Dysautonomia Foundation website, the disease causes a failure of the autonomic nervous system that controls involuntary functions. Fatigue, numbness, vision and hearing loss, pain and even loss of memory are some of the many symptoms. There’s currently no cure.
According a journal of records provided by his mother, Williams didn’t start to show signs of the disease until eighth grade when had a his first upper respiratory infection since his early elementary school. He also was suffering from more sports related injuries than usual.
In ninth grade Williams would often come home and have no memory of what he had done in school that day.
“Blake would come home saying his memory wasn’t as good as it was in middle school,” Tammy Williams, his mother, wrote in the journal. “Of course we didn’t quite know what to think about this statement. We thought classes are harder in high school.”
Then Williams started having breathing issues, and developed eye twitching tics. Soon, he recalled, he started feeling depressed.
The symptoms worsened his sophomore year, but his doctors weren’t sure what to think.
“During the last visit with with his local doctor, (he) told Blake ‘It’s all in your head and you need to power through life. You need to go home, take an Ibuprofen and get back in school,'” his mom said. “Then the doctor turned to me and said, ‘Mom, you are enabling him to be this way.’ That was the last visit with that doctor.”
By the end of the school year, Williams was homebound and would be for his entire junior year of school.
Although there was a six-month waiting list, his mom got him into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, that August to find a diagnosis.
Once they arrived, it didn’t take long for the family to get a diagnosis.
“I didn’t really know what to think of it,” he said. “It was kind of a relief. I had a name for it now, so I was kind of like what’s the next step?”
The next step wouldn’t be easy though. According to the Mayo Clinic 80 percent of those with Dysautonomia will only get worse.
After days of research, his mom found Dr. Michael Arata in New Port Beach, California, at Synergy Health Concepts. Dr. Arata was the only surgeon in the United States who would perform an experimental procedure known as Transvascular Autonomic Modulation which could possibly help Williams find some relief.
So in November of 2013, Williams and his mom flew to California. The surgery was a success.
“Immediately after his Surgery Blake was in the recovery room,” she said. “His face was pale white before he went in, and after the surgery he had pink in his face again. I said ‘How do you feel?’ He said ‘I have thoughts racing through my head.’
“After recovery was over with, we walked outside and were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the hotel and he was looking in amazement at the outside world. He said it looked like someone had colored in the sky and the trees with paint. He had become colorblind and we didn’t even realize it.”
Dr. Arata informed them it would take close to two months to recover. They didn’t mind though, they were just happy to hear the word recover.
Then in June of last year, Williams joined his teammates during summer workouts.
“He participated on the first day and of course it brought tears to our eyes just to see him with his teammates again,” she said. “At the Mayo Clinic, there really wasn’t any hope of this every occurring again and there he was on the field participating.”
That August, he returned to school for his junior year. But he wasn’t alone. Paige Wedman, a fellow Mustang High School student, also had Dysautonmia and the two instantly clicked.
“Blake and Paige never feel sorry for themselves,” his mom said. “They’re always positive and know they will get over this one day and be so much better.”
Some of the student body, and even some teammates, weren’t as understanding though. They didn’t understand why Williams wasn’t able to play as much as they thought he should. They questioned whether or not he was making the whole thing up.
“It was a struggle,” he said. “It used to happen everyday when I came back to school but now its died down. It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve gone through.”
As for school, his mom said the Mustang Public School district was helpful the whole way.
“Every single person on staff has bent over backwards in order for Blake to succeed in school,” she said.
Now all Williams wants his one last chance to play with his teammates. His senior year. But he said he’s not approaching this season or final year of school any differently than the others.
“It doesn’t really feel any different than any other school year to me,” he said. “I know a lot of people say they are ready to be seniors and graduate but I’m not the same. I’m just ready for football and the chance to play a lot more than I have been. I’m grateful to be where I am.”
Blake Williams has a chance to follow in the foot steps of fellow Mustang native David Glidden at Oklahoma State after graduation. COURTESY OF TAMMY WILLIAMS
Williams has already met with plenty of Division I coaches, including Kansas State coach Bill Snyder. With OSU recently joining the list of schools recruiting him, Williams now has the chance to follow in the footsteps of fellow Mustang natives Josh Cooper and David Glidden.
“I’ve definitely thought of that,” he said. “It seems cool. I’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
Although he isn’t sure what he wants to study if he chooses the school and didn’t enjoy the drive too much, Williams said Kansas State is his favorite right now.
All of that is still months away though. For now, Williams and his mom are just focusing on senior year.
“It seems like we haven’t truly lived high school yet with everything that’s happened,” she said. “So it’s kind of like we are cramming all of high school into one year.”
For someone who has been through so much for so long, Williams is still able to keep a positive outlook on things.
“A lot of people think it’s a curse,” he said. “I did too at first. But now I find it to be a blessing. This is a way for me to connect with people who are lost like I once was.”
Looking ahead to next season, the Mustang Broncos will start the season at home when nearby-rival Yukon will come to Bronco Stadium on September 4 for a 7 p.m. kickoff.