Los Gatos Wheelchair Basketball Coach Leads All-Marine Team to Victory

Last December Los Gatos resident Rodney Williams received a call from Lt. Commander Samuel Tickle with the Wounded Warrior Battalion from Camp Pendleton.

Williams, 60, who has been involved for 34 years in the sport of wheelchair basketball, said Tickle contacted him after someone recommended him as a potential coach for the Marines Wounded Warriors.

Established in 2007, the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment provides non-medical care to combat and non-combat wounded, ill, and injured Marines, and sailors attached to or in direct support of Marine units and their family members to assist them as they return to active duty or transition to civilian life.

As Williams reflected on the Marines' sacrifices he said he "gladly accepted" to coach the inaugural Marine Corps Trials Feb. 17-28 at Camp Pendleton.

Williams was then invited to coach the All-Marine Semper Fi team for the Wounded Warrior Games held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., May 16-22.

During the games Marines, Army, Navy/Coastguard, Air Force and Special Ops competed for the Chairman’s Cup, awarded to the team amassing the most points through competition in track and field, cycling, shooting, archery, swimming, sit-volleyball and wheelchair basketball, Williams said.

For the second year in a row, the Marines won the competition, Williams said.

"Living in the serene community of Los Gatos, I cannot imagine what it means to be in a war zone, wondering if this will be your last day on earth," Williams said who contracted polio as a baby and began playing wheelchair basketball in college.

Williams, who also coaches the San Jose Spokes wheelchair basketball team, recounted how he spoke with one Marine, Sgt.“Spanky” Gibson who, after his leg was amputated above the knee, requested and was granted orders to return to Afghanistan as helicopter pilot. 

Another hero he encountered as coach is Cpl. Travis Greene, who has had 50 surgeries as a result of having both legs blown off by an improvised explosive device.

Williams knows the pain and suffering well. He works as a medical technologist at the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto. 

He's also met Cpl. Chuck Stark, who lost both legs and his eyesight and competed in swimming.

"Some of the trauma is not obvious," Williams said, explaining that traumatic brain injury is the direct result of an improvised explosive device discharging near the head.

"It's like shaken baby syndrome and short-term-memory function is severely inhibited," he explained.

For example, a Sgt. Keith Buckmon was regularly attending wheelchair basketball practice at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. 

One day he stopped showing up. He was gone for seven months. Then one day he walked into the gym like nothing happened, Williams said.

"The coach asked where he had been, and he said, 'sorry coach, I forgot ... The stories are endless, one seeming more difficult to listen to than the previous, and yet their spirit is alive.

"I was asked to be a role model for them, but they are the ones that have inspired me. These are our country’s heroes and deserve everyone’s respect.  They sure have mine," Williams said. 

As Williams got to know the Marines, he said he couldn't help but be inspired and changed a little bit.

"The little things we complain about seem so inconsequential," Williams said.