Alumni Spotlight: Keion T. Williams

Keion is an Eagle Alum who has always known what he’s wanted to do in life - play football! Keion was an active and energetic child but very curious. While some were trying to diagnose Keion as Attention Deficit Disorder there were teachers and staff at Eagle Academy who took another approach. Coach Ike took Keion under his wing and mentored him in the local neighborhood football teams. However, it was his Eagle teacher Ms. Carla Craig who took the time to learn Keion’s personality, his talent and skills, his learning styles and even his dreams. She stood by Keion and encouraged him to be successful. Keion’s mother raised him to respect God, his family and himself. There were many days when his mother was called to his school because of his behavior, but Ms. Craig along with other community members and family spoke on Keion’s behalf. His family later learned that Keion would have been misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. He was smart. He was a leader. He was intelligent as acacemic and psychological testing later determined. Keion was actually reading and mathematically inclined above his years and needed to be challenged. The son of Tamarki Oates, Keion lost his father to the street violence of Washington, DC’s underserved area when he was just four months old. Keion is now attending Anacostia High School and receiving letters from colleges offering him football scholarships. At the age of three Keion used to sit in front of his Xbox watching football plays from sun up til sun down - so you see there was no way he could have been attention deficit. It was all about what held his attention. Keion has a plan. Just May of 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic he still holds firmly to his dreams and his destiny. Keion acknowledged that he had three more years in high school but that his plan was to graduate high school, attend the college of choice - Clemson, major in Sports Medicine or Sports Journalism, then return to his community to help those who helped him. Those are his words. We are looking forward to following Keion as one of Eagle’s exceptional Alum.