Student-Athlete of the Week – Carissma Williams

Photo courtesy of Shadow Hills/Richie DeTamble

Carissma Williams, basketball player and track star at Shadow Hills High School, definitely lives up to her namesake.

“When you see her, she just stands out. She’s always smiling. She’s always just in a really good mood,” said Richie DeTamble, Shadow Hills' Track & Field coach.

“I just want to live life and have fun. I want to make goals for myself and accomplish them, but pretty much just going with the flow of life,” Williams said.

She owns the long jump, triple jump and 4x100m relay records at Shadow Hills. Her goals this season include grabbing the 100m record and breaking her own records.

“Carissma is a competitor," DeTamble said. "If anybody would tell her to her face, you know, I want to beat you today, she’s going to say, ‘No, you’re not!’”

Williams has family members on the record board at La Quinta High School. She says that always inspired her. 

“I wanted to go and beat those records, but I wanted to do it at Shadow and I wanted to get my name up there,” she said.

She says she realized her athletic ability when playing football with the boys in middle school.

“I was fast, I was really fast, like breaking all the little boys’ ankles, like, what, little girl breaking little boys ankles, you know? So I just knew there was something,” Williams said.

She says it gave her confidence.

“I knew that if I could beat these little boys then I’m definitely going to be able to beat some of these girls,” she said.

Williams hopes to get a track scholarship for college and plans to major in business.

“I think the sky’s the limit. Wherever she wants to go, no matter what she wants to do, she’s going to succeed,” said DeTamble.