'Medical redshirt' allows Clarkdale's Jake Williams to be high school teammate with younger brother Luke after recovering from severe brain injury

Feb. 9—Clarkdale senior Jake Williams remembers only some parts of his day on Dec. 8, 2019.

He remembers going to church. He remembers getting on a four-wheeler. The next thing he remembered was waking up in a room at University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson more than a week later.

Williams' all-terrain vehicle crashed down an embankment, resulting in a traumatic brain injury, a fractured bone in the back of his neck and both sides of his jaw being broken. He was a junior at Clarkdale at the time but could not finish the 2019-20 school year due to an extensive rehabilitation period.

This led to Williams repeating the 11th grade at Clarkdale when he finally was healthy enough to return to school. Now a senior, Williams was granted an undue hardship exemption by the MHSAA that gave him one more year of eligibility to play baseball. It also led to a silver lining after a prolonged period of difficulty: One more year of baseball meant Williams could be a high school teammate of his younger brother, freshman Luke Williams, something that wouldn't have happened if Jake Williams had graduated in 2021 as was originally planned.

THE ACCIDENT

Jay Williams, Luke and Jake's father, remembered the family getting a phone call from his friend Chris Thompson frantically telling his wife, Misty, that Jake Williams' ATV had crashed down the embankment in his neighborhood the afternoon of Dec. 8, 2019.

"Panic sets in, and we all jump in the car, and I'm driving 100 miles an hour to get to the scene," Jay Williams recalled.

As a nurse, Misty Williams was able to deduce her son had a brain injury based on how his eyes were behaving. Jay Williams said Jake's jaw "was pretty badly destroyed," and the family prayed together with others who had gathered at the scene just prior to the ambulance arriving.

"It was hard for them to get him on a stretcher," Jay Williams said. "He went down an embankment probably 10 to 12 feed from street level, and he was thrashing."

Jake Williams was initially taken to Anderson Regional Medical Center before being airlifted to UMMC, which Anderson's staff felt was more equipped to handle injuries of that magnitude. He was given an External Ventricular Drain (EVD) to help treat brain bleed that had developed. After being kept in a medically induced coma for more than a week, they finally woke Jake Williams up.

"I remember leaving the house on that four-wheeler and waking up in a hospital bed," Jake Williams said. "You know how you'll go to sleep and then wake up and everything's normal? That's kind of what it seemed like."

The experience was anything but peaceful for Jake Williams' family, though.

"I was super scared," Luke Williams admitted. "I wasn't very confident at that time that he was going to make it. I thought I was going to lose my brother. It's freaky. I've never experienced one of my family members being hurt like that."

Clarkdale baseball coach Scott Gibson said the day of the wreck was a tough day for everyone who was close to Jake Williams.

"I've lost a player before, and I hate to say it, but that's what goes through your head — the worst," Gibson said.

RECOVERY

Watching his son spend more than a week in the surgical ICU before waking up came with a lot of anxiety, Jay Williams said. When Jake Williams finally regained consciousness, he was able to tell UMMC medical staff basic information like his name and who was president, which brought the family encouragement. After fighting off a bout of pneumonia, Jake Williams' jaw was surgically repaired, and he had to deal with some seizure-like activities afterward. He was also forced to wear a cervical collar for six weeks as the fractured bone in the back of his neck healed. The most difficult part, though, was what Jay Williams referred to as "storming."

"It's the brain's way of reconnecting and rebuilding itself into what it's supposed to be," Jay Williams said. "As a parent, it's the most horrible thing because your child can be laying there with no issues, and then he pops up like a dead man coming back to life. There were these tense hand squeezes and him making sounds, and that lasted for a few seconds before he would lay back down. We were reassured that it was perfectly normal, though it didn't seem normal to Mom and Dad."

Jay and Misty Williams stayed in Jackson for the duration of their son's time there, while Luke Williams stayed with the Swearingen family and continued to attend school at Clarkdale.

"Seeing him not really be able to do anything was tough," Luke Williams said. "I didn't really get to hang out with him anymore, so it was kind of lonely for me I guess."

Said Jay Williams, "Luke couldn't stand to see him in that state, which I get. He wanted to be with us and near Jake, but the whole thing freaked him out, and it was tough on him."

Eventually, Jake Williams was able to pass a swallow test and be admitted to Methodist Rehabilitation Center, where he stayed until day 41, when he finally returned home to Lauderdale County.

"It was definitely a trying experience, but we're so blessed to be on this side of it," Jay Williams said. "We're very thankful for our church family (First Assembly of God, Meridian), the community, hospital, really Meridian as a whole."

It was the faith of the Williamses that got everyone through the ordeal, Jay Williams said, as well as the support of others.

"There's really only one way: prayer, having faith in God and knowing Him," Jay Williams said. "We got a call from our pastor, Bob Null, who told us some of our church family had gotten us a hotel room for a week. They wanted to do that, and they didn't really want to say who it was because it wasn't about the recognition. We were blessed to be able to be able to stay there the entire 41 days."

Having a positive attitude also helped.

"One thing everyone told me is they loved my attitude," Jake Williams said. "I had a positive attitude the whole way. I never once thought I was going to die, but also in the most tragic situation I was unconscious, so I didn't really know what was going on. I wasn't terrified, I was just confused a lot."

BACK AT BASEBALL

Even though he was home by spring 2020, it took Jake Williams a while before he recovered enough physically and mentally to resume some semblance of a normal life. Since he missed the entire spring semester of the 2019-20 school year, Jake Williams repeated his junior year at Clarkdale beginning the fall of 2020, when he was finally cleared medically to resume school. He even played baseball in 2021, though he was still limited in what he could do athletically at the time.

"I would say it took me two years to get all the way back," Jake Williams said. "I kept my faith in God the whole time and just gave Him the glory in everything I did. I prayed and just knew God had a purpose in my life."

That included getting his weight back up to the 180-pound range, much of which Jake Williams lost while he was getting treated in Jackson. He also had to adjust to being part of a new graduating class.

"It's weird," Jake Williams admitted. "I had a lot of my friends in my other grade, but adapting to these people in this class wasn't as hard as I thought it would be because I've grown up with a lot of them, too."

Given his medical history and the fact he only turned 18 this past August, the MHSAA granted Jake Williams an extra year of athletic eligibility, allowing him one more round of baseball with his fellow Bulldogs.

"It's amazing," Jake Williams said. "I'm glad to be out here with these guys again. I've known them for four years, and I don't currently have any (college) offers, so that's another year I get to improve myself for that. It's a blessing."

JAKE AND LUKE

One thing Jake Williams hopes to experience is catching a throw at first base from his brother, who is a middle infielder.

"I'm going to love the chance to play with Luke," Jake Williams said. "He's a great player and knows the game, and the fact that he'll be in the (infield) and I'll be at first cleaning up his throws, it's kind of like life, where I'm cleaning up his messes."

For Luke Williams, playing on the same team as his brother is a sign things have finally returned to normal after such a difficult experience for the family.

"It's super cool," Luke Williams said. "Now we get to go back to how it was and play together and practice with each other pretty much every day. I've always wanted to play with my brother. He always came to my tournaments when I was growing up, so it's just a dream come true."

In watching his older brother, Luke Williams said Jake has mostly returned to form athletically.

"In sports he's pretty close (to 100%)," Luke Williams said. "In everyday life, he still kind of has problems with memory."

Memories aren't just made on the baseball field at Clarkdale, though, as Jake and Luke have resumed practicing together at home as they often did before Jake's injury.

"We're always doing something baseball-wise," Jake Williams said. "He actually does beat me at some stuff, like basketball. I'm not good at that."

Things can even get testy at times.

"We do compete a lot, and when we compete, we get into arguments, but when it's peaceful, it's super cool," Luke Williams said.

Gibson said he's glad the two will get to experience a brotherly bond on the same high school team after everything Jake Williams had to go through in order to get back on the playing field.

"It's kind of like a parable I heard one time: It's amazing how something potentially that tragic turns into something these two guys will remember for the rest of their lives," Gibson said.

For Jay Williams, the sight of his two sons playing together for Clarkdale is a confirmation that God's healing hand was upon the family during its most trying time.

"This is all God's plan playing out," Jay Williams said. "This was part of the whole deal to begin with. There's a reason behind it all, and I'm not sure what that is yet, but I know there is. I'm excited to see it play out. I'm very much looking forward to it."