Turning points

Sometimes you miss them, those moments in a game that become turning points.

And sometimes, you don’t yet know how pivotal a key tackle, or a made-extra point, or a punt that pins the opponent down on the 1-yard will be until after all four quarters are played.

And so at the start of the second half of the Sept. 30 Chaminade College Prep visit to St. Louis U. High, with SLUH holding a 28-7 lead, kicker Dan Williams (right) set the ball on the tee then backed up for the kick.

What happened on that kickoff would become a turning point in the game. But life has turning points, too, and this story needs to back up a bit.

Kicker Dan Williams.

That the 5-10, 155-pound Williams is even wearing a football uniform is an improbable story. For his entire young life, Dan Williams was a soccer player.

Learned the game in the CYC at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Crestwood; won City-County soccer titles with St. Justin Martyr after the two schools merged. Played select soccer, a year-round endeavor that takes total commitment from both the player and the parents. And began his career at St. Louis U. High contributing to the freshmen team, then playing on the junior varsity squad the next two years.

So it was not an unreasonable expectation that Williams would make the SLUH varsity soccer team in his senior year. Not as a starter, but he had certainly paid his dues to the program and was looking forward to the camaraderie of being part of a very talented SLUH team.

But things don’t always go as planned.

High school coaches make decisions, and sometimes those decisions don’t go the way we as parents hope. When the final roster was announced the end of the first week of tryouts, Dan Williams’ name was not on it.

“He was devastated,” his mom, Kathy, said later. “We were devastated.”

Understandable. As parents, you spend years putting miles on the minivan and giving up weekends and evenings in support of the cause. Senior year is the payoff — a chance to enjoy the game for the sheer pleasure of it.

Turns out, the cut would be a turning point in the young man’s life.

Williams could have started his senior year bitter and defeated. Instead, he did something positive. He took the one skill he had honed his entire youth — kicking — and figured the football team might be able to use his leg.

Having never played organized football in his life, Williams approached SLUH offensive coordinator and kicking coach Rob Chura and asked if he needed a kicker. The team already had a field goal and extra point man as well as a punter, but Chura, consulting with head coach Gary Kornfeld, told him if he could boot the football deep and get it into the endzone on a regular basis, the team would keep him.

And he did.

Six games into the season, Williams had established himself as the regular kickoff man. An important role on a football team, wearing the pads and a No. 32 jersey and enjoying every minute of being a part of a team.

Kicking off to start the second half, Williams booted a ball literally to the Chaminade 1-yard line that Chaminade return man Spencer Byrne caught and tiptoed dangerously close to a touchback.

Byrne then began a run through a suddenly porous SLUH defense — perhaps relaxing thinking the call would be a touchback — and appeared headed for the endzone. The only SLUH player left to stop him was Williams, the kid who spent his entire sports career playing a contact sport instead of a collision sport.

Williams cut off the angle at the 50-yard line, diving toward Byrne (above) and catching him in the leg just as Byrne ran past him. The collision was enough to trip him up and prevent a touchdown — potentially demoralizing for SLUH and a potential momentum shift for Chaminade.

A turning point?

Chaminade would later score off the ensuing drive, but not until precious minutes kicked off the clock. Clock management would prove crucial later in the game.

The SLUH offense was at times that night a well-oiled machine, with quarterback Trevor McDonagh throwing for 225 yards and making perfectly placed passes to wide receiver Stefan Sansone (left), who caught two touchdowns.

And running back Terek Hawkins (below) running through the Chaminade defense with accelerating speed and leaving Red Devil defenders gasping for breath, ending up with three rushing touchdowns and 179 yards on 18 carries.

Plenty of Jr. Billiken players made plays that could be considered turning points as well, among them: A Paul Simon punt that pinned the Red Devils on their 1-yard line; guard Aaron Kerwood catching the ball on an Chaminade squib kick late in the game.

That’s what’s so great about football. Every play, every player, counts. You just don’t how until the end of the game.

SLUH had the game well in hand, leading 35-14 with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter. Chaminade then put up 14 unanswered points — one off an interception with 4:12 remaining. The Red Devils had the game’s final possession with a chance to tie and send the game into overtime, but the SLUH defense came up big and the game ended on a sack.

It was too little, too late. Final score SLUH 35, Chaminade 28.

Back to that turning point. What if Chaminade had scored on that kickoff return to open the half? It’s a completely different game, and certainly a different second half.

SLUH soccer also was playing at home that night, and if you had asked Dan Williams two months ago where he’d be on Sept. 30 he would have told you on the soccer field. Instead, he was on the football field in pads and a No. 32 jersey — at a very crucial point in the game.

Facing an unexpected turning point, he made the most of it.

Photos by Nancy Winkelmann. Like these pictures? See more SLUH varsity football pics at nancywinkelmann.zenfolio.com/varsitypix.