In 2008 Jeremy Williams was diagnosed with ALS. It was a terrible shock for a man in the prime of his life – he was a husband and father with a young family, as well as a beloved high school football coach in Greenville, Georgia. However, what happened in the year after his diagnosis would go on to provide a story that is still inspiring people to this day.
Jeremy’s family, community, and especially his players, many of whom looked to him as a father figure, rallied around him. Even as his disease progressed, he continued to coach his team as long as he could. He would get around practices with the help of a golf cart when walking became difficult and often relied on his players to shout out his play calls as his speech declined.
Despite all these challenges the Greenville Patriots went on to achieve a perfect, 10-0 regular season in 2009. They continued well into the playoffs – and even when their improbable run ended, Coach Williams continued to inspire everyone around him, according to Steven Camp, the Executive Producer of an upcoming film about his life.
“They were one win away from heading to the Georgia Dome for the State playoffs,” says Steven. “They lost that game. But even as Jeremy and his team lost what was potentially the biggest game in his career as a coach, he went out onto the field with his team and other members of the opposing team and led everyone in a prayer. He won with glory and he lost with glory.”
Telling Jeremy’s Story
While he retired from coaching after the 2010 season, Jeremy went on to live with ALS for over a decade, passing away at the age of 50 in March 2022. Throughout the years he would remain active in the community, speaking at churches, serving as an ambassador for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and even teaching bible study at his home. Even after he lost the ability to speak – communicating by typing with his eyes on an adaptive device – he continued to provide mentorship and advice to other athletes and coaches.
In the years following the 2009 season, Coach Williams’ story began to spread around the country. He was named High School Football Coach of the Year by the National High School Coaches Association. In 2010, he and his family appeared on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, in which their house was updated for accessibility. Jeremy and Jennifer wrote a book about their experience with ALS, Tenacious: How God Used a Terminal Diagnosis to Turn a Family and a Football Team into Champions. A documentary about Coach Williams and the Patriots’ perfect season, Season of a Lifetime, was released in 2012.
Now, a new feature film, Tenacious: The Jeremy Williams Story will tell Coach Williams’s story to inspire a new generation. Steven Camp says he and his fellow producers first became interested in bringing this story to the screen after seeing the Season of a Lifetime documentary.
“After watching that documentary, we knew that there was something very special here,” he remembers. “It's a very strong message of faith. It's a very strong message of willpower. We just knew that we had something very special here that we wanted to be part of, and we feel honored to be a part of telling this story to the world. The documentary was fantastic, but it covered a small part of their story. We saw the potential to cover their entire story, their love.”
In April 2022, the producers announced that work had begun on a script for the film, that will cover both the Patriot’s perfect season, as well as the Williams’ lives before and after Jeremy’s diagnosis. They are currently working to attract investors to support the production and working to assemble a cast. Shooting is expected to begin by the fall of 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Steven emphasizes that, beyond just telling a great story, this is a movie with a message and a mission. The producers and the Williams family are determined to honor Jeremy’s commitment to his faith and dedication to his community. They also hope to raise awareness about his disease organizations like the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) that are working to find treatments that will change the prognosis of ALS.
“I hope that people who see this film learn that Jeremy lived his life for the glory of God and used this terminal diagnosis to rally his family and his community,” he says, “and I hope that people are able to see what a terrible illness ALS is and how it ravages the human body while the mind is still there. We hope that telling this will help lead others to donate and support organizations like the ALS TDI, to support research, and someday to find a cure for this disease.”
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