Trib­utes poured in yes­ter­day for coach Leon Williams, a stal­wart of the Vol­ley­ball fra­ter­ni­ty of T&T a beloved mem­ber at Holy Name Con­vent, Port-of-Spain.

Williams trained and men­tored many of this coun­try's na­tion­al ath­letes in­clud­ing Kel­ly Anne Billingy and the late Ayana Dyette, among oth­ers.

Williams who was at Holy Name for nu­mer­ous years was more than just a coach and a long­stand­ing PE teacher.

He was a men­tor and a fa­ther fig­ure to sev­er­al gen­er­a­tion girls at the school who grew in­to re­mark­able young women.

For­mer chair­man of Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons Sports Coun­cil Kelvin Nan­coo shared fond mem­o­ries of Williams.

Nan­coo de­scribed his for­mer friend as an "ab­solute­ly won­der­ful per­son" who was nev­er too busy to lend an ear to oth­ers and to share pos­i­tiv­i­ty.

"He was al­ways on time for meet­ings. He was al­ways one that any one could de­pend on to do any­thing you re­quest­ed him to do and he was al­ways a per­son who would of­fer him­self up to any job that was re­quire to as­sist peo­ple, the Port-of-Spain and En­vi­rons Zone and to en­sure the suc­cess of any ven­ture," Nan­coo said.

He added that Williams in­deed left big shoes to be filled.

As Williams' fu­ner­al took place at Allen's Fu­ner­al Home in Ari­ma staff and stu­dents at Holy Name Con­vent al­so paid their re­spects to this kind hu­man be­ing whose loss will be felt for quite some time.

Stu­dent Mea­gan Roberts of Form Five Cen­tral at Holy Name Con­vent said she will al­ways re­mem­ber the "fun-lov­ing, al­ways smil­ing Coach" on the school's vol­ley­ball court.

"Coach was a beau­ti­ful soul. He was the type of teacher who ex­alt­ed bril­liance and per­son­al­i­ty in the class­room. No stu­dent would be left be­hind as he en­sured his lessons were both in­ter­ac­tive and fruit­ful.

"Even in his sick­ly state he al­ways wore his sig­na­ture smile and showed ab­solute pos­i­tiv­i­ty through the worst of days. Coach would al­ways be re­mem­bered as a pos­i­tive in­flu­ence and a shin­ing light to those he en­coun­tered. You will al­ways be re­mem­bered and loved Coachie," Roberts said.

Kali­fa Ti­tus al­so of Form Five Cen­tral de­scribed Williams as an "ho­n­ourable man, one of in­tegri­ty and a man of de­vo­tion."

"He was some­one who brought light and joy to every­one around him re­gard­less of if you knew him or not, he made you feel wel­comed. He was the one who you could turn to for any­thing may it be ad­vise, help with a sit­u­a­tion or just a lis­ten­ing ear. Once coach saw po­ten­tial in you he would go out of his way make sure you ful­filled that po­ten­tial to the best of your abil­i­ty.

"Hav­ing ex­pe­ri­enced Coach as a teacher and as my vol­ley­ball coach I can whole hearti­ly say that he was the best at what he did and he will be great­ly missed by many. We at Holy Name Con­vent are tru­ly grate­ful and ap­pre­cia­tive for the time that God has graced us with Coach Williams. For­ev­er in our hearts Coach," Ti­tus added.

Williams passed away on No­vem­ber 1.