R.B. Hudson Middle School head football coach Ivery Williams has decided it’s time for him to leave football behind, citing health issues as the deciding factor.

Ever since Williams started coaching football as a volunteer at Selma High School in 1991, he said his health has been a recurring issue.

“I discovered that I had a brain tumor in 1991 and I was not able to coach for about five years after that. I came back to Selma High as an assistant under coach Jerome Harper, coached there a while and then I went to what, at the time, was Selma Middle School after he left,” Williams said. “Coached running backs there under coach Richard Gosa and I took over in 2006, and out of those six years I had two undefeated seasons and had some outstanding players and never went under .500 when I was there. Coach Jerry Smith has worked there with me as the defensive coordinator since I’ve been there. We had some very good seasons over there.”

Williams said that while he doesn’t want to leave football, he has to be mindful of his health, and he will now set his sights on continuing to coach track and field at Selma High School.

“I really don’t want to leave football, but I’m having some health issues right now. My doctor told me that if I could coach football without screaming on the field I’d be fine, but I can’t do that,” Williams said. “After the games, I have headaches and I don’t know if it’s from the tumor or not. I can’t do that, so I decided to give it up until my health gets better and I’ll just continue to coach track and field at Selma High School.”

Williams said he’s focused on building the track program at Selma High.

“I want to take that track program to another level this year. We’re doing it totally different this year,” Williams said. “I’ve noticed that schools around me have taken relay teams to the state championship and that’s my plan to bring Selma High like it was in the past when it had outstanding track teams over the years under coach Young and coach Foster Davis. I want to continue that tradition.”

Along with the undefeated seasons, Williams said one of the things he’ll remember most about his time at R.B. Hudson was being able to build a disciplined program.

“I always had a good group of guys that wanted to play for me. We had a no-cursing policy and I never cursed them and they never cursed around me,” Williams said. “I ran a pretty strict program. It wasn’t all about winning. My main goal was to teach those guys character, academics and to just be a good person. Another high point was I had the chance to coach my son the last two years and he turned out to be a good player.”

Williams added a thanks to his coaches and administrators who helped him along the way.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the coaches I had over there as assistants,” Williams said. “I thank the superintendents in the past for giving me an opportunity to do this and the principals. I want to thank coach Gosa, coach Turner and Mr. [Gerald] Shirley.”