‘Be Brice:’ Charlotte 49ers’ freshman Williams carrying on legacy of his dad Henry

Whenever Brice Williams walks into the Charlotte 49ers’ Halton Arena, he can look up and see his father Henry’s No. 34 jersey hanging from the rafters.

The sight invariably triggers a flood of mixed emotions for Brice, a freshman guard for the 49ers.

“It brings a great amount of pressure,” Brice Williams said. “But that’s something my dad never wanted me to have to live up to. He wanted me to be me. I come from good stock. He set the foundation to give me something to work for. It makes me want to work harder.”

Henry Williams is a beloved and legendary figure in 49ers history and the program’s all-time leading scorer. Henry, who played for Charlotte from 1989-92 and then had a long, productive pro career in Europe, was a minister in Charlotte when he died of kidney disease in 2018 at the age of 47.

He averaged 20.2 points for the 49ers, setting a career scoring mark of 2,383, including 308 3-pointers. As a senior, he led the 49ers to the Metro Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament.

“I remember in eighth grade, we were driving on I-77 and I said, ‘Dad, I think I want to play for UNC Charlotte,” Brice said. “I told him I was going to break his record. He’d say, ‘Nobody’s broken my record yet, do you think you can beat it?’ I’d say yeah. It was just competition.”

Brice misses that kind of good-natured, father-son banter. He points to his heart.

“There’s a hole,” he said.

Henry’s death meant that Brice had lost more than just a father. As Brice’s basketball skills developed and he grew into a Division I college prospect at Hopewell High, Henry was his trainer and advisor.

“My dad was always there, through the good and the bad,” Brice said. “Here’s what you did good. Here’s what you’ve got to work on so it doesn’t happen again. When I lost him, I didn’t have anybody telling me that, not pointing out specifics, telling me what I’m doing wrong.

“It still happens to this day. Sometimes I have to talk myself out of it. So he’s missing; there’s a hole in terms of my basketball dad. I had to watch film by myself and try to break down my own game. I didn’t have my dad to do it anymore. And navigating through college basketball, that’s just something that’s missing.”

It’s been nearly two years now since Henry died.

“Brice is still navigating that process,” his mom Katrina said. “With grief, it comes and goes, depending on the situation you’re dealing with. You never know when it’s going to hit. It can be an overwhelming feeling when you’re needing the person you love.”

In addition to Brice, Katrina and Henry also had two daughters -- Kristen, a recent graduate of UNCC who ran track for the 49ers, and Lauren, who will enroll at UNCC next fall.

“Henry was a phenomenal husband and dad,” Katrina said. “He was that person for us. We were all forced to grow up and deal with things Henry would have normally shielded and protected us from.”

‘Skater dude!’

At first, Brice Williams didn’t show much interest in being a basketball player, much less follow in his father’s footsteps at Charlotte.

No, Brice was a skateboarder.

“He was a skater dude!” Katrina said. “I’d take him to the skate park in Cornelius and watch him go. But I wanted him to play basketball. Henry was the patient one. He’d say, let him go his own way. In time, he’ll let it develop. He’s got basketball talent.”

Brice wasn’t so sure. He was happy to be on his skateboard, at least until eighth grade, when things changed.

“I had a lot of friends who skated, and I wanted to see how good I could be,” he said. “But then I kind of hit a plateau. And then I had a growth spurt.”

Brice turned his attention to basketball. With Henry helping out, Brice developed into one of the Charlotte area’s top players at Hopewell.

Henry’s health began to decline during Brice’s junior year. He died in March of 2018.

“After my dad passed, I lost all my confidence,” Brice said. “I had to go outside every day in the hot sun that summer and prove to myself that I’d work for it.”

Still, Brice (who finished his Hopewell career with more than 1,000 points) had a strong senior season. He was attracting attention from ACC schools, including Virginia Tech, N.C. State and Wake Forest. The recruiting process was another area where Henry’s presence was acutely missed by Katrina.

“Henry passed before any of that stuff started happening,” Katrina said. “I didn’t know what a ‘Big 7’ or ‘Big 8’ conference was. All the basketball lingo, I needed help with all that. Henry could do that in his sleep. I was going to go along for the ride.”

Katrina said she and Brice got help from her brother-in-law and other friends and relatives, as well as Jeff Mullins, Henry’s coach at Charlotte and Byron Dinkins, Henry’s close friend and backcourt mate for one season at Charlotte.

Brice, however, said he always knew he would go to Charlotte.

“I feel like (Henry) was jumping around in his spirit,” Brice said of his decision. “I know he wanted me to come here.”

Said Dinkins, now Charlotte’s director of player development: “I told him, if you come here, don’t try to be Henry. Be Brice. Everybody knows who you are and they know the connection. But don’t put any more pressure on yourself.”

Different player than dad

As things stand now, Brice probably isn’t going to be much of a threat to Henry’s scoring record at Charlotte.

Williams is averaging 3.0 points and 1.7 rebounds in 9.4 minutes per game. He’s a 39.1 percent 3-point shooter (Henry’s was 39.4 percent in his career), second on the team to Cooper Robb’s 44.7. In a loss against Louisiana Tech on Jan. 30, Williams scored 10 points in just 12 minutes, making 3-of-4 3-point attempts.

Williams appears to be a key component in second-year coach Ron Sanchez’s rebuilding effort at Charlotte.

“He’s progressing well,” said Sanchez, whose 49ers (12-9, 6-4 Conference USA) play Texas-El Paso (13-10, 4-6) at Halton Arena on Thursday. “He’s been such an offensive player in his short basketball career. The things we’re teaching him, emphasizing with him, are not second nature. To his credit, he’s putting in the extra work. He recognizes that as part of his overall development, he has to be committed to getting better.”

Brice is a different player than his father. For starters, Brice is 6-foot-7, 5 inches taller than Henry was. Brice plays more on the wing, whereas his dad was a scoring-first point guard.

“I’m still getting used to the small, little discipline things,” Williams said. “Things I wasn’t held accountable for in high school. My lapses are being shown more since I came to Charlotte. Sanchez doesn’t let anything slide.”

But Brice knows he’s at the right school, in the right program, for him.

“With the success of his dad here, his dad told him you don’t have to go to a bigger place to be who you want to be,” Dinkins said. “Go where they want you. You can be that from wherever. It’s on you.”

And even though he’s all in for basketball now, his old sport sometimes beckons. Brice had to work up some courage to ask his mom for a skateboard for Christmas a few months ago.

“He had the nerve to do that!” Katrina said, laughing. “Are you crazy? I’m like, boy, no!’

“It’s not a game any more.”

UTEP at Charlotte

When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

Where: Halton Arena, Charlotte

Watch: ESPN+

Listen: 730-AM.