LAURA JANE KENNY | staff writer

Kimarley Williams used a positive attitude to guide him to APU.

South Shore High School, located in Brooklyn, N.Y., will close by 2010 due to violence and gang problems. City-data.com rated the school’s weighted overall test average compared to other schools in N.Y. with a 5, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). Growing up in such an environment, junior guard Kimarley Williams did not let that affect him.

“He is too nice,” associate athletic director Gary Pine said. “There is no way you would think he came from Brooklyn.”

Williams was born in Jamaica on August 27, 1983. He moved to Brooklyn when he was five years old and lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his mother and four older brothers. Kimarley lived in that apartment for about five years until his mother bought a house in Brooklyn.

Williams’ focus at school was to obtain good grades. Since SSHS was not the easiest place to focus on academics due to gangs, Williams would just go to school, then went home and hit the books.

“They had a lot of fights at the school and at the bus stops,” Williams said. “Most of the time it was very dangerous just going home and going to school.”

Williams’ brothers were a major influence in keeping him out of trouble in high school. He explained that since he did not have a father figure, he looked up to his brothers. His brothers helped keep him out of trouble with gangs at his school.

“My brothers were always there and they treat me like they were my dad,” Williams said.

College was not something that crossed Williams’ mind. Most people in Williams’ town did not go to college but straight to a job after high school. After two years of playing for the Amateur Athletic Union, he found the opportunity to play at Porterville College (Calif.).

Porterville College was a huge change for Williams. He moved from a bustling city to a land filled with cows and orange trees. However, the other people that were on the team helped Williams survive. On his team, there were players from all over the country, including Miami and even a friend from Brooklyn.

“It was hard because you didn’t have your family, you didn’t have a car,” Williams said.

After the first year, Williams started to enjoy it. This is also where he met his future wife.

“She was the person I was looking for because I was doing a lot of walking and she had a vehicle. It was like God put her in my life to help me out. She helped me out big time, she took me to class, and from that day I never walked again,” Williams said.

Williams’s wife really did bless him that year. Porterville was an area stricken with gangs. This made it hard for Williams and his roommate to walk to school because people would call them names as they walked down the street.

Williams recently married Natasha in October after knowing his bride a year and six months. She currently attends Citrus College but hopes to attend APU in the fall.
Natasha was the influence in his life who convinced Williams to continue on with his basketball career and education. She encouraged him to e-mail schools including Biola, Point Loma Nazarene, and Vanguard. Williams also e-mailed head coach Justin Leslie.

“Coach Leslie approached me with big open arms,” Williams said.

APU was also a big transition for Williams. He had never gone to a private school and it was a challenge for him at first. Williams tended to stay to himself and was content with just getting his degree. The men on the basketball team helped Williams transition to APU.

“The guys on the team are the nicest guys I’ve ever met,” Williams said.

Williams is now focusing on basketball. Leslie said he has made progress since the beginning of the year.

“He has become our best defender. He is the guy we can count on to put on the opponent’s best player and he has really embraced that challenge. He is just doing a phenomenal job. He started to make some shots and score for us,” Leslie said.

Coach Leslie has enjoyed having Williams on the team. Like everyone who knows Williams, Leslie can only comment on his great character.

“Kimarley is probably one of the nicest young men I have ever met in my life. Every day he has just a phenomenal attitude—a team first attitude,” Leslie said.