20 Under 40: Michael Williams
Michael, known as “Coach Mike,” leadership is about relationships. Through Communities in Schools, Michael works with educators and school administrators to identify challenges that students face in class or at home, and he coordinates educational programming, case management services and connects with community partners to bring resources to those students.
Coach Mike is the reigning Topeka Capital-Journal City Boys Coach of the Year, coming off a State Tournament bid in 2020. Michael believes in the life changing power of sport and how those life lessons can bring about growth in the lives of athletes. To Coach Mike, winning basketball games is a by-product of his main goal—helping high school boys become young men.
“You don’t impact people without a true relationship.”
What’s a trip that changed you?
Last year my family and I took a trip to Montgomery, Alabama to trace the historical origins of the Civil Rights Movement. We stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas to see Central High School and Memphis, Tennessee to see Lorraine Hotel where MLK was killed. We saw the Dexter Ave. Church that MLK pastored, the Equal Justice Initiative, the lynching museum, the Rosa Parks Museum, the Civil Rights Memorial Center. It's something to talk about events happening in this world, but to actually see them in person has left a mark on me I cannot begin to explain.
What goal are you still working toward?
Winning a State Championship!!! I want that so much for our kids, our school and most of all the Highland Park community.
What do you love most about your work?
The opportunity to truly make an impact on those around me. Every day of my life I wake up with the chance to evoke positive change in the Topeka community and it pushes me.
What is your theme song?
Grinding All My Life, Nipsey Hussle
