“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. ”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sometimes you just know when someone has a special, God-given gift. There is a clear entity present within the individual that is extremely rare and unquantifiable. We have all heard the expression, so and so has “it” whatever “it” is. Crazy to think that something so exceptional and rare gets described with a rather dull and unceremonious word. I’m sure there are many acronyms that can be applied to the two-letter word to help us define it. Maybe chief among them would be…
Innately Talented
Over the course of my basketball playing and coaching career, I certainly have come across a handful of these “it”-possessing individuals. The ease with which they seem to succeed in all that they do is amazing to see first-hand. You can recognize their talent right away; there is nothing gradual about “it” at all. “It” is not necessarily developed, but rather fully stocked in the person from the get-go—like a fridge the night before Thanksgiving. If you are lucky, you get a chance to play with or coach these blessed individuals for a long period of time. I was given such a gift when I started working with a rising 8th grader in the summer of 2005.
Of all the gyms in Altoona, Pennsylvania, The Building II on Howard Avenue has been the home and training grounds for the best basketball players ever to come out of Blair County. From Johnny Moore to Doug West to Mike Izzulino to Candace Futrell, the best have always trained at The Building, including former high school, college, and pro standout Alli Williams—a player who will be entering The Blair County Sports Hall of Fame tomorrow, and whose name should unquestionably be mentioned in the same breath as those above.
Inherently Tough
When my friends Daryl and Nancy asked me to start working with their youngest daughter, I had just started doing lessons and workouts at The Building—usually toting my two oldest daughters who were five and three at the time. While they were watching Bear in the Big Blue House or coloring, I would be working on skills with young ballplayers. Right away it was obvious with Alli that this kid was going to be special. Things came so easily to her.
The summer before her freshman year, Alli joined—at first reluctantly—my 6 AM workouts with some of the area’s best basketball players like, BG’s Mary Forr, Hollidaysburg’s Amanda Ottaway, Cambria Heights’ Amber Dubyak, Altoona’s Katie Oblinger, and her older sister Dani, just to name a few. The 14-year-old freshman-to-be wasn’t the least bit intimidated going against such tough competition and more than held her own. What stuck out was her inherent toughness both physically and mentally.
During her four years at Bishop Guilfoyle, Alli would help lead the Marauders to three state titles while re-writing the record books for the storied program. She tore up the AAU competition during the summer, playing for the Pennsylvania Blue Thunder, and attracted the attention of numerous Division I schools, including St. Francis University, where she would sign on to play four memorable years.
Instantly Terrific
Alli came out of the blocks strong her freshman season in Loretto, Pennsylvania, and never looked back. She was instantly terrific and garnered numerous awards and honors throughout her four years. Among her most impressive came during the 2012-2013 season when she scored 25.3 points per game, totaled 10.3 rebounds per game, and recorded 3.0 steals to go along with 2.0 assists per game. She became the 11th player in the history of Division I Women’s Basketball to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds—all of this while keeping a 3.9 GPA with a double major. After graduation she would go on to play professionally for three years in Europe, earning League MVP Honors in Luxembourg.
Impowering* Temperament
Sometimes God gives us a sneak peek of our future and we don’t realize it at the time. No doubt this happened every time Alli volunteered to help with The Special Olympics at St. Francis University. Working with Special Olympians helped her learn the importance of impowering those with special needs. After her professional career ended, Alli returned to Saint Francis as a grad assistant and, upon getting her MBA, the former Northeast Conference Player of the Year made her way down to Florida to live and work with her big sister, Dani.
Dani's impact on her little sister has been undeniable both on and off the court. A tremendous athlete in her own right, Dani combined her passion for athletics and working with individuals with disabilities—both mentally and physically—when she started a small business known as NXT, which would become a blueprint for the current organization that she and her little sister work for, known as Adventure for All.
The mission of this incredible organization is to help “inspire those with exceptionalities (disabilities) to overcome the impossibilities that the current societal framework has attached to them.” Work like this obviously takes an impowering temperament, something Alli developed through the game she loved to play and from those closest to her.
One of the most important things we can do in this short life of ours is build up others, particularly those who need our help. No doubt that the work these two sisters do today provides the same amount of joy for those they help as each experienced in the above picture after winning a State title together back in 2007.
Irrefutably Transcendent
Maybe the best acronym for those possessing “it” would be that they are irrefutably transcendent—that it’s clear as day the gift they have far surpasses the ordinary. Tomorrow, Alli Williams—a player who was unmistakably blessed with talent way beyond what is normal on the basketball court—will be honored for her spectacular career on it. But it’s what she is doing now that goes above and beyond her ability to put a ball in a basket. I guess you can say it is what this life is all about.
-Tommy O’Sionnach
To learn more about Adventure for All click here.
*I’m happy to report that “impower” is an obsolete variant of the word “empower.” A special thanks to Misters Merriam and Webster for including it in their rather large book.
Great tribute to one of the area’s best. I like how many different acronyms you thought of for “IT”- I assumed there would just be the first one! Really solid writing here.
Tom- very nice read.