BATH COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) – In 2015, Aaron Williams was on his way to a homecoming dance in Bath County when he got into a crash that would change his life forever.
“His back tire fell off, and he overcorrected, and down the hill, he went and hit a tree. The car burst into flames,” said Aaron’s father, Chris Williams.
Chris Williams describes the night his son Aaron crashed on his way to his homecoming dance. The crash left him critically injured. Williams says his son died that night, taking his last breath before the ambulance was able to arrive on the scene.
“They said, This boy is gone. But the ambulance came down the road about the time he took his last breath and stopped breathing and startled him, and he started breathing again. Now that set a road that where he is today, that that next breath,” said Williams.
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Nearly nine years later, Williams still finds it difficult to recall the conversation with his son’s doctor.
“He said, Mr Williams, your son won’t live through the night,” said Williams.
Yet, Aaron did live through the night. He’d go on to spend 43 days in a coma. Williams says hundreds of people came to the hospital to pray for his son. Friends, family, and strangers alike. One night at UK Hospital, he saw a large group passing around candles.
“I said, who you having prayer for? And they said, Well, there’s a boy named Aaron Williams who was in a car wreck, and we’re going to pray for him. I said, Can I join you? I didn’t tell them,” said Williams.
It’s those prayers that Williams credits for his son’s recovery. Countless stories like this are detailed in his book, “From Death to Life: The Aaron Williams Story.”
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“I didn’t know when I was writing; I didn’t realize what it would do. I was just telling my story, but telling this story has helped people,” said Williams.
Williams has received letters and calls from people with stories similar to Aaron’s, asking for prayers and thanking him for giving them hope.
“I wrote it at the cost of my son, but what this book details gives people hope. When you’re told there is no hope,” said Williams.
Today, Williams says you’d never know what his son had been through by looking at him. He’s learned to walk again, enjoys playing basketball, and recently made the Dean’s List at Morehead. While Aaron has changed his major a few times, his current plan is to become a lawyer.
The book, “From Life to Death: The Aaron Williams Story,” is available now. To purchase, click here.
Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 348 entries for the main catalog of its Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 3, in Lexington. The sale will begin at 10 a.m. ET.
“Kentucky Winter Mixed offers an important marketplace for buyers at all levels before the breeding sheds open,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “There is good quality and variety among the racing and breeding stock this year, as well as a large group of short yearlings that will be a popular draw.”
Covering sires represented include Arabian Lion , Arcangelo, Constitution , Corniche , Elite Power , Forte , Girvin , Gunite , Hard Spun , Jackie’s Warrior , Mage , McKinzie , Nyquist , Olympiad , Oscar Performance , Volatile , and Yaupon .
Yearling sires cataloged include Candy Ride , Charlatan , Corniche, Epicenter , Ghostzapper , Girvin, Golden Pal , Maclean’s Music , Maxfield , Olympiad, Practical Joke , Street Sense , Tiz the Law , Uncle Mo, and Vekoma .
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The catalog’s front cover spotlights sale graduate Adare Manor , a 2024 Eclipse Award finalist for champion older mare and winner of the Apple Blossom Stakes (G1) and Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1). The back cover features additional 2024 graded stakes-winning graduates Fast as Flight , First Peace , Leave No Trace , Olivia Darling , and Running Bee .
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Entries remain open for the sale’s supplemental catalog. Fasig-Tipton will continue to accept supplemental entries over the next few weeks.
The main catalog for the Kentucky Winter Mixed may now be viewed online. Print catalogs will be available early next week.
Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.
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This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Mason Nicholson’s 20 points helped Jacksonville State defeat Western Kentucky 73-67 on Thursday night.
Nicholson also contributed 12 rebounds and three blocks for the Gamecocks (9-6, 1-1 Conference USA). Quel’Ron House scored 14 points and added nine rebounds and seven assists. Jaron Pierre Jr. went 5 of 18 from the field (1 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 12 points.
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Enoch Kalambay finished with 24 points for the Hilltoppers (10-6, 1-2). Julius Thedford added 17 points.
House scored eight points in the first half and Jacksonville State went into halftime trailing 27-24. Nicholson scored 14 second-half points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
Kentucky’s loss to Georgia felt like deja vu in that the issues that plagued the Cats vs. Ohio State and Clemson came roaring back. Once again, Kentucky let a physical team bully them around, turned the ball over too often, and didn’t create enough shots. Even though it feels like the blueprint to beat Kentucky is laminated after Tuesday night, Mark Pope believes all of those issues are fixable, even in the short term.
“Listen, it’s not triage where we have a bad team,” Pope said today. “We have a really good team. We didn’t play particularly well and so there’s a lot of things that were a little bit anomalous, where we just didn’t play great. And certainly, Georgia had some contribution to that.”
Ahead of his team’s trip to No. 14 Mississippi State, which is even more physical and talented than Georgia, Pope outlined two areas of focus: rebounding and ball protection. Georgia outrebounded Kentucky 41-34 on Tuesday, the fourth game in a row the Cats have lost the battle of the boards. On Saturday, they’ll face a Mississippi State team that ranks just outside the top 30 nationally in offensive rebounding rate (35.9%).
“We’re continuing to work on the glass right now. That’s been something interesting because we had been one of the top defensive rebounding percentage teams in the country, and that’s kind of bit us, a little bit. And so we’re rethinking some approaches there that hopefully will see immediate progress on, because we’ve been really good, right? We’ve just got to be good in this league right now, with the physicality and the way this is being played.”
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Pope seemed less concerned about the 14 turnovers the Cats committed vs. Georgia. Kentucky still ranks No. 3 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.94), but that number would be a lot higher if not for their losses.
“We’ve been really good in terms of ball protection. I think we’ve been number one in the country. I think we’re close so I don’t think it’s reinventing the wheel for us on the ball protection side. We just didn’t do it well in this game.”
“So, there are certainly areas that we’re going to continue to grow and fine-tune, but there’s not a lot of total restructuring going on.”
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All season, Pope has talked about the importance of getting his guys not to default to bad habits. The Georgia loss showed that’s still a work in progress. After the game, Pope talked about how distracted his guys seemed on the floor, whether it be from the crowd, the whistles, a shot not going in, etc. Getting them to tune that out and lock in on each other will be what determines how far they go this season.
“Our guys trust and believe in each other, but when you start talking about trust and belief in where you go for answers, that’s a process that everybody is trying to find. It’s not a matter of not being able to find it. I mean, our guys have found it a lot this season. Like there’s been a whole lot of trust and faith on this team, where we’ve gone to the well, the right well, to find answers in the biggest games that have been played all season, right? But being able to get there every single time is part of the challenge, right? At the end of the year, it’s, can you get there six straight games? Can you go to the right space with all the different distractions, different vibes? Can you keep going right to the same place and keep trusting over and over and over again?
“And so that’s kind of the space we’re living in right now, is, how consistently can we be in the right spot on the floor? How consistently can our faith be placed in the right space? How consistently can we tune out all the distractions that happen around the game and kind of be locked in just to the moment? We’re fully capable. We’ve done it. We’ve done it at the highest level. We’ve done it pretty consistently. But now can we do it every time?”
When it comes to being more physical, Pope said that’s something everyone in the SEC is striving for right now. He just wants his team to understand how to do it and when to do it.
“The game always gets more and more physical in the league, and so our guys understanding — and there’s also a part of understanding where you can be really, really physical and where you can’t, right? And that’s part of our determinations. There are a lot of facets to that. One is just the physics aspect of it, of having a low center of gravity and kind of being the hit-first guy and a first hit and second, there’s all the schematics and the skill of it.
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“And then there’s also the mentality of it, and the IQ of it. The mentality of it is kind of this aggression side of it where you’re always thinking about contact, contact, contact, and then the IQ of it is understanding when and where it’s appropriate and where it can be utilized and where it’s important.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/3XPJAM5EGRHSROBVEMGB5E4LZI.jpg "Metro Atlanta entrepreneur Chris Williams pays it forward with car giveaway campaign")
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/I6JTRFZNXZEQBCWNOWL45IHODA.jpeg "Man dead after central Kentucky fire")
