Boys basketball coach resigns

Churchill County High School head varsity boys basketball coach Corey Williams resigned this week.

Williams is leaving Fallon to accept the same position at Lewiston (Idaho) High School. His hiring was approved on Monday night by the Independent School District No. 1 board of trustees in Lewiston. Williams will coach boys basketball and be a physical education teacher and assistant athletic trainer at Lewiston.

Williams leaves Fallon after 14 years as a teacher and basketball coach, including the last 12 as head coach. He said he's making the move out of family considerations. Williams and his wife, Melissa, have a 2-year old daughter, Madison. Williams parents live in Orofino, Idaho, about a 30- minute drive from Lewiston and Melissa's parents live in Cheney, Wash., just outside of Spokane, about a 90 minutes away. He also has brothers, sisters and cousins in the Lewiston area. Williams was born in Orofino and grew up in Spokane.

Closer to family

“It was a family decision,” Williams said. “Now that I have a family of my own, I'd like them to be closer to family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and so forth.”

Williams came to Churchill County High School in 1995 to be a health teacher after meeting then-CCHS administrators Gary Imelli and Dan Corcoran at a job fair in Missoula, Mont. He coached boys basketball under Chip Rutledge for two seasons, the first as a varsity assistant coach and the second as the head junior varsity coach. When Rutledge resigned after the 1996-97 season, Williams was appointed head varsity coach.

Going to the playoffs

His two most successful Greenwave teams were the 2000-01 group, which finished 17-9 with future U.S. track Olympian Aarik Wilson leading the way, and this past seasons squad, a senior-laden team that went 19-5 behind the outside shooting of Dexter Daum and Garrett Adams. That team posted the most wins of any team in CCHS history. His 1999-2000 team also went to the postseason.

Williams stressed that the desire to be closer to his family is the only reason he is leaving.

“Last year was a good year to leave on, but I want people to understand that's not why I'm leaving,” Williams said. “This was a once in a lifetime deal that just happened to pop up in my face. You only live once and I had to take it. It was a family decision. Basketball wasn't the basis.”

Williams said he had begun looking for job possibilities in Washington and Idaho when he received a call from a friend in Lewiston who informed him that the head boys basketball coach at Lewiston High, Dave Cormelia, had retired. Williams and Tim Sperber, Lewiston High athletic administrator and vice principal. knew some of the same people and that helped Williams get an interview.

Praise from his new boss

Sperber said he was ecstatic about hiring Williams.

“We were very excited to get that quality of a candidate to apply for the position,” Sperber said. “From the research we did and the people we spoke to, he seems to be a fantastic person. We were very impressed with the number of academic state championships his teams won, and that his teams from a smaller school battled against the bigger schools and did as well as they did. We're happy to get that whole package. He's a guy that we really want in our program.”

Williams inherits a team that posted a 22-4 record and won the Idaho 5A state championship last season. Ten seniors graduated and only three players return from that team next year, but Sperber said Williams will have plenty of talent.

Praise from his former assistant

Don Schank, who served as Williams assistant coach for several years before resigning after last season, said he's happy for Williams.

“I'm excited for him and his family,” Schank said. “He's moving closer to his parents and in-laws. He's basically moving back home, and that will be good for him.

“He'll be a friend of mine forever. There's a lot of respect between the two of us. I think we accomplished some things with the program here that we wanted to do. It was a fun ride.”

Leaving with good memories

Williams said he leaves Fallon with many good memories and that some of his best memories are of the teams that didn't have the best won-loss records.

“I will never coach better quality kids than what we've had here, Williams said. “To say that those (2000-01 and 2008-09) seasons were more memorable, success-wise yeah, but relationships-wise and teaching and coaching and getting to know kids, I couldn't say that,” Williams said. “Each year presents its own challenges and creates its own memories.”