Saturday, March 04, 2000
X marks the spot for real-life success story
Williams left Brooklyn streets, grew tall at Xavier
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If Darnell Williams does not call his mother, Monica, at least three times a week, she is going to phone him.
“Boy, what do you think, you don't have a mother any more?”
“I can't take that talk too much,” Williams said smiling.
The Xavier senior is an only child. His parents separated in 1991 and later divorced. Williams followed his mom everywhere.
“She's my best friend,” he said. “My mother knows everything that goes on. She can read me better than anybody in the world. You can't hide anything from her. She gives the best advice. She's just there as a guiding force.”
Said Monica Williams: “He doesn't do anything unless he calls me. We have a special bond.”
Both parents will see him play at the Cincinnati Gardens for the first time today when the Musketeers entertain St. Joseph's on Senior Day (2 p.m.).
Williams is finishing his fifth year at Xavier University.
Since arriving from Brooklyn, N.Y., in fall 1995, he has endured two knee operations, one that sidelined him last season, earned an undergraduate degree in advertising and started work on a master's, improved his relationship with his father and become a father himself.
He also is the No. 11 scorer in school history. His goal is to play professional basketball.
“I've seen him mature,” his father, Lorenzo, said. “When he came here, he was very giddy-headed, but now he's very, very stable. I think we've got to thank Xavier for that. He knows what he wants and he's very positive.”
Monica Williams lives in a three-family house in Brooklyn. Her brother lives upstairs, her sister downstairs.
A native of Barbados, she has been a nurse for 25 years and currently works at Morningside Nursing Home in the Bronx. She put in a lot of overtime to help her son, Darnell, attend Nazareth, a private Catholic high school. She thought that would be good for him academically.
Family affairs
Darnell Williams was 13 when he first saw someone shot right before his eyes. There were gangs, drugs, death in the neighborhood. One of his close friends is in jail for 50-plus years for attempted murder. Two other friends have been killed in the past two years; their initials are on his sneakers.
“You learn to grow up so quick,” Williams said. “You have to have street sense to survive in that city. You can't be naive because anything can happen at anytime. When I started playing ball, that really helped. Once you start having something to do, it just occupies your time.”
Just once, Monica had to talk to her son: “It's either the streets or ... You make up your mind which one.”
“I'm the mother figure in the whole family,” she said. “Everybody looks to me for support. I'm the strong one.”
Lorenzo Williams was born in Venezuela and raised in Trinidad.
Darnell and his father get along pretty well now, but it wasn't always that way. Early in his Xavier career, the two had what Darnell calls a lot of “petty arguments.”
“We were always at odds a little bit,” Darnell said. “"After a while, it was like, "Why am I arguing with you?' The summer going into my junior year, I just decided that it makes no sense. You never know when your father might not be here or I might not be here. It all just goes along with maturity.”
Darnell's dad attended his high school games, Midnight Madness at Schmidt Fieldhouse and Xavier road games at Fordham and in Philadelphia whenever possible.
“He always wanted to run and come home, and I kept telling him that the streets of New York have nothing for him,” Lorenzo said. “I wanted him to stay down here, go to summer school. We had our fights. (Now) we get along.”
They're watching
Williams has an 8-year-old godson named Omari. It's his aunt's child. Omari worships Darnell. He wants to go to Nazareth High School and Xavier. “Darnell can do nothing wrong,” Monica Williams said. “Everything is my Darnell.”
Darnell knows Omari is watching and has tried to be a good role model. Now, too, for his own son, DeQuan, who turns 2 in July.
Williams sees his son as often as he can.
“Right now, it's hectic when we're on the road,” Williams said. “It teaches you more responsibility. You've just got to step up and now really be a role model.”
Former Musketeer Sherwin Anderson, also from Brooklyn, assured Williams that Xavier was the right place for him.
Home away from home
Before he came to Cincinnati, his mother told him: “It's time for you to be a man now, go out and better yourself.”
“I left the big city, left all my friends,” Darnell said. “I didn't know anybody here except Sherwin.”
Now he is at home in Cincinnati, just as he is in Brooklyn. He still loves to joke around, play video games and watch a good basketball game on TV.
Williams has the ability to get along with everyone and treat people the same, from student managers to his teammates, coaches and athletic director to the president of the university (Father James Hoff), whom Williams calls, “My main man Father H.”
“We're all in this for the same thing,” Williams said.
“It'll be sad (today) because you'll never have any place like college — just the bonds that you make, the people that you meet, the friendships that I've got with Pose (James Posey), Lenny (Brown), Reg (Butler), Torraye (Braggs), T.J. (Johnson). Those are things that no one can ever take away.”
Xavier Stories
UC poised to reclaim No. 1
Stop and enjoy this not-so-regular season
Next: So. Miss or St. Louis
Auld Lang Syne for seniors
10 Questions with Oscar Robertson
No. 1 Stanford loses to UCLA
UC women lose C-USA quarterfinal
Deion unveils latest persona: humbled hitter
Parris sharp in win
Finger sprain sidelines Reese
Saturday's game report
Sparky led and followed
Bengals optimistic about Mitchell
Williams lets Bengals out of corner
Handicapping the NCAA field
Miami's hopes rest on Taylor's ankle
Buckeyes happy to share Big Ten title
Kentucky ties for SEC title
Masiello makes 1st start in finale
NKU women win conference tournament
Best drivers are part of Indy 500's charm
Cyclones 6, Utah 5
Mighty Ducks 4, Providence 0
Mighty Ducks offer hockey classes
Moeller wrestler wins state
6 area wrestlers second best
State wrestling results
Beavercreek stops Princeton
Cold shooting dooms Mercy
Colerain victory vanishes
Defense wins it for MND
Lyme leads local prep gymnasts
Madeira upsets Versailles
Mason struggles to win district
McNick wills to win
N.Ky. girls basketball roundup
NewCath must withstand another shot from CovCath
Purcell holds off CNE
Rising Sun loses Indiana title
Scott Co. shuts down Walton
Waynesville knocks off Wyoming
Ohio boys basketball scores
Ohio girls basketball scores
Kentucky boys basketball scores
Kentucky girls basketball scores
Favorite job is unpaid one for Highlands' Mueller
SEASON IN STORIES
