Redondo Union High boys basketball standout Ryse Williams, 18, the 2017 Bay League Most Valuable Player, passed away on Thursday, June 22, 2017, a day before graduation.
Ryse initially began feeling sick about a month ago, with a chest cold that wouldn’t go away, but he worked through it to continue his training. It wasn’t until a little more than a week ago, that the illness became too much to deal with, and Ryse was hospitalized.
Tests on Monday revealed that he was suffering from a rare and aggressive form of cancer – Renal Medullary Carcinoma (RMC), that had spread to his kidneys, lungs and liver and had already reached stage 4.
By Tuesday, Ryse had been transferred to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He was given chemotherapy on Wednesday and unfortunately his body did not respond well to the treatment and at 5:30 am on Thursday he passed away.
Ryse was set to graduate Friday morning, and then go on to Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in the fall to play for the college’s basketball team.
He received a full ride scholarship to LMU, and he was supposed to go to orientation this weekend.
His coach said, “he’s unbelievably tough to have this cancer in his body all this time.” Athletic Director Saltsman said Ryse was “a great young man, a great basketball player, and he was a true leader for the team, but he was an even better person.”…
Many of his friends said they looked up to him as a role model because he was such a hard worker with a great attitude.
This sudden and unexpected loss of such a talented young man is truly a heartbreaking tragedy. Our deepest sympathies are with his parents, loved ones and friends. Rest well Ryse…
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NOTE: RMC tends to be aggressive, difficult to treat, and is often metastatic (stage 4) at the time of diagnosis. Most individuals with this type of cancer have sickle cell trait or rarely sickle cell disease, suggesting that the sickle cell trait may be a risk factor for this type of cancer…
